"Insert snappy title of your choice here" (Settlers of Catan)

Member Name: defiler

Product:	Settlers of Catan
Date:	14/05/01 (235 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Random game board ensures each game is a little different, Great mix of luck and skill, Fun!

Disadvantages: Often fairly expensive to buy, Takes time to setup, Not available to buy from everywhere

The Settlers Of Catan is a board game which places players on the newly populated island of Catan. Though I have only really been recently introduced to it I would say it is easily one of the better board games I have played, the game was named German game of the year in 1995 and with a good mix of strategy and skill it is great for players of any skill. Its randomly set-up board also ensures that each game played will be at least a little different from the last.

--Game setup--
The game takes a while to setup as each time you play the board itself is made differently. It is constructed through the use of hexagon shaped tiles, each representing a different type of land type/sea type/harbour. Together they make up an island that is of a fixed shape each time (5 hexes in the middle of the board with 4 hexes on each side and 3 hexes on each side of the 4 hexes all surrounded by sea/harbours). The game is setup by first seperating the land and sea hexes, the land hexes are then mixed up and then randomly used to construct the board, the sea hexes are then used to surround the land hexes. After this is done you have the usual setup of games which involves giving each person their cities (in the form of churches), settlements (in the form of small houses) and roads (in the form of a small rod), shuffling the development cards (as you would with community chest in monopoly) and seperating the material cards (much as you would money in monopoly). Once all this is completed and you roll the dice to see who goes first the game can begin.

--Players--
The basic game is best suited for 4 players but can be played fairly well with 3, although it can also be played with 2 players, playing it like this seems to mainly consist of rolling the dice and there is so much space on the hexes to build your settlements that you can build where you like rather than having other players blocking you and adding a bit of excitement to the game.

--Basic
Rules--
The way you win the game is to gain a set number of victory points, while this can be changed to suit how you want to play and how difficult you want it to be (as well as how long the game lasts) in general this will be around 10-12. You gain victory points through accomplishing various things, a settlement is worth 1, a city is worth 2, the longest trading route is worth 2, the largest knight force is worth 2 and a victory point card is worth 1. The game is started with the first player placing a settlement and a road on the game board, the next player then places theirs until you get to the last player, this then goes backwards with the last player placing another settlement and road and working back to the first player who finally places their second settlement and road (so each player gets 2 settlements and 1 road next to each of these settlements to start off with). This is in a way part of setup but I would really consider this to be done when you are actually starting the game itself.

After this you roll the 2 dice, each land hex will have a number next on it (except the desert which produces no resources), if your settlement is next to a hex which has just had its number rolled you gain 1 material of the type that land produces (forest=lumber, pasture=wool, farmland=grain, hills=bricks & mountains=ore), if you roll a 7 you get to move the robber. Moving the robber basically allows you to stop one hex producing any resources (so you want to place it next to someone who is currently in a good position or on a hex that will affect multiple people at once) and also draw a card from a person of your choice who has a settlement/city next to the hex you placed the robber on, as well as this anyone with 7 or more material cards must get rid of 1/2 of them.

The fact that each player will be interested in every dice roll as it can affect them just as much as the person rolling the dice adds a bit of intensity to each dice throw and
ensures that players remain interested in the game even when it isn't their turn.

At the end of any go you may build a road/settlement, upgrade a settlement to a city (which will gain 2 resources from any hex next to it rather than just 1 as well as gain you an extra victory point), buy a development card or trade with the bank/harbour/players. Each player receives a card which states the cost of building/buying each of these things which makes it harder to forget what exactly you need.

If you wish to build a new settlement it must be at least 2 "lines" away from every other city (a line along the edge of a hex) and be connected to another of your settlements by a road. A development card can give you an advange in some way such as allowing you to use a knight (acts like a robber without the discarding of cards and if you have played the most of these cards and at least 3 you gain 2 victory points), gain a victory point or do one of a number of other things explained on the card (in German in this case, but luckily with a quickly written english translation of the cards on paper :).

Trading is an important part of the game as often you will find you simply don't have the correct materials to be able to build/buy something you want but have lots of another material. Trading can be done in a number of ways, you can either trade with the bank swapping 4 cards of the same material for one new material of your choice, if you have a settlement/city next to a port that isn't a specialist port you get to trade 3:1 instead of 4:1. If you have a settlement next to a specialist port you get to trade at 2:1 but only with the resource listed on the port itself which is great if you have lots of that resource but useless if that is the resource you were needing. Often the best way of trading however is with other players, you can often get a much better exchange rate but risk giving away what materials you are needing and als
o giving the advantage to another player by giving them materials they need.

Once you get to the number of victory points stated the game is won.

--Skill--
Unlike many board games there is some amount of skill required in this game and while it is nowhere as near as much as in a game of something like chess it is more (in my opinion anyway) than something like backgammon or monopoly. The skill comes from determining what to build and where to build them, preventing other people from getting points in various ways (for example if someone needs just a few points to win and looks as though they may soon have the longest road in the game you can attempt to either block the road off or build a longer one yourself), trading wisely and generally trying to do things as efficiently as possibly. The strategy you can use is often on a basic level and some things, such as trying to build your first settlements in a position that will get you as many types as resources as often as possible rather than somewhere where you have next to no chance of getting anything. As the board is setup in a different way every game then you have to adopt your tactics to fit the game itself and you can't rely on finding the "best" location just once.

--Luck--
While many parts of the game do use skill there is also a large amount of luck in the game (and probably the only reason that I would ever win :). Even if it looks like you are in a good position and may get a resource almost every time you can find that dice throws that should be unlikely can sometimes occur very often while dice throws that should be common can never occur leading someone who should technically be in a worse position to gain more materials than you. There is also the problem that while everyone else may be getting the materials they need to build what they want, you may be getting things you have no need for and find that no-one is willing to trade with you. There are
lots of other parts of the game that involve luck but it's to be expected that almost any game which involves the throwing of dice will be reliant on at least a little luck to win.

--Winning--
Somehow getting to a set number of victory points to win doesn't quite give the game the same sort of ending that is found in other games where you can tell the person has won at a glance. This takes little away from the playing of the game but in my opinions means the ending is slightly less interesting than in a game such as monopoly. As I said though it takes little away from the game and the actual playing of the game can be much more fun than the other games mentioned.

--Variants--
Due to the popularity of the game a number of variants have been made which claim to make refinements to the rules and try to make the game more fun to play with a certain number of players. The only real variant I have tried is a 2 player one and that didn't really work that well, but it's hard to make a game that is so fun to play with 4 players work well with fewer and it is unlikely that any variant that worked well would actually resemble the original game that much.

--Expansion sets--
The game has a number of expansion sets that can extend the length/number of players in a game. One expansion set for example allows up to 8 players at a time while another introduces new land types and ships. As I have no real experience with these expansion sets I can't make much of a comment, however from what I have heard they will add to some peoples experience of the game quite a bit while other people simply didn't feel they really added anything to the game and actually made it less interesting to play than in normally was.

--Computer version--
A computer version of this game is downloadable from the internet that allows play either online or on a LAN, if you can find enough players to create a game with then this is wel
l worth looking for, if you can't however the game has no AI and therefore you will be unable to really play alone. As well as this I have seen mention of a number of play-by-email games that have been setup, whether they are fun to play or not I am unsure but it's worth a try if you enjoy the game.

---Conclusion---
This is an excellent game that is well worth looking out for, the rules may at first seem a little complicated but they really are quite simple once you get used to them and within a game or two you should know how to play properly, although it might take a little longer to be able to play to the best of your ability. The game has an excellent mix of skill and luck required which means that while you can use some strategy while playing, even the best player can lose if they are unlucky, this mix is great for people who don't enjoy pure chance games but also good for people who hate games that require huge amounts of thinking.

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