I'm the Lady of Catan - all shall kneel before me! (Settlers of Catan)

Member Name: clairestevens

Product:	Settlers of Catan
Date:	21/02/08 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting, well-designed game

Disadvantages: Everyone gets jealous if you keep winning and end up refusing to play with you any more

My husband introduced me to the joys of Settlers of Catan a few years ago and since then my unbeaten record has become something of a bone of contention. I'm desperate to play it, but none of our friends will take me on. The words 'overly competitive', 'ruthless' and 'bloody minded' have, unfairly I think, been bandied about.

Settlers of Catan is a German board game designed by Klaus Teuber and was first published in 1995. Since then it has gone on to enjoy worldwide fame and has won the coveted 'Spiel des Jahr' (Game of the Year) award. The game is aimed at 3 to 4 players, but there are expansion packs available that will let you play with up to six players. The board game doesn't really work with two players, but there is a two-player Catan card game available.

The premise of the game is that you and some friends are the first people to reach the uninhabited island of Catan. You must race against each other to collect resources such as wood, sheep, grain, bricks and ore in order to build roads and settlements and raise armies. Points are available for the player with the largest army and longest road and also for each settlement or city you hold. The first person to achieve ten points wins the game and is crowned Lord (or Lady) of Catan. I have been the undisputed Lady of Catan amongst our social circle for nearly three years!

The board consists of thirty or so hexagon-shaped tiles, each representing an area of land where resources can be found. There is a diagram included in the game suggesting how to lay out your board, but you can also invent your own map of the island. I wouldn't recommend this though, as the only time we attempted this, we must have got the combination wrong somehow and ended up not being able to finish the game.

Each player takes his or her turn to roll two six-sided dice and the number that is rolled determines who receives resources in that round. For instance, if the player whose turn it is rolls an eight, anyone who has a settlement boardering a tile with an '8' on it receives one unit of the resource shown on that tile. You can receive resources even when it's not your turn to roll and similarly you can fail to receive anything even when it's your turn.

The only exception to the dice roll, is when a seven is rolled. Seven is 'The Robber'. The robber is a token that wanders round the board stealing everyone's resources and which ever tile he lands on becomes unproductive until he moves on. If you roll a seven, you get to move the robber to the tile of your choice and steal a resource card from any player whose settlement boarders that tile. That player will not receive any resource cards from that tile until the roober is moved the next time someone rolls a seven.

When it is your turn, you can build roads, settlements and cities as long as you have the neccessary resource cards in your hand. You can also buy a Wild Card with resources. Wild Cards will either show a soldier or an event. The player with the most soldier cards gets two points for having the largest army. Events will give you instructions e.g. 'Year of Plenty - receive a resource card of your choice.'

If you find that you want to do some building but do not have the neccessary resource cards, you can ask other payers to trade with you. This is a purely strategic thing - no one is obliged to trade and you should only do so if it will be an advantage to you. You can also trade in order to forge alliances with other players in a 'I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine' kind of way'. It has been claimed by some (jealous) friends of mine that I have a tendancy to ask people to trade with me only to stitch them up later by hoarding the resources that they need. What can I say? You don't get to be Lady of Catan by being nice to people.

And that's pretty much it. Like I said earlier, I LOVE Settlers of Catan and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. Once you have mastered the basic rules, it will provide hours and hours of fun for you and your friends.

Settlers of Catan is available from Amazon and game shops such as Forbidden Planet and Leisure Games. The basic set is around £22 and expansion sets are around £12 each.

Summary: Definitely worth looking out for