John rolled to go first. He was playing with the white pieces, and with the entire board to choose from, opted for a coastal spot. It was certainly the best place for wood and clay (10 and 8 respectively) and gave him the ore harbour too... but not a spot I would even have considered when playing first, particularly since there weren't any particularly nice places nearby to aim for.
Richard (red) was second, and chose the exact spot I would have liked. Ore was evidently going to be in somewhat short supply in this game, so clearly the 6-ore hex was worth grabbing. He took it, along with a useful 5 on wood, and 10 on wheat.
I was third, with my usual orange pieces. So I took the other spot that had three resources and good numbers - actually slightly better numbers than Richard's, statistically speaking (5-8-9) but with sheep rather than the more useful ore. Sheila said she would have taken the one next to it (with the 4 on clay rather than the 9 on sheep) - but I no longer worry about having both clay and wood at the start of the game, and 9 is a slightly more useful number than 4, in general.
Sheila (brown) was fourth; since there were no places left with three good numbers and three different resources, she opted for the 5-6-9 intersection with two wood and a sheep. That's what I'd have taken in her position. Jörn (blue) played last; with the advantage of being able to place both settlements at the same time, he opted for two reasonable spots, giving him access to all five resources, and five useful numbers (3, 6, 8, 9 and 10) as well as a 12 on clay.
On the way back around the table, we all attempted to get hold of the numbers and/or resources we were lacking. I could not get hold of both ore and clay; so although I did consider the 3-6 coastal hex with two ore, it was quite a crowded place already, and I prefer room to manoevre without too many people trying to get the same spots. So I shrugged mentally, and chose three other reasonable numbers, giving me clay on 5, and two more sheep hexes. I realised that there was no way I could get to a sheep harbour, and in retrospect I think the place with two ore would have been more useful - but I didn't go for it.
The most surprising second placement was John's, who built simply on the 6-ore hex by the sea. He didn't even take the 3-6 intersection which I had considered. He said his strategy was to take harbours (and, indeed, the spot he chose was right on the wood harbour) but it gave him only three numbers in all, and not a whole lot of scope for expansion into other useful numbers.
So we started the game, and unsurprisingly I collected quite a few sheep. 3s were rolled a few times, giving access to ore, so I was able to trade for it and buy one or two cards. Mostly I concentrated on expanding to start new settlements, and succeeded in getting a spot on ore, albeit with an 11. Richard had hoped for the nearby spot with a 10 on wheat - actually I'd quite have liked that one too, but thought it better to secure the one I could easily take rather than push further away and risk losing the spot altogether.
Richard and Jörn each managed a city reasonably early in the game, John started building roads in order to get to some useful building spots, and Sheila fairly quickly achieved the longest street:
That put her in the lead with six points, but Jörn was close behind with five; Richard had four; John and I each had three. With five players on the larger size Catan board, there's usually a fair amount of room so we weren't really fighting over building spots too much.
Having said that, Richard - who didn't find the intersection with a 12 and two desert hexes too appealing - did make an attempt to build right across the board to grab a place where I actually built, on the 4-11-8 intersection with two clay and wheat. However, in doing so, he gained - by quite a margin - the longest street card:
Although he couldn't extend it any further, the only person who could possibly challenge him was John - and he still had quite a way to go. So Richard now had nine points, including three cities and the longest street. He could still upgrade to another city, he still had the unattractive potential building spot by two desert hexes, and he had played two knight cards... meaning that he would most likely also take the largest army. Richard was in a strong position.
Jörn, meanwhile, had seven points, Sheila had six, I had five, and John had four.
In the next round, I finally succeeded in getting my first city. Sheila played a wood monopoly, which gained her quite a few cards and enabled her to use her useful wood harbour; she was then able to build another settlement, and a city. Jörn and John each managed another settlement too.
But Richard was unbeatable. On his turn, he built another settlement, played a third knight (thus gaining the largest army) and also displayed a hidden victory point card. He was the clear winner, with thirteen points in all.
Sheila did say afterwards that she debated playing a third knight card before Richard did, thus prolonging the game a little - but could not resist playing the monopoly on wood instead, since there was rather a lot of wood to be gained from it. I suspect Richard would have won sooner or later, anyway.
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