Settlers of Catan by Facetime, for five

It's over a year since we first played Settlers via Skype with our son Tim (who is in the UK). Since then, we've played several such games with him, and have gradually changed the technology; Facetime is now the usual method, and there is always some discussion about what microphone and cameras to use. 

But we've never played a five-person game this way. With our other son Daniel and his wife Becky staying, Tim suggested we try. Richard and Daniel set up a proper microphone, balanced on a stand in the middle of us so that Tim would be able to hear us all, and we got started... 

Daniel took these first two pictures.. while we were doing the initial set-up, Becky played with her remaining pieces to make some little stick figures: 

Then I took the camera, so the board looks a little turned around. Here were our starting places - Richard was red, as usual, and I was orange. Tim played white, Becky blue and Daniel brown:

Of course it's quite hard to see all the numbers in a photo of the bigger board. We all had fairly evenly distributed numbers and resources at the start. It wasn't long before Becky built a city, and Richard managed two of them fairly quickly: 

I was struggling through lack of clay, and thus was last at this stage, still on two points.  Richard was in the lead with five. 

Becky was adapting her stick figures to suit her remaining pieces, and produced this, possibly a cyberman of some kind: 

I traded and traded, and at last managed to build a few streets and settlements, and even gained a possible clay resource, although as it was on a 3 it wasn't all that frequent:

So suddenly I was sharing the lead with Tim and Richard - all on five points - while Daniel had four, and Becky was still on three.

Here's a photo showing Tim thinking about his move, with the little Settlers picture at the side being the image of what he was seeing:

I managed my first city, then decided to expand a little more in the hope of more clay - and someone pointed out that I had the longest street. So, bizarrely, I was in the lead with eight points. But only just. Daniel was building cities as fast as he could as well as expanding, and was on seven. Tim, playing his usual ore-wheat strategy, had three cities and thus six points. Richard, who for some reason was not getting cards, was still on five, and Becky had four: 

I managed another city, and thus nine points. Tim built, in quick succession, a settlement and then an upgrade to a city, so had eight points. Then Daniel not only expanded but took the longest street, so now he was in the lead, with ten points.  

Becky and Richard were trailing a little with six each. But since Becky had won each of the last three games we had played, she didn't mind!

Then Tim played a third knight, giving him the largest army, and sharing the lead with Daniel, also on ten points. Daniel then took his turn, built another settlement... and showed a victory point development card.  So Daniel was the winner:

Here's how the board looked at the end:

Daniel won with 12 points, but Tim also had a victory point so he was close behind with 11.  And the rest of us had eight points each... Becky had a victory point card too. It was a good game. 

Settlers of Catan: The Caravans (from Traders and Barbarians)

Last night, we decided to try the next Catan scenario from 'Traders and Barbarians'. This one is entitled 'The Caravans', and involves an oasis hex tile (replacing the desert, and placed in the middle of the board), as well as some rather nice wooden camels:


The idea is that camel trains - or caravans - advance from the oasis, meandering through Catan. A new camel is placed any time a settlement or city is built during the game (ie after the initial placement phase), and their position is determined by a kind of voting. The camel caravan is not allowed to branch, and the camels themselves are placed alongside streets.

The advantage of the camels is that any settlement or city on a camel route has an extra victory point attached to it, and any street on a camel route counts as two streets for the purpose of counting the 'longest road'.

When we started, we weren't entirely sure what would be the best initial placement strategy. The guidelines mention that sheep, usually the most expendable resource in regular Settlers of Catan games, is one of the resources - along with wheat - used for bidding on camel placement. Thus it's a bit more important than usual.

However in our first round of placing settlements we simply opted for normal strategy: that of the best combination of numbers and potential resources. As we'd decided to play with the Catan event cards rather than dice, we knew that the numbers would mostly come up according to statistical probability. Richard (red) went first, and took a useful 5-9-10 intersection with clay, wood and wheat. It's the one I'd probably have taken if I were going first. It was one of only two clearly good spots.

Becky (white) took a 4-8-11 with three resources, and Daniel (brown) took a 5-6-10 which I thought was the only other obviously good place. I was last - as I seem to be rather often at present. I liked the coastal 8-10 on clay and wood which was near a 3:1 harbour, but since I couldn't take the spot Daniel had taken I had to decide which resource to sacrifice. I was quite tempted by the 3-5-8 with two sheep and an ore, near the sheep harbour, but couldn't quite get my head around sheep being more important than wheat. So instead I went for the 6-9-12 with wheat, ore and more wood.


Daniel - who would naturally have liked the coastal wood-clay intersection I took - decided on two sheep and a wood; then Becky took the place with two sheep and ore which I had seriously pondered. Richard had a hard time deciding where he should go; he was seriously tempted by the sheep harbour, with two good ore hexes (8 and 10); the obvious disadvantage of that is that he didn't actually have any sheep access to enable him to make use of the harbour. And he couldn't quite bring himself to annoy Becky by taking the place she was clearly heading for!

Since I started with clay and wood in my hand, and was able to trade for sheep fairly easily, it wasn't long before I built the first settlement of the game. Then - great excitement, since we had to place the first camel!

I really didn't care where it went, so I opted out of the voting. Two of the others both bid one card each (sheep or wheat). The rules say that if one person has more cards than anyone else, that person decides where to place the camel. That didn't apply in this case. If there's no overall majority, then if any two or more players can agree on a place, and between them they have the most cards, then that's where it goes. But the two people who had votes could not agree. That meant that the person who built the settlement (even if they hadn't voted) got to choose... so after all that, I placed the first camel:


I still hadn't quite grasped how significant the camels would be in the game, which is why I simply chose the starting arrow that was nearest to one of my settlements.

Richard placed the second camel, starting a new caravan from a different arrow. He, naturally, chose the one going along one of his streets so that his adjoining settlement would be worth an extra point.

Daniel placed the third one, and I thought he might start the third caravan; he was about to, since he had a street there, but then opted to add to the one Richard started, but going away from Richard's other settlement, towards his (Daniel's). Dan is very good at grasping strategies; he pointed out that eventually someone would start the third caravan, and would not be able to avoid his street. But he didn't want Richard to have one going towards more of his settlements...

It was a good move, and sure enough Daniel was able to guide that camel train to his other settlement to gain yet more points. I took this photo shortly after an earthquake event card was drawn:


Play went rather slowly, not just because of the extra time needed for voting and camel placement. We somehow didn't seem to be getting the resources we needed to do much building. When the event card was drawn requiring the person with the most victory points to give a card to each of the other players, we quickly counted up only to find that all four of us had exactly four points each:


Becky and I each had a city in addition to two settlements; Richard and Daniel had only managed one new settlement, but had an extra victory point each due to having a settlement on a camel train.

Dan, as so often happens, was buying quite a few development cards. His turn came around, and he played a street-building one, thus reaching the camel caravan which I had started. That gave him the longest street card, with six streets and a camel on one of them, making seven for the purposes of counting the longest road:


Daniel was now two points in the lead.

We soon got more efficient at camel-placement, although Daniel seemed to be bidding the most resources most of the time, and making most of the decisions. I had a fair amount of wheat, and was sometimes able to bid one or possibly two; I did 'win' the vote a couple of times. But I had no access at all to sheep, whereas Daniel had plenty, so more often than not he was the one to choose.

I didn't have much strategy in this game, and was hampered by my lack of numbers, even though I had both an 8 and a 6. I decided to aim for the 3-4-11 intersection, but was beaten there by Becky. So instead I built another coastal settlement, on a not very useful 11-12 intersection, both on wood. At least it gave me the ore harbour. So I decided to try next for another settlement on the 9-ore hex.


I was trailing in this game, with only five points at this stage. Richard was one ahead, with six. Becky and Daniel were jointly in the lead with eight points. Daniel had four settlements, two of which were on camel trains, and the longest street. Becky had two cities and three settlements, one of which was on a camel train.

Gradually the game picked up pace, although it was taking rather longer than I had expected. Daniel built his fifth settlement, but for some reason simply wasn't getting the resources to build a city. Instead, he kept buying development cards on his turn. However he continued controlling most of the camels and gained further victory points as a result.

Becky - who was also buying cards -played her third knight, and gained the largest army. Fairly clearly, either she or Daniel was going to win. The booklet said to play to 12 points, so we decided that 14 would be the right number. Daniel had 11 points by that stage, and I don't think any of us had counted up to realise that Becky actually had 12.

Still thinking that Daniel was in the lead, and with the resource cards for three streets in my hand, I did ponder whether to build them in useless places (from the building spot perspective) in order to increase my street to take the 'longest street' card from Daniel. However, it was getting late - it was past 10.30pm, and I was very tired - and I didn't actually want to prolong the game. So instead I built out towards the 9-11 intersection by the oasis, which hadn't yet been taken.

Then an earthquake struck. Becky built another city, and nobody counted up to realise that she now had 13 points.

Then it was Daniel's turn.. and he built his first city. That put him on 12 points...


.. and he then revealed that he had two victory point cards. So he was the winner. It was only when we counted up the other points that we realised how very close Becky had been to winning.

Daniel does seem to be very lucky in his development cards. In the seven he had bought, only two were knights:

Settlers of Catan: The Great Rivers of Catan variation (from Traders and Barbarians)

On Monday night, it was back to just the four of us again. So we thought we would try another scenario from 'Traders and Barbarians', the third expansion of 'Settlers of Catan'. The next one was the 'Great River of Catan', which apparently has somewhat different rules from the game previously published with that name. However that didn't worry us since we'd never played or even seen it before.

Becky set the game up. Some of the hexes are replaced by river tiles, that have a swamp area next to the sea (replacing the desert) and some other standard tiles with a river running through them. Since there are two swamps, the 2 and 12 numbers go on the same place, giving more of a chance to anyone who builds next to that tile.

So here's the basic board layout:


There are also some cardboard 'coins' in this scenario: 25 small and 15 big. There was no indication as to whether they should be used differently, so we decided to count the big ones as equivalent to five small ones.

Then there was a 'wealthiest settler' card, worth an extra victory point, and four 'poor settlers' cards, each worth minus two points:


Two coins can be used to buy a resource card, and that can be done up to twice in anyone's turn. Very useful... the only problem being that at any point the person (or people) with least coins is given the 'poor settler' card, and must earn an EXTRA two points before being the winner. The guidelines told us that it's almost impossible for the 'poor settler' to win, so anyone considering buying a resource card should keep an eye on everyone's coins and ensure that he or she has the opportunity to gain more coins in future, so as not to become the 'poorest'.

Coins can also be used to trade - offering a coin to another player for a resource, for instance. They can also be bought by trading with the bank, including using harbours if relevant. Coins may not be stolen by the robber, and are not counted as part of the 'hand' when a seven is rolled.

The final addition for this game is that we each had three little bridges:


Bridges can be built wherever there are dotted lines on the board - crossing over a river, or between the sea and the swamp areas. A bridge works like a road in most respects, but costs two brick and one wood.

Why would anyone bother with bridges...? Well, that's because of the 'money' aspect to this game. Anyone placing a road or settlement adjoining any of the river tiles is given one coin. But if a bridge is built, the player building it gets three coins. So, right after the initial placements of settlements and streets, it's possible for any player to have up to four coins, depending on where they are placed. (A bridge may not be used in place of one of the initial roads).

So... having perused the rules, we started our initial setup. Then we realised that there was a slight error, in that there were two less wheat hexes (and two more sheep) than should have been on the board for this particular scenario. However we didn't discover that until we were half-way through placing our settlements. By that stage there was really only one sheep hex that could be removed (and replaced with wheat) without affecting what we had already played. So we decided we'd just have to cope with having fewer wheat than we should have.

Richard (red) placed first, and took an intersection with good numbers, with the settlement (but not the street) bordering a river hex. So he gained a coin. Daniel (white) was second; he took the 4-8-9 intersection, with both settlement and street bordering a river hex. So he gained two coins. Becky (blue) too the 5-6-11 including both clay and wood, and also gained two coins. I was last to place, so also first in the second round. I decided to opt for places where I would gain four coins, and have access to all resources. My numbers were 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 which seemed quite reasonable; I had no way to get a six, and had to border the swamp - but at least it was next to the river.


All other placements were next to one of the rivers too, so that Daniel ended with four coins too, Becky and Richard each had three. That gave both of them 'poor Settler' cards, but it hardly mattered at the point. Since Daniel and I were equally wealthy, nobody gained the 'wealthy settler' card.

It wasn't long before each of us had managed to build a bridge, and gain an extra three coins. It also gave us more room for expansion, since roads can't be built in the bridge places. But with wheat in such short supply, it was more difficult to build settlements or cities. Still, Daniel managed a couple of settlements, and the rest of us each managed one.


At last, Daniel managed a city, although he had to buy one of the resources with a couple of coins. He was helped by the 'year of plenty' card, too. Of the four of us, he had the best access to wheat, but with the only numbers being 3 and 11, there wasn't much in the game at all. Around the same time, Becky gained the longest street - and in the process built a bridge that Richard had hoped to build, between the swamp and the sea:


So Daniel was in the lead with six points, followed by Becky at five, while I had four and Richard had three.. although as he had the 'wealthy settler' card, he actually had four. And since the 'poor Settler' card kept moving from person to person, it was a bit unpredictable.. and still pretty even.

Then Dan built another city, and another settlement. Becky and I each managed a city too:


Becky still had the longest street - even though it was only five pieces long - so she had seven points, but Daniel was still in the lead with eight. I had six... and Richard was still struggling with only three points on the board, plus the wealthy settler card giving him four in all.

Daniel had amazing access to ore by this stage, and also the ore harbour. So it wasn't too difficult for him to build his other two cites, giving him ten solid points. Except that they aren't entirely solid in this game... by this stage he was down to just a couple of coins, and had the 'poor settler' card. So he really only had eight.


Still, Daniel was in the lead anyway. Becky and I each had seven points, and Richard had five, plus the wealthy settler card.

Daniel still had quite a few building spots. And he was gaining handfuls of resources every turn. With no extra 'building phase' in the 3-4 person game of Catan, he couldn't do anything with his excess cards; and, as is so often the way, he rolled 7s time and time again on his turn, meaning that he had to discard half of his cards many times over.

But he still had sufficient to build a couple more roads, and take the 'longest street' card from Becky, while the rest of us were struggling to do anything more:


Daniel now had 12 points in theory, but since he continued to hold the 'poor Settler' card, he needed a couple more to win.

It didn't take long for him to build another settlement, and he then showed that he also had a hidden victory point card:


So Daniel was the winner by quite a long way. Moreoever, he showed that the advice in the booklet was wrong: it's entirely possible to be the 'poor Settler' and still win. He said he'd realised that it was in fact better strategy to buy necessary cards using coins and not worry about being by the river or gaining more coins.

Seems like he was totally right.

Second Settlers of Catan game with Chris

After introducing our friend Chris to Settlers of Catan on Tuesday, we asked if he'd like another game on Wednesday evening, or whether he'd prefer to watch a DVD. Catan was his preferred option :-)

This time Richard sat next to him, theoretically to advise, but Chris had picked up the game very quickly, and really didn't need much assistance at all. If any. It meant that I was sitting at the end of the table for once, giving me a different view of the board.

It wasn't nearly such a nice layout as last time. No good numbers with both wood and clay, for instance. Becky (white) placed first, Daniel (brown) was second. Richard (red) went third, and they all chose obvious spots from the number perspective, with three resources. Chris, playing blue, didn't need any advice to take yet another useful place for numbers. Then it was me, with my usual orange pieces. I couldn't easily get all five resources, so - as I so often do - I decided to do without sheep. It looked as if there would be plenty for trading, anyway. Wood looked as though it might be in short supply, so I opted for an intersection that included wood-5, and was pleased that it also had clay-10 - the best combination of the two - although the third was a 2. I then opted for two different numbers, plus 12, to give me good access to ore and wheat. But, naturally, took the cards from the wood-clay-wheat hex.

On the way back everyone did what they could to choose the best numbers and/or resources, but I'm not sure that anybody was entirely satisfied with their choices. On balance, I thought Chris probably had the best spots, number-wise.


With plentiful ore and wheat, the game started with cities being built. 11s were rolled rather more than they should have been, statistically speaking, which enabled Daniel to build some roads and gain the longest street card.


Up to that point, Chris had been in the lead with five points; Daniel now equalled him, since he had three on the board. But since Becky and I both had four, and Richard had three, it was all pretty even so far.

Richard made an attempt to built a long street going across the board, stopping Daniel from making his also go from coast to coast, but Daniel managed to block him and extend his own advantage. It seemed pretty certain that nobody was going to challenge Daniel from the perspective of the longest street on this Catan board.


Chris had just crept into the lead again with six points, while Daniel and I had five, Becky and Richard had four.

The next picture didn't come out so bright, for some reason, but should still be viewable. I took this one after Daniel built the last of his settlements, giving him seven points, and realised that he would have to start building cities:


Chris was just ahead, still, with eight points (and plenty of building spots remaining). I had seven, and so did Becky who had a sudden spate of being able to build. Richard only had four points on the board, but had played four knight development cards by this stage, which gave him the 'largest army' and thus six points in all.

Chris was primarily being targetted with the robber, as were Becky and I; Daniel was buying cards since he kept picking up sufficient to give him more than seven in his hand, but not enough to build a city.

Then Daniel's turn came round again. He managed, with some careful trading, to build his first city. So now he had six points on the board, plus the longest street card, giving him eight in all. Richard, Becky and I also had eight each, and Chris had nine. It was really remarkably close....


... except that Daniel then revealed that he had FOUR victory point cards:


He said he'd been quite annoyed when he picked up the first one, as he'd hoped for a knight - wanting to gain the largest army. When he got the second he was quite pleased. When he had the third and fourth, he was pretty amazed.

So Daniel shot ahead to 12 points and won the game, much sooner than we had expected a victory.

Settlers for six again on Monday

It had been over a week since we last played a game of Settlers at Jörn and Sheila's. Various reasons, including the birth of their new baby... but by Monday evening she was three and a half days old, and it was time for another game.

It took us a while to get set up, but it wasn't a bad board. At least, not for the first few people to place settlements. The first was Becky (white), who chose a very nice 5-6-9 intersection, with wood, ore and clay. Exactly what I'd have chosen if I'd gone first. Daniel (green), who went second, chose an 8-9-3 with good access to wood and clay. Richard (red) was third - it wasn't quite so easy for him, but he opted for good numbers (4-5-8) with wood and two ore. Another spot that I would have taken if I could.

I was fourth, and since there were no obviously great spots, I decided to go for numbers. I could have had clay and two sheep, or wood and two wheat. And although wheat is usually more useful than sheep, it looked as if wood was going to be a lot more plentiful than clay. So I wanted to ensure at least some clay in the game. Sheila (brown) then took the 3-5-10 spot, and Jörn (blue) took the second intersection I had considered, with wood and two wheat. He also took the 4-8 on wheat and clay, next to the desert, meaning he was lacking both sheep and ore. There really weren't many good spots for second placement - those with good numbers bordered either the sea or the desert. Sheila was at least able to get access to all five resources; since I couldn't get wood and two wheat, I opted for wood and one wheat near the sea. I don't like to start the game without any ore, but hoped I might reach the 4-ore hex before too long.

Richard took a spot that made sense for him, though it meant that Sheila's second street was wasted; since he'd picked up street resources with his second spot, and would play before her, he could clearly take the path she had planned on. Daniel, like Sheila, was able to find somewhere with more good numbers which gave him access to all five resources -at least in theory - and Becky then took a spot that didn't have great numbers, but potential for all resources.


In the first few rounds, a surprising number of 3s were rolled, and quite a few 8s. With some judicious trading, Daniel was able to get in the lead - including building the first two cities of the game, as well as buying quite a few cards. Here's the game when he had already reached 6 solid points:


Jörn and I both had four points, Richard and Sheila each had three, and Becky was still stuck on two points at this stage. Her numbers simply weren't coming up.

Then Daniel built enough streets to get the 'longest road' card. He was WAY ahead, although he didn't expect to keep that one. But at this stage, he had - in all - eleven points:


Jörn was second with eight points, Becky - who had suddenly done rather better - had six, Sheila and I both had five, and Richard had four. If one of Daniel's cards had been a victory point, he would have totally creamed the rest of us.

But Richard quickly took the longest street card. Just as well, since Daniel built another city and had ten solid points. So did Becky:


Jörn had nine points, Sheila and I both had seven, as did Richard (including the longest street, which he was pretty certain to keep).

Then some 9s and 10s were rolled. I did worry that I might lose half my cards to the robber; in previous rounds I had ensured that I stayed with no more than seven cards, either by trading away two of them to receive one, or buying a card. But I really needed to build some cities. I was lucky. My turn came around, and I didn't roll a 7. With a little trading, I was able to buy one city. I then built another on the same round, using two wheat, and nine sheep (since I had a 3:1 harbour)! Now I too had ten points:


Jörn had nine, Sheila had eight, and Richard still had 7. I had now built all four of my cities, and had run out of building spots so the only thing left for me to do was to buy development cards. Which I did - and one of them was a victory point.

However, Daniel had been playing knight cards, and on the next round played his third. So he was presented with the 'largest army' card and the associated two extra points, and was declared the winner:


He seemed a little surprised about it!

Here's the final board, not much different from the previous one other than the robber having been moved by Daniel's knight:


Richard, despite having had such good access to ore, didn't manage even one city in this game.

The Fishermen of Catan (from Traders and Barbarians)

Last night we decided, at last, to try out the first scenario from 'Traders and Barbarians' - another expansion to Settlers of Catan which I'd bought a month earlier in the UK. The first one is called 'The Fishermen of Catan'. It features some extra tiles that are placed on the sea, allowing players to pick up fish tokens if the relevant number is rolled when a settlement or city is built nearby.

So Richard, who was first to play, put his initial settlement on a coastal intersection with 8-wheat, 10-wood, and 6-fish.


And here's how the board looked after our setup phase, and a couple of turns since I forgot to take a photo until after Daniel (brown) had bought another settlement.

Sharp-eyed readers might spot that there is no desert hex; instead there's a lake, which is part of the Fishermen of Catan scenario. The lake is teeming with fish; anyone who builds next to it picks up a fish token if a 2, 3, 11 or 12 is rolled. And while none of those is all that common, the probability - as Daniel pointed out - is actually higher in any one roll than either a 6 or an 8.


Oh, and rather than rolling dice (other than to determine who started) we decided to use the Catan event cards, which are also part of the Traders and Barbarians box.

Becky (blue) quickly managed to build out towards the lake hex, and placed a settlement there. I headed to a 3:1 harbour, and the 9-fish tile. And Richard built a city. So each of us had three points:


It wasn't long before Becky and I also managed a city, and Richard (who did rather well for both ore and wheat) built another city. Becky then shot into the lead by taking the longest street card too. She had 7 points, I had 6, Richard and Daniel each had 5. But it was clear that Daniel would be able to build rather more streets than Becky, if he chose to.


At the top edge of the board Becky had neatly arranged the fish tokens that had been played so far.

What, you might ask, are these fish tokens for?

Well... they're upside down when picked, and can display either 1, 2 or 3 fish. These fish can be used for certain actions on one's turn. Two fish can be used to remove the robber from the board altogether (until a 7 is rolled or a knight played). Three fish can be used to steal a card from another player. Four fish buys a resource of one's choice from the bank. Five fish allow a free street to be built, and 7 fish allow a development card to be bought.

So they're rather useful, and add an extra dimension to the game.

One of the fish cards is an old boot. Whoever picks it up has to gain an extra point to win the game. Except that they can pass it (on their turn) to any other player who has the same or more points than they do.

And when there are no more fish tokens to take, the ones that have been played so far are shuffled and turned upside down again.

Playing with the event cards means that not only are the numbers drawn with true statistical likelihood, there are extra 'events' on some of them. For instance, sometimes we all had to pass a card to the player on our left. Sometimes extra cards were given to the person with the most knights, or the most harbours. And sometimes there was an earthquake:

- which left each of us with a crooked street that had to be mended with a wood and clay, before any more streets could be built.

It wasn't long before Daniel gained the longest street card:


So three of us - Richard, Daniel and I - each had 8 points, and Becky had 7. It was still extremely close. Richard had built all his cities and was rather struggling for streets and settlements. I was picking up a lot of cards, but three times in the game managed to draw a 7 card when I had 8 or more cards in my hand, meaning I lost half of them. It was quite frustrating. I started trading away my excess wherever I could - offering Daniel (who played before me) two cards for one of his, at least twice.

And Daniel, twice, played monopoly cards. Which did at least relieve me of some of my excess.

Then in the next round or two we had high drama, where Becky re-took the longest street card, and Richard and I fought over what was the last potential building spot for both of us. I took it:


- and since I had now built all my cities, I had 11 points. I had nowhere else to build, so had to buy cards from now on. Richard, likewise, could only buy cards; he had 9 points on the board but had already played a knight and was evidently hoping for the largest army. Becky, with the longest street, had 10 points.. and Daniel had 8. Still very closely matched.

Oh, and I had the old boot card, as shown in the next photo. So although I was ahead, I needed two points to win - the same as Becky did.

Then Richard played a third knight. He stole a card from me. Then he played six fish, and stole two more cards from me. If he'd managed to draw a 7 card, he would have taken the last card from my hand...

So now he too had 11 points.


So when my turn came around, I presented him with the old boot card.

But it was a bit pointless, because he gave it straight back to me on his turn.

Then Daniel joined up his two sections of roads, giving him a stretch of 14 and the longest street card. Now he had 10 points, Becky had 9, Richard and I had 11 each. And Daniel still had one potential building spot:


But he didn't need to use it. He built another city on his next turn... and then displayed a victory point development card.


He seemed a little surprised to have won such a tightly-fought game: