The Settlers of Catan – Best Price Review
Buy The Settlers of Catan now from Amazon.com
Browse more Games and Puzzles
The Settlers of Catan is the award winning game designed by Klaus Teuber. It is a “german style board” or “Eurogame” if you prefer. The main difference between the two is that American style games usually have more drama, conflict and luck, while German style games have more economic themes focusing on strategy over luck and usually keep all the players in the game until the end. This game makes an ideal family board game because of the fact that no player is knocked out. Even if it becomes clear that you cannot win, you can still try and achieve smaller goals within your range.
The gameplay of the Settlers of Catan is not too complicated, but for beginners, playing the game with the user manual or “almanac” on hand is probably a good idea (actually you will probably need the almanac even if you are not a beginning player. You play the game as a “settler” trying to set up a new colony on a new island named “Catan”. The objective is to build up settlements and then cities and then connect them with roads.
The map is made up of hexagonal squares or “hexes” or different land types. For each settlement and city that you set up you will get “victory points”, once you have collected 10 victory points you win the game.
You will earn resource cards each turn from the hexes that surround your settlements, then you spend those resource cards to build more settlements, cities and the like. Resources such as lumber, wool, ore, grain and brick are received each turn and you roll the dice to determine which of the hexes gives you resources. The “robber token” is a very interesting addition to the game as well and whichever hex the robber is placed on, does not produce resources.
This game falls into the category of “gateway game” which means that it is not as heavy in detail and strategy as a “gamers game” might be. Also the length of time required to play one game is less. The Settlers of Catan usually takes anywhere from 60 – 90 minutes to play. You can play the game with 3 or 4 players as it comes as standard, and with expansion sets the numbers can be from 2 to 5 or 6.
This is a fantastic board game with a randomness that you will only find in truly special games. It is easy to pick up, but it will take a long time to master. I hope that you have found some useful information on this toy from my review.
Thanks for reading.
