We were all a bit tired, and somehow didn't feel entirely enthused by the game. Possibly the heat and humidity was wearing us all down. Daniel rolled highest so (playing green) he placed first, and chose an obvious good spot: 5, 6 and 9 with clay, sheep and wood. It's where I'd probably have gone if I'd been playing first. Jörn (blue) was second, and chose an intersection with 5, 8 and 9 on clay and two sheep. I was a little surprised: the other spot I would have considered was the nearby 5, 6 and 9 with the same clay and one of the sheep, but ore on 6 rather than sheep on 6. Sheep, to me, is the most expendable commodity and it was the best ore hex in the game. But everyone has their own strategy..
Sheila (brown) took another nice place with 4, 8 and 9 on wheat, clay and sheep. And at last it was my turn. I always look at the resource likely to be most limited if the dice fall approximately as they should statistically speaking. In this game, wood and looked as if it would be least productive. If possible I also like to start with good ore - so my obvious choice was an intersection between one of the best ore hexes (on a 6) and the best wood hex (on a 9). I'm not entirely sure why that rather prime spot, which also bordered a 4-wheat hex, was still there... but it was, so I took it.
Richard was last for once, playing his usual red pieces. He always likes to ensure wood and clay, and there was still a good wood-clay intersection with sheep as the third hex. So he took that (as his second), and then another useful spot with the other resources he needed, including an 8 on ore. Then it was me again. I quite like being second to last. I had several possible places offering the two resources I needed - clay and sheep - some of them on the coast. But decided to opt for an inland intersection that also gave me a 12 on wheat; not that I expected it to come up very often, but I like to get three starting resources if I can. I also liked the fact that I had six different numbers including both 8 and 6; I also had a useful 9, 10 and 4. . I'd have liked a 5 too, of course, but wasn't going to battle for the clay-5 hex. So I headed away from the other nearby players.
In the first few rounds, I was very lucky with the dice rolls. 12 was rolled twice, giving me a bonus of wheat, and I was quickly able to build a city as well as a couple of settlements. My rather vague strategy is usually to avoid any spots that other players are clearly heading for (unless I happen to have a street-building card, and don't have anywhere else to go...). I also like to collect numbers where possible. So on my first settlement I gained a 3 and an 11. I wanted a 3:1 harbour and the easiest one to take was on another 11 hex, so I built out in that direction too.
So I had five points on the board, but by this stage Daniel had bought a large number of cards and played three knights, so he had the largest army, and was thus equally in the lead. It wasn't exactly a huge lead, since Jörn and Sheila had also been building, and each had four points, while Richard had three. And there were still plenty of building spots for us all.
I realised that I had every number other than 5 and 2, and while I wasn't too worried about having a 2, I did quite like the idea of a 5, even if it was only on sheep. So since nobody else was heading for that spot, I built out towards it and placed another settlement. 9s were rolled with reasonable regularity, giving me a plentiful supply of wood; something that some of the other players had to trade for quite heavily.
In building out to that intersection which gave me access to every number, I also inadvertently gained the 'longest street', although I didn't really expect to keep it. It's very rarely part of my strategy, although I sometimes find it's easy to take anyway. So now I had nine points. Daniel and Sheila were next with six each, Jörn had five, and Richard had three.
I was getting a fair number of sheep now, so thought I might head out towards the useful 6-wheat hex and possibly the sheep harbour... however Richard started building in that direction so I abandoned that idea. Instead I extended my long street, heading for the 5-10-desert hex. I had, by that stage, a hidden victory point card. With eight points on the board and the lognest street, all I needed to do was to build one more settlement...
.. then Daniel joined up his two street segments, and took the longest street card:
He only had five points on the board, and rather poor access to wheat which made it hard for him to build settlements. But he now also had four extra points with the largest army AND the longest street. So he had nine. I had eight on the board at this stage so was no longer in the lead. Sheila also had eight points. So it was close again...
But by this stage I was picking up quite a bit of wheat and ore. So when I'd built my planned settlement, I simply collected the resources I needed for cities. And when my turn came round - having built a fair amount in other people's building phases - I was able to trade for my last one. So with 11 points on the board and one victory point, I was the winner. For the first time in a while.
Sheila was very close behind. If she had been able, as she hoped, to upgrade to one more city she would have won as she had two victory point cards. So she had eleven points in all. Daniel had ten, since had had a victory point too... as did Richard, who thus had eight points. Jörn had seven.
We were quite pleased the game was over since we were even more tired by the time it had finished...
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