He rolled to place first, so we suggested a few possible spots after explaining the rules as well as we could. It's a surprisingly complicated game for someone who has no idea what they're doing, so he took our advice about placing his settlements on trust. Mick took the green pieces, while Richard had his usual red and I had my usual orange.
We all managed access to all five resources, at least in theory; and realised that our placements had worked quite neatly, giving us more possible building spots than average. With only three players there is usually plenty of space anyway.
Mick picked up the principles of the game rapidly and started heading inland. It wasn't long before each of us had built one more settlement, so we each had three points:
When the robber started to come into play, Richard and I put it on each other's hexes, not wanting to discourage someone who was brand new to the game. But it wasn't long before Mick went into the lead, with the longest street:
We were still explaining why we did some of the things we did, and occasionally had to recap on various rules... but Mick clearly had Catan strategy in his mind already, and made his own decisions notwithstanding listening to our suggestions. We soon found ourselves able to build cities, and expanded a bit further into useful spots:
So Mick was still in the lead with eight points (including the longest street), I had seven, and Richard had six. And we started playing the robber on places where Mick also had settlements or cities, and sometimes taking cards from him.
He was a bit unfortunate in losing cards to the robber more than once - we didn't always remind him of the strategy of offering to trade an extra card away when having eight in one's hand; he managed to roll a 7 when in the possession of eight or more cards at least twice during the game.
Mick had bought three development cards, and we knew that they were all knights. He played one to move the robber, and I suggested he play a second on his next turn, in hope of gaining the largest army card.
Had I been competing with experienced players, I would have attempted to join up my two segments of street by this stage, and so taken the longest street card for myself. I didn't do so... but by this stage in the game, that's the only concession I was making to Mick being a totally new and inexperienced player. Had he been more experienced, he would probably have extended his more rapidly to ensure that I didn't manage to take the card, anyway.
So Mick and I each had nine points at this stage, and Richard had six. There were still plenty of building spots available to both Richard and me, although Mick had only one remaining.
I built another settlement, and a city. Richard built a couple of streets in the vain hope of taking the longest street... so Mick joined up his segments, ensuring he kept it. I upgraded another city and built another settlement. Mick built a city.
I had eleven points, and was technically in the lead. Mick had ten... and had played two knights. I reminded him that all he had to do was to turn over his third knight, and he would have won.
He decided he would prefer to keep playing for another round or so.
When his turn came round again, he had a huge handful of cards. Luckily he didn't roll a seven... and was able to build another city AND place his last settlement. That gave him ten points in buildings, plus the longest street, so he had twelve points anyway. Then he turned over his third knight, giving him the largest army...
So Mick was resoundingly the winner, with fourteen points!
Here he is, a little surprised to have won...
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