After changing the the number of plots and harvest tokens we have tried the game again. I rebuilt the cards with nanDeck, so at least any changes are now easy. I also created a cheat sheet on the cost of building, and places the build costs on the cards. This has streamlined the game somewhat. However after playing for 1.5 hours last night we were still poring over the cheat sheet. I guess that this will change in time as we get more familiar with the game and know build costs better (Catan is not a 90 minute game the first time you play).
On a positive note, the randomness of the plots available for the village is causing trade, though players can build towards self sufficiency. Having not got as far as building advanced resources, I am guessing that trading will become more apparent again.
