Das Spiel Des Jahres 1995 ist Unheimlich Gut! (Settlers of Catan)

Member Name: fromage

Product:	Settlers of Catan
Date:	11/10/06 (201 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: German board game of the year, 1995!

Disadvantages: Appears dauntingly complex at first

The Settlers of Catan is a smashing little boardgame for 3 to 4 players. Devised by Klaus Teuber, and originally called "Die Siedlers" it won the coveted Spiel Des Jahres (German board game of the year) award in 1995. Soon after that it was released in England and has been in print ever since, albeit only available in specialist game shops. The game board is made up of hexagonal tiles, which, put together in the shape of a bigger hexagon surrounded by sea, represent the island of Catan.

Catan is rich in resources: sheep graze in verdant meadows, there are acres of lush forest, fields and fields of golden wheat, huge clay deposits for the making of bricks, and lofty mountains rich in ore. Its coastline also boasts numerous harbours where merchant ships from other lands can safely make landfall, and trade with the islanders. The island is occupied by tribes, who are competing to become the dominant civilisation. Being peaceable folk they are not doing this through force of arms, but by trading among themselves to gain resources to build cities, long roads, libraries and universities. When one tribe's accomplishments are so great as to eclipse the others, then the head of that tribe, by universal acclaim, shall be decreed the ruler of Catan.

The box contains:

Instruction booklet
Strategy booklet
37 hexagonal tiles (19 land, 18 sea)
18 circular tiles marked a - r, each also bearing a number that may be rolled on two dice
1 wooden robber piece
4 sets of wooden pieces representing roads, villages and cities
4 construction cost cards
Resource cards
Development cards
Longest road card
Largest army card
Two six-sided dice

The first thing to do when starting play is to set out the board. the person doing this must separate out the land and sea tiles, then shuffle each pile. Then the land tiles are laid out in a hexagon, and the sea tiles laid out to surround the island. The land tiles are of six different types: meadow, forest, plains, hills, mountains, or desert. The sea tiles are either open water or ports. The circular tiles are laid out in alphabetical order on every land tile, except the desert, so every non-desert land tile has a number on it that could be rolled on two dice. Finally, the robber is placed on the desert hex. One person setting up the board takes about ten minutes. Because the tiles are shuffled before being laid, the board is always different for each game.

Each of the players takes control of one of the tribes of Catan. Tribes are represented on the board as wooden pieces of different colours indicating their settlements and the roads that join them together. Settlements (villages, which can be upgraded later to cities) are placed on the corners of land hex tiles, roads are placed on the edges. Resources are collected according to the disposition of a tribe's settlements. For every land tile that is adjacent to one of their settlements a tribe has, each turn, a chance of drawing a resource card corresponding to the type of tile in question. Resource cards can be traded in to buy more settlements, roads, cities, or pay for things like soldiers or libraries. Everything built or bought contributes to the accumulation of victory points. The first player to get ten victory points wins.

Each player must select a starting position. This is probably the most important decision of the game, and is worth agonising over to as great an extent as your fellow players will tolerate. As I mentioned, every land tile has a little numbered circular tile sitting on it. Every turn the dice are rolled, and any land hex bearing the number that is rolled on the dice yields up a resource card to any player who has a settlement adjacent to it. As the students of probability among you will know, certain numbers are more likely to be rolled on two six sided dice than others. As such the smart player tries to get his settlements next to the tiles which yield resources on the roll of six or eight, and shun the two and the twelve ("But what of seven?" I hear you cry, "that is the most commonly rolled number on two dice!" Well, when a seven is rolled something different happens, of which more later). Given that where your first settlements go dictates how quickly you can start building, it's important to secure the best place possible.

Once the starting places have been determined, the game begins. Turns pass clockwise between players, and each player's turn is divided into segments.

First the dice are rolled. If anything other than a seven is rolled then the players lucky enough to be due resource cards draw them. If a seven is rolled, then the robber comes into play. The robber is not a romantic, Robin Hood type figure. He is a sincere and commited pest. First, if any player is holding more than seven resource cards unspent in their hand, he steals half of them, and they must be returned to the deck. Then, he must be moved, by the player who rolled the seven. He can only be placed on a land tile, and while he squats malevolently thereon, indulging in his pillage and rapine, no resource cards can be gained from that tile. To add insult to injury, the player placing the robber then gets to steal one resource card from the hand of any player who has a settlement adjacent to the tile the robber is on. The only way for the victim of the robber to end his depradations is to roll a seven, or to buy and play a soldier card.

Then, the player whose turn it is may propose trades of resource cards with the other players. A word or two more about resource cards is probably called for here. Players can receive five types of resource card: sheep, wood, wheat, bricks, and ore. The different resources can be used to buy different things (the handy construction costs card, of which each player has a copy, tells what can be built and what is needed to build it). As an example, building a road needs one brick resource card, and one wood resource card. What resources a player receives depends on where his settlements are, and it's nigh impossible to secure a steady supply of everything you need just by the luck of the dice. So players may trade with each other. Honesty is mandated, but otherwise it's a free market. Trading is particularly useful in the early stages of the game, but later on particularly successful players may find themselves subject to an embargo, as everyone tries to deny them the resource they need to gain those last victory points. If you can't get a fair trade from a fellow player the game allows for any player to trade four of one resource type for one resource card of their choice. And if you manage to control a port (by building a settlement next to it) you can obtain more favourable trading terms from overseas traders.

After that, the player finally gets to spend their resources on building or buying things. Available for purchase are roads (needed to connect settlements), villages (which, of course, allow players to collect more resource cards), cities (which are upgrades for villages, and allow the player to draw more resource cards from a tile), and development cards (which have varied effects, but which are always beneficial - most are soldiers). Early in the game most people want to buy roads and villages, so there is usually fierce trading for the wood and brick cards needed to build them. Later on, as space runs out on the board (villages can only be placed on a player's own road, and cannot be adjacent to any other settlement, so the board tends to get crowded, particularly in four player games), players tend to concentrate on cities, and development cards, so the market becomes more open, but no less tricky. Dare you trade with your closest competitor, knowing you might be giving them the last card they need to build a city?

Once the building segment is over, the dice are passed to the next player, and he gets to do all of the above. The game ends when one player gains ten victory points. Villages are worth one victory point each, cities two. Roads on their own, none, but the first player to build a road five sections in length gets the longest road card, which is worth two victory points. Another player must then build a longer road to take the card. Development cards occasionally have victory point values, and there is also the largest army card, which goes to the first player to buy and use three soldier type development cards. As with the longest road, this is worth two victory points, and another player may take the card later by playing more soldiers. The length of time it takes to accumulate ten points varies from game to game, but the game rarely takes less than an hour, and hardly ever more than two hours.

As you, patient reader, have doubtless already discerned, the mechanics of the game sound, to the uninitiated, pretty complex. Having explained the rules to numerous people in the past, their first reaction is usually consternation, which develops to bug-eyed stupefaction as the recital progresses. But, fortunately, Settlers is far easier to play than it is to explain. Setting up the board is probably the trickiest bit, but is soon learned with practice, and the rules also include a suggested board layout for those new to the game. After a couple of turns even new players are able to keep up with what's going on.

Playing the game is almost invariably a delight. There's no conflict on the board - no burning of cities or clash of armies, which promotes a similarly peaceful mindset mong the players. The worst that can happen is that someone will plant the robber on your most productive tile, or break your longest road with a settlement. And if you're not big enough to take that kind of reversal without anything but the most trifling of sulks then you've no place anywhere near a boardgame anyway. The enforced honesty in the trading round also adds to the benificent air of love and trust among the players. And, even if you're scuppered in some way, by a bad starting position, or consistently unlucky dice rolling, there's always something to do - the next road to build, the next city. I won't say I've never played a game where one player or the other has ended up completely stuck and justifiably lost interest, but it doesn't happen often. For simple enjoyment it's one of the most consistently rewarding games I've played, and I've yet to introduce it to anyone who's actively disliked it.

Casting around for a criticism, I suppose Settlers might be a bit bloodless for some people's tastes. It's a feelgood game for all concerned, but I suppose not everyone who plays boardgames wants their opponents to feel good. For some victory tastes all the sweeter knowing that, for the vanquished, defeat has the savour of bitter ashes. And building a long road certainly doesn't stir the passions like, say, crushing an opponents largest army into dust in Risk, or launching a blitzkrieg panzer assault in Axis & Allies. But if your enjoyment of boardgames is limited to a selfish desire for personal aggrandisement, it's probably better for all concerned if you stick to playing with yourself.

Settlers is priced at around the £25 mark, and is freely available on the internet. It's also available in certain, mainly specialist game shops. It's for 3 or 4 players, ages 12 or up. There is an expansion that allows it to be played with 5 or 6 players.

Summary: Fun, absorbing boardgame with a peaceful, hippy sensibility.