An EXCELLENT game for all the world (Settlers of Catan)

Member Name: cakemaker

Product:	Settlers of Catan
Date:	01/04/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Exciting and unpredictable game

Disadvantages: not enough options for more people to play

I was given the settlers of catan by my husband for Christmas. It was one of those 'filler' presents because he'd got me something expensive and wanted to get a few more things for me to unwrap. I think it's RRP is about £25. When I opened it his first comment was something about it being on special offer and it was OK if I didn't like it.

A few days later we decided to play. Expectations were low as myself, my husband and my father in law sat down round the kitchen table. We read through the rules and set up the board. What then started was the best and most nail-biting game I've played in a very long time, if ever!

The set up is a little bit fiddly because you have to place a lot of tiles into a frame, and make them stay there. This is because the game can be randomised by shuffling the tiles and placing them randomly. It does make set up a slightly lengthy process though.

As the game is played each player collects resources (wool, ore, grain, wood and clay) and uses them to build settlements, cities and roads. These structures earn you points and the first to 10 is the winner. It sounds easy enough but some of the points can move about fairly fast. e.g. the road points are 2 to the person with the longest road and that can change so 2 points might move at a crutial point in the game.

I found the game very exciting as the points were moving and we were all very close to winning for a long time. We have played many times since that first one and have found that anyone can win. It just takes someone making a wrong move or a particular number on the dice to change things significantly. It's also great for kids because if there is no chance of them winning they can still have smaller aims such as building one more settlement or upgrading one more city.

We love this game, the only drawback is that it can only be played by 4 players. We have invested in the expansion pack to allow it to be played by 6 but this still isn't really quite enough for us.

Summary: It's great, go and buy it, try it and see!