I was second, with my usual orange. My usual strategy is to look at what might be in short supply, and select the best possible hex for it. Clay was the obvious candidate in this game, and there was quite a good intersection with the 3-clay, a 4-ore and a 6-sheep, so that's what I took.
Richard, with red pieces, was last. He couldn't get all five resources with reasonable numbers, so opted for the best combinations of numbers. He was able to get 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 which is a pretty good selection; those came with an ore, two wood and three wheat. He planned on building on the nearby wheat harbour.
I couldn't get wood and wheat on reasonable hexes, so I also opted for a good selection of numbers. My collection was 3, 4, 5,, 6, 9 and 10, with clay, ore, wheat and three sheep. My plan was to build as quickly as possible to the 8-wood hex, and then if possible to the sheep harbour.
Tim didn't have a lot of choice in his last placement, even though there were only three of us. He couldn't get both clay and wood; so opted for the best remaining numbers, with two wheat and a clay on 11.
The ore-wheat strategy relies on building cities quickly, and then picking up plenty of cards to enable trading - if necessary with the bank. And, indeed, it wasn't long before Tim built his first city. I kept finding myself with the resources for a development card, so I did buy a few in the early stages rather than keeping them and risking losing some to the robber. One of the first I bought was a 'year of plenty', which, along with a lot of sheep for trading, enabled me to build out towards that 8-wood hex and buy a settlement.
Richard, meanwhile, aimed for the intersection with two clay (even though they were only 11 and 12) and the ore harbour. In doing so he prevented Tim from building out of his second settlement, but in a three-player game there's usually plenty of room for expansion through Catan, so he wasn't too worried. Fours were rolled surprisingly often in the early stages, so Richard managed a city as well; a fair bit of amicable trading happened so that the lack of certain resources didn't matter too much.
At this stage in the game, I had three points, while Richard and Tim each had four.
Nobody else seemed to be interested in the top part of the board, so I expanded out to the sheep harbour without too much difficulty, and then decided to go in the other direction for more sheep. In doing so we realised that I had the longest street. I had also managed to upgrade two settlements to cities. Having a good selection of numbers meant that I picked up cards almost every turn. Richard and Tim had also been building cities - they had three each - and Tim now had good access to wood. Richard still lacked sheep, but I had plenty available for trading, as did Tim: 10 seemed to be rolled rather frequently.
So I had nine points (including the longest street), Tim had eight and Richard had seven.
Richard wanted a 3:1 harbour, and the nearest one was on the 4-ore hex. So he built out towards that - and in doing so increased his street length.
I had the resources for two more streets in my hand. It would have been easy to join my two sections of street, thus giving me a length of nine, but I realised that Richard had the potential to do the same, and probably to overtake me. So after some hesitation, I placed my two streets at the other end of my long section, thus ensuring he could not join his two segments.
I really don't like making that kind of move; but it was a good-natured game, and it was a logical thing to do. So Richard shrugged, and built streets on the other side of the ore hex, and still managed to exceed my street length:
So now he had eleven points, Tim had ten, and I was trailing with eight. If Richard had had a victory point card, he would have won the game.
But he didn't. So I joined up my two segments of street, and took the card back again. Richard would have done better to ensure another building spot rather than trying to challenge the longest street. As it was, Tim built out to a spot that would have been quite useful for Richard:
I wasn't quite sure what I would do next. I had played two knight cards, and had a monopoly card hidden. I had rather a lot of sheep in my hand - useful for trading 2:1 but not much else. Then I rolled a 9. I don't have a good card memory like Tim does, but was aware that despite the robber being on the 8-wood hex, Richard already had some wood in his hand, and the 9 gave him four more, with two for Tim. So, knowing it wasn't far from the end of the game, I monopolised wood. I received ten cards in all - eight from Richard. He was not impressed!
With careful trading, I was able to build one more street and a settlement, giving me 11 points including the longest street card. With my remaining resources, I bought just one development card. I hoped it might be a knight which I would be able to play on my next turn to gain the largest army - if nobody else had won in the meantime.
Slightly to my surprise, I picked up a victory point card. So I had won the game with 12 points. Tim was pleased that his winning streak had ended; he was very close to winning himself, since he had 11 points; Richard had nine, so it was really a very close end.
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