Seven of us wanted to play, so Jacob and Daniel decided to be in a team together. An interesting combination, since Jacob is one of the most highly competitive people I have ever met, and Daniel is possibly the least competitive person I know...
Becky was playing with the red pieces, and rolled the dice to go first. Clay was evidently going to be a fairly scarce resources in this game, so she wisely opted for the intersection including the best clay hex with a couple of other resources, all on good numbers. Sheila (brown) was second, and opted for the other obviously good place, again with three great numbers and three different resources. No clay, but she did have wood.
Jörn (blue) was third, and went for three reasonable numbers, including an 8 on sheep, while evidently hoping for one of the sheep harbours. Daniel and Jacob (green) were next, and after some discussion opted for a 3-6-10 intersection. I rather fancied the nearby 4-6-10 and wasn't sure why they didn't opt for that one other than wanting wood rather than wheat. Still, it meant that I couldn't have that one. So I decided to ignore resources, and go for numbers. I took the 5-6-9 with two wood and wheat. Marie (white) was last - so she opted for two places that gave her access to all five resources, plus the ore harbour. Her clay access was only on 12 but at least she picked up one as a starting point, and hoped to build towards the 11 on clay.
I was a little surprised that the other reasonable spot on the 10-clay hex was still available; even better was that it was near the wood harbour, and I had two good wood hexes. So I took clay and two sheep as my second placement.
By the time it got back to Becky, there was still an excellent spot for her to gain the two resources she was lacking: wood on 9 and ore on 8. It was a coastal hex, but undoubtedly the one I would have taken in her shoes.
And so we got started, around 5.15pm. 8s were rolled rather a lot in the early part of the game - I had no 8s, so they were no use to me. There were quite a few 9s as well, however, and even one or two tens, so I was able to build out towards the wood harbour and build a settlement on it. Becky had ore on 8 and wheat on 9, so was quickly able to build a couple of cities. She also bought cards fairly regularly. And when she noticed that there was only one wood resource left in the stack, she played a timely monopoly on wood:
With that, she was able to build another settlement and some streets, gaining her the longest street card:
So now Becky was in the lead with seven points. Sheila and Jörn each had four points, I had three, Jacob/Daniel and Marie were still each on two.
I was pleased to be able to build on the 11-8 intersection giving me an 8 at last, on ore (the one resource I had been lacking). And then I built out again, on a useful 9-wheat and 4-sheep. With 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 I now had a good range of numbers and all five resources, and hoped to start being able to build cities since I had used up my five settlements by this stage.
But Becky had played her second knight. Clearly she was also going for the largest army - and she had six points on the board as well as the longest street. Her next nearest rivals were Jörn, Sheila and me by this stage, each on five points. Marie had managed to build one settlement, but Daniel and Jacob were still stuck on two points. Two building spots they had hoped for had been taken by other people, and they weren't picking up many resource cards at all.
Becky could have won the game, by playing her third knight, since she had two carefully hidden cards which we were all sure were victory points. But she thought she'd play another monopoly card instead. She was unlucky - she asked for wheat, as there was plenty of it in the game; but at that point, nobody had any wheat. So she couldn't play her knight after all, and we knew there would be at least one more round. It seemed that the game was going to be over before it started.
I realised that, with my useful wood harbour, I could take the longest street. So when my turn came around, I built two more streets - not going anywhere, but joining up my two sections of road. So I took the card from Becky, reducing her victory points by two. Except that she had already built another city in someone else's building phase, so she had seven points on the board and was evidently going to claim the largest army when it got to her turn again.
When Becky's turn came round, she had the cards to build yet another settlement. So she had eight points on the board. She then played her third knight, giving her two more points for the largest army.
.. and, as we surmised, she also had two victory point cards:
So Becky had won with twelve points, and I was her nearest rival at seven. We finished by 6pm, so it was one of the quickest 5-6 player games we had ever played.
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