Roads & Boats For Three

I was able to organize a longer game today. We ended up playing roads and boats, which was certainly welcome. I bought the game back in 2006 and played the only game so far back in 2005, so I'd say it was about time. Olly and Robert joined me, Robert had played back in 2005 and Olly was a newbie.
A quick rules explanation during the setup and off we went. This is a pleasingly simple game to explain, considering how difficult the game actually is. This time we didn't make the same mistake mixing mountains and rocks, so we got mines and gold a lot better. Still, that's all we did. I was just about to build my first coal burner when the game was over. Robert won with almost 100 points, he had four gold and rest of the points from the wonder. I pretty much chose to lose, as I decided to skip the wonder rush and try to actually build something.
There was also a lot more fighting this time. Olly and Robert started building walls pretty soon. I was laughing, but then Olly rushed to my areas with a wagon and a donkey, straight to my brick yard. Ouch. I was able to seize initiative, though, and build, what, six or seven walls on my areas. If I hadn't, Olly would've built those walls and that would've been the end of my game, period.
I need a lot more practice. I'm pretty good at antiquity after just six games, but roads and boats is still a mystery to me. With just few of these four hour slots each year (our game took 3.5 hours with rules explanation, setup and packing), getting roads and boats routine is going