As when we played Seafarers with them before, we set up the main Catan island resources and numbers randomly. With four people on the 3-4 player board, it's not easy to find good building spots by the end since there are not many available. I went first (orange); I chose some reasonable numbers with an 8 on ore, plus 5 on wood and 8 on sheep. Sheep are a lot more important in Seafarers than in regular Settlers of Catan games, since they're necessary (along with wood) for building boats.
Richard (red) was second; he built on the other 4-sheep hex, with wheat and wood as well. John (white) took some good numbers: two wood and a wheat, on 5, 10 and 6. Then Sarah (brown) took a very nice combination: all five resources, with 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10 as her numbers. On our second placements it was increasingly difficult to find suitable spots. John also managed five good numbers, but was lacking access to both sheep and ore. Richard had all five resources, but not such good numbers, and I had no access to wheat.
John was the only person who bought a ship right at the beginning, rather than a street for his second settlement.
Play was very slow at first. The problem was that 4 was not rolled, and it was the only possibility for sheep. Ironically, 12 - which had sheep but no settlements - was rolled a couple of times. However, we all managed to build some streets; John, Richard and I each built a city (wheat was plentiful so it was easy to trade for it), and Sarah managed the first new settlement of the game after trading heavily for her sheep:
So we were all on three points.
Then a four was rolled and we all cheered. Sarah picked up three sheep, and was able to buy a couple of ships. And so the first exploration of the game yielded...
.. some sea:
I was beginning to wonder where I would build, since John had pretty much blocked my access to the coast, in his quest for sheep. I wanted the 9-wheat spot first, and then decided I might as well extend in the other direction from my first settlement, and perhaps eventually reach the sea that way. Or maybe I'd concentrate on building on the main island...
Sarah bought another ship, and uncovered a useful 5-clay hex:
At this stage, John was - just - in the lead with five points; all the rest of us had four. Building in general was still a bit slow.
Having achieved my 9 on wheat, I started building more streets around the coast in the other direction in the hope of building on the 8-3 coastal intersection. And in doing so, realised that I could claim the longest street card:
So now I was slightly ahead, with six points. For a short while, anyway.
It was indeed only a few rounds. Sarah continued buying ships and uncovering useful land resource hexes, and quickly had a 'trade route' of seven which beat my six streets - so now she had the longest street card.
So Sarah was - just - in the lead with seven points; John (who had managed, at last, to build on sheep) had six; Richard - who had just bought his first ship - had five, and I was trailing with four.
Richard and Sarah both build settlements on the newly discovered island, and when another 4 was rolled - to the accompaniment of more cheers - John started buying ships. All he uncovered was sea, but his 'trade route' now had eight units, so the longest street card was now his:
John was ahead with nine points; Richard and Sarah each had six, and I was still just behind them with five. Evidently the longest trade route was going to be very significant in whoever was finally victorious in this game.
Sarah crossed the island with streets, and built another settlement. Richard headed out towards one of the gold hexes, and John - still maintaining the longest trade route - headed towards the other. He uncovered, and quickly built upon another sheep hex with a useful 9 on it.
John now had ten points. And he had played two knight cards. He didn't have any hidden development cards at that stage, but he only needed one more knight to claim the largest army and victory.
Sarah was not impressed because John not only moved the knight to the sheep hex she and Richard shared - to try and prevent her from building more ships - but he also put the pirate ship next to her one spare ship, so that she could not move it!
However, with the help of some trading, Sarah did manage to buy more ships. And overtook John... so once again the longest street card was hers:
Sarah was now in the lead with nine points, and John had eight. Richard had seven, and I was still behind with six... and there was no way that either of us was going to compete for the longest street card.
Sarah continued buying ships, and maintained her longest route with ease. Then she uncovered an ore hex. Now she and Richard were in a race to build on the gold...
But John, meanwhile, managed to build another settlement AND his last city.
So John now had ten points on the board. And Sarah had eight on the board, plus two for the longest street. The game was clearly going to be a race between the two of them. Richard still had seven points, and I still had six.
Still, I did eventually manage to build a settlement on the 8-clay hex and then bought a couple of ships. I even had the excitement of uncovering a wheat hex, and another 8 for it. That would have made rather a nice building spot... except that I now needed a city before I could buy any more settlements. And I wasn't getting a lot of ore.
Then Richard managed to build on the gold hex, at last. However, it didn't do him any good, because it was then John's turn. He had bought a card on his previous turn, so now he revealed it. A knight - which gave him the largest army, and the extra two points he needed to be the winner.
So Sarah was second with ten, Richard was third with nine, and although I only had seven points on the board, I did have one victory point card which I had kept hidden since the very early stages of the game.
Even though she had the longest trade route, Sarah still wasn't impressed at the way John had blocked her sheep access...
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