Review by This Christmas my aunt showed up with a new-to-us board game. The Settlers of Catan. Apparently the game is ten years old and we’re really just catching on to it now. The basic game goal is to get 10 points before anyone else. You do this by collecting resources that you use to build your empire.
The game is fun. We played it many times over the holidays and it never seemed to get old. We liked it so much that we went out and bought the game and its “expansion pack”. The game itself is limited to four players. The expansion pack allows 5-6 players. The expansion pack is quite expensive for what you get.
One of the best features of the game is that you never know how the board will be set up. Much like shuffling a deck of cards, you shuffle the board pieces and place them randomly. Every board comes with strengths and weaknesses and a player needs to be able to look at the board and figure out his or her own strategy. It can be very challenging and often frustrating to be beaten by someone to a strategy or simply make a mistake and get cornered in.
The game is good. The first time playing is often confusing as there are a number of rules. Be patient. The game is worth playing again. The more you play it the better you become and the more you enjoy it.
The only downside to the game is a by-product of the game design. The board pieces are all separate and tend to wander while playing the game. You have to play on the game board quite carefully as it’s easy to disturb it and mess the game up.
Get it, play it, like it.
Copyright © 2004-2008 silverorange. All rights reserved.
The more stuff you own, the less happy you will be - so be sure and own good stuff!
Comments
Roel - January 17, 2006 6:19 pm
Settlers is indeed quite an old game. There was a time, in 2000 - 2002 when we would play it a couple of times a week. During my co-op period in Victoria (BC), I discovered that a roommate was one of the few Canadians who owned the game. Within a couple of weeks everyone in our house had turned into Settlers addicts and we played it almost every night for 4 consecutive weeks! :)
If you start playing it that often, getting the Seafarers or Cities and Knights extensions will be essential. It really adds something extra once you have gotten used to the 'normal' game.
Have fun playing! ;)
Rob - January 31, 2006 3:13 pm
If you nab the <i>Cities and Knights</i> expansion, it comes with a big puzzle-piece-interlocking frame you can lay your board into. That keeps it from sliding around.
You can ALSO get a 5-6 player expansion. So, for like 50 bucks you can solve two of the listed bad things... possibly not at the same time. Then you'd need the <i>Cities and Knights 5-6 Player Expansion</i>, too, I have no idea if that comes with a frame, but it won't fit in the original one, so now we're at $70. <i>Seafarers</i> might come with a frame, I've never seen it. The moral of the story: board games eat nerds' paycheques. So do videogames, but that's been okay now for a few years.
Jasen - July 1, 2007 3:46 pm
I'm fairly certain you know this but the review seemed to indicate that the base game can only be played with 4 people. You can actually play the game with 3, which some people prefer as there is more space on the board to expand one's network of roads and cities.
doordfaurnorp - January 14, 2008 8:50 pm
Make peace, not war!
Tao - October 10, 2008 1:33 pm
Just to note, the new 2007 editions all have frames that come together very nicely. And if you have the older pre-2007 versions, there's actually an adapter kit available.