Four-person Settlers of Catan

Richard was busy, and Jacob was away on camp... so we sat down to a four-person Settlers game late yesterday afternoon. Jörn played blue, Sheila brown, Marie white, and I was orange.

I was first to place. Ore looked as if it would be the most scarce resource, so I knew I would place on the four-ore hex. I was undecided between the 5 (sheep)-8 (clay) intersection, and the 6 (sheep)-9 (wheat). From the number perspective, they were equally good. I decided that, on balance, I preferred to have slightly better access to clay than to sheep; and clay is always useful at the start of the game. And it looked as if there would be plenty of wheat available for trading.

Jorn played second, and took the 5-9-10 with wood, wheat and sheep. Marie went next, and took the spot with the best number combination on the board: the 5-6-9 with sheep, wheat and wood. Then Sheila was both last and first. Unsurprisingly she took the spot I had seriously considered, also bordering the 4-ore hex. And she also took the coastal 8-10 with clay and wood. That gave her access to all five resources, and five good numbers: 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10.

Marie needed clay and ore, and had two possible spots: she took the 3, 10 and 11 which also gave her sheep. So she had six numbers: 3, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11. Jörn also needed clay and ore, so he took the other appropriate spot, giving him two clay and an ore. So he also had six reasonable numbers: 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 and 11. No 6 or 8, but it was likely that he would head to the 8-wheat.

Then, at last, it was me again. I was lacking wheat and wood. My instinct was to opt for wheat rather than wood, although it would have made it rather tricky to get started. And the only good spot on a wheat hex was the 8-4 coastal wheat-clay spot,
The biggest problem with that was that I already had an 8 and a 4, so would be limiting myself to three numbers altogether.

So, with an inward sigh, I opted for the 9-10 coastal intersection with two wood. It was a bit annoying for Sheila since it stopped her from getting the nearby 3:1 harbour which she was aiming for, but the board was already looking crowded. Due to some of the initial placements, there were a surprising number of unavailable spots.

I forgot to take a photo until we'd played a couple of rounds, but all we had built by this stage were a few streets:


Since I'd taken the harbour Sheila had wanted, she built as quickly as she could out towards another 3:1 harbour, thus preventing me from going there. So I could not expand anywhere from my first settlement.

Surprisingly, ore was not in short supply since 4 was rolled rather more often than expected. But without wheat its only use to me was trading - which I did, fairly extensively. I did manage to build on the sheep harbour. Marie had hoped for that spot, but my only hope of building anything at all was to continue around the coast. I'd have liked the 6-11-12 intersection which would have given me access to wheat. Marie would also have liked it. But Jörn built out towards it - and beyond, so that it was secure to him - and took the longest street card in doing so. Then Sheila was the first to build a city:


So Jörn was in the lead with six points, although he didn't expect to keep the longest street card. Sheila had four points; Marie and I each had three. But Marie and I were already struggling to find building spots.

It wasn't long before Sheila took the longest street, and incidentally giving herself quite a few useful building spots:


Marie joined her segments of road, so that she took the longest street card temporarily, but she didn't have the potential to keep it. She aimed for her last building spot, on the desert.. and then Sheila built more streets, and took the card back again:


So Sheila was now in the lead with seven points, closely followed by Jörn with six. I had finally managed my first city, so had five points, and Marie was trailing with three.

I realised that I could, potentially, take the longest street card - and since there wasn't much else I could do, and I had the resources in my hand, I did build a couple more. But Sheila had calculated that she could reach 14 segments, which was the maximum I could reach... so she build the rest of her streets, to guarantee keeping it:


So Sheila now had ten points, but Jörn was still close behind with nine, and I had eight. Marie was still trailing with five. By this stage there were NO building spots left on the entire board... so we were all after ore, wheat and sheep, with little use for wood or clay other than for trading.

So although we were all picking up a fair number of cards, not much happened. We just bought cards, and occasionally played them. Then Jörn build another city:


- so he and Sheila were now equal with ten points each.

Then Sheila built another city.

Then Marie played a third knight card, and so gained the largest army.

And then, at last, Jörn bought another card which was a victory point. He already had one hidden one, so that gave him the twelve points he needed to win:


So he had 12 points, and Sheila had 11. I had 9, and Marie - who also had a hidden victory point card - had 8.