Mark G suggested the rest of us play the Deutschland edition of Settlers so that's what we did as Mark K and Mark W had not played before. Mark W got off to a terrific start although he didn't make many friends with his aggressive tactics, cutting off first me and then Mark G - I think he now has more black marks in Mark G's notebook than any of the rest of us put together. My position, which looked absolutely dire at the start when I was only on 4 points at the same time as Mark W was taking his 8th, slowly improved and eventually I was able to grab the longest road. Although I briefly lost it to Mark K, I managed to grab it back and with an extra VP from one of my development cards was able to claim the win. Good stuff as always but I think I still prefer the original game as the board setup on the Deutschland version restricts the choices on how you can get to the target 10 VPs. You have a bit more freedom with the original.