Settlers of Catan for four

Our game of Seafarers of Catan was over so quickly - it was only 9pm when we finished - that we decided to play a quick game of regular Settlers as well. We kept the same pieces: red for Richard, white for Tim, brown for Sheila and orange for me.

I went first, and took the predictable 4-5-8 with clay, wood and wheat. Richard was next; he decided to go for numbers, so took 6-5-9 on sheep and two wood. Then it was Tim, who took 5-9-10 on two ore and clay. Sheila likes the last position best; she was able to take four useful numbers (3, 8, 9 and two 10s) with all resources other than sheep. Tim ended his placement with a lot of ore, no wood or sheep, and six good numbers (3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10). Richard lacked wheat after his second placement, and didn't have as many numbers as he would have liked (2, 5, two 6s and two 9s). And I then had nowhere to get ore - which can be a big problem. So I opted for the least bad numbers that would give me the other some sheep, and ended up with six (3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 11).

And I forgot to take a photo at the end of our settlement placements. However, I took this one shortly afterwards when we had all built at least one street - there was no real shortage of clay and wood at the start of this game - and both Richard and Tim had built a new settlement (Richard on the ore harbour; Tim, who would really have liked the ore harbour himself, on a 3:1).


It wasn't too long before Richard took the longest street card, and shot into the lead. He had six points; Sheila and Tim each had four, and I still had three:


However, Tim and Sheila both managed to build cities. Richard (lacking wheat) could not do so, and my lack of ore made it equally difficult. So Sheila caught up with Richard:


They each had seven points, while Tim and I each had five. And due to the placement of the hexes, there were very few building spots left. Tim and I didn't have any; Sheila and Richard each had one left. But Richard and I were having a hard time building any cities. He did manage one, and I managed two... but Tim, with his plentiful ore, upgraded all four of his settlements to cities. He also bought development cards since there was nothing else for him to do... and then won the game, by playing his third knight (thus gaining the largest army) and revealing two hidden victory point cards:


He hadn't expected to win, when Richard stopped him from getting the ore harbour. If he had been able to take it, he would probably have won rather more quickly. But it was quite a decisive victory since nobody else had more than eight points.