It wasn't a particularly inspiring layout for the board. It looked as though there was going to be an over-abundance of wood, a fair amount of sheep, and not a whole lot of anything else. Nor where there any obviously brilliant starting spots.
Sheila went first and took the 3-6-9 with ore, sheep and clay. It's where I'd have gone in first place, too. Probably the best place for numbers, certainly the best spot for clay which was likely to be the scarcest resource of all.
Jörn went second, and took the 4-8-10, with wheat, with wheat, wood and sheep. Equally good numbers, technically, but no clay or ore. I was third. Already there were no attractive spaces to take, so I followed the strategy of taking the best possible ore spot, which was on a 5. It bordered a 6-wood which I hoped would be useful, and also an 11-wheat, which was less likely to be of value.
Richard was last; quite a useful situation for this unhelpful board. He was able to get access to all five resources, and five different numbers: 3, 4 (twice), 8, 9 and 11. I now needed clay and sheep, but the only place to get both was on the coast, with a 2 on the clay, which didn't seem very useful. So, as I usually sacrifice sheep (so to speak!) if one resource must go, I looked at the options for clay. There was really only one possibility: the final place on the 9-clay hex, which bordered a 10-wheat that I hoped would be useful, and also the 2-clay. So that's what I took.
Jörn needed clay and ore, so he took a reasonable spot which gave him both, even though the clay was on an 11; it also gave him an 8 on wood... and made it unlikely that Richard would be able to take the nearby 3:1 harbour.
I then took a photo, not realising that Sheila hadn't placed her second settlement. She suggested I post it anyway, and ask readers where they might have placed the second brown settlement...
Sheila pondered two or three options. She needed both wheat and wood, but couldn't possibly take both. She had considered one of the 8-wood hexes, but one possible spot bordered only the desert, and the other bordered only the 3-ore hex which she had access to already; she was tempted by it, since it would have given her an instant 3:1 harbour, but it looked as if she might have been boxed in rather rapidly, with very few - if any - building spots.
So, as wood was evidently going to be plentiful, Sheila opted for the 3-10-11 intersection which gave her two wheat hexes, and five different numbers altogether.
Play started quite slowly, except that 11s were rolled more often than would be expected, and 10s not at all in the first few rounds. Jörn and Richard were both easily able to build streets, and I went as rapidly as I could to the intersection with two wheat hexes which would give me a five. Richard built in the spot where Sheila had hoped to go, which meant that her building spots were rather limited anyway, and he was first to gain the longest street card, but Jörn soon extended his street further and took it away.
So Jörn had five points, as did I; Richard had four, and Sheila had three.
With my extra wheat and reasonable ore (5s were rolled pretty much as expected statistically), I was fairly quickly able to build another city. I did have to give up cards to the robber more than once; but I found myself with wood and sheep all too often, and nothing I could do with them. It then occurred to me that I should probably take the wood harbour; I hadn't thought of it as a useful building spot, since I already had two settlements on the 2-clay hex, and one on the 5-wheat. But with the amount of wood I was collecting, it was definitely worthwhile.
So I took it - just before Richard planned to. He kept extending his street in the hope of taking back the longest street card. He did for a few rounds, but then Jörn took it back again, and we realised that he was now unbeatable as far as that went.
I then built another city, made almost entirely of 2:1 traded wood.
So Jörn had eight points at this stage, and I had nine. We each had one remaining building spot, although my last one was also Sheila's last one, and she was struggling to do anything so I didn't plan to take it, even though she urged me to! I had already played two knights - being in the lead, I was frequently the target of the robber - and needed only one more to gain the largest army. I also knew I could fairly easily build one more city, so I didn't actually need another settlement.
And that's what happened. If Jörn had had a hidden victory point card, he would have won, but he didn't. So when my turn came around, I built my last city, and played my third knight:
No comments:
Post a Comment