The Settlers of Catan
by Mayfair Games
|
List Price: Our Price: $33.59 You Save: $8.41 (20%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $25.00 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
|---|
Toys and Games Reviews of The Settlers of Catan
Customer Review: I found FREE stuff for Catan
Summary: 5 Stars
We'll keep buying from Amazon because the prices are much better, but there are printable on-line instuctions, hints & free variations from the game's inventor available (including rules & pieces you can print & paste on cardboard) at Mayfair Games. There are also some variations from some other people, but at my house we're going to stick with the inventor's versions because his seemed better. Making the new pieces is how I spent my lunch break today. It's not too hard to get the right size & color if you scan the blowup of the piece (which will be way too big) & then downsize & adjust the color with the scanner program. We played the game with my new volcano piece this evening.
We would easily give it all 5 stars, except it would be nice if the carboard were a little thicker or laminated. I do like the wood pieces. They're like the OLD Monoply houses.
If anyone remember the Bookshelf Games that were popular in the late 60's & early 70's, (yes, you really can be that old & still like board games)this is like a cross of the best parts of Feudal, Stocks & Bonds, & Acquire. Those games gave two transplanted Texas something to do during 3 long & very cold Wisconsin winters 30-some years ago, but this game has the best elements of each of those.
I played the trial of this game on-line & enjoyed it, so I bought the board game to play with my son & daughter-in-law. It's long, but not too long. We all like it very much, even though so far my son wins almost always. We are making it harder for him to win as we work out our own stragedy. The cool thing is, every game layout is different, so every time we play it's really a fresh start. We invited a neighbor to play yesterday. At first she looked bored & confused, but after the first game she happily stayed for the second round & when that was over, she said she'd like to play again soon. Suprisingly, playing with four took less time than playing with three, even though we stopped several times to explain the game.
Yesterday I ordered the combination of fish, river, & extra cards to have more choices & we're anxiously waiting for them to arrive. It looks like I'm going to have to get the expansions as soon as my budget allows since other family members have asked when they can play. Anyway, I think it's a great family game for about age 10 & up, depending on the child's ability & attention span. A kid who can sit still for a while to read a book and who has some mathematical ability could play as well as an adult, but it's took long & involved for the kids who can only sit still for a fast action video game. That's my best Grandma type advice, anyway.
Happy settling!
Customer Review: Wow...what a great little game...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'd read a little bit about this game on the Penny Arcade blog. They seemed to like it so I figured I'd try it out one day. I finally bought it (along with the Cities and Knights and Seafarer's expansions) and played it with a friend of mine.
It seems a bit simple at first (a 20 or so grid board with wooden play pieces) and the rules seem complicated but once you get the hang of it, the game becomes a lot of fun.
It's essentially a board/table-top version of a small part of a Civ game. You have a grid of plots that each have different terrain. That terrain translates to a resource (i.e. a Forest gives you Wood, a Field gives you Grain, etc.). You place numbered disks on each plot which correspond to numbers on a 2d6 roll (2-12, except for 7). When that number comes up, any player with a settlement on the edge of the plot that has the number rolled gets a resource (in the form of cards in a deck). You can then take resources to build more settlements, cities and roads. You can also buy a card from the Development deck which is slanted towards one type of card unfortunately (the Knight) but some of the cards let you do stuff like buy something for less, steal resources from other players and the like.
There is this robber concept where a robber sits on a desert plot and, when 7 is rolled, is moved by the player who rolled that 7. The robber cleans out anyone with more than 7 resource cards (you ditch half back to the deck) and then the player who rolled the 7 gets to take a card from a player adjacent to the plot where the robber is now located. Also, resources cannot be drawn from the plot the robber is on. It creates an interesting dynamic in the game and throws a nice curve into gameplay.
The ultimate goal is to get 10 victory points which you get by having settlements (1 VP), cities (2 VP), and any bonuses from the Development deck or by having the largest army (most knight cards above 3) or the longest contiguous road on the map.
You can make the game a bit better (in my opinion) by getting the Catan: Cities & Knights Expansion - New 4th Edition!!!!! expansion which evolves the game play a bit more.
In terms of the contents of the box, the wooden pieces are a bit retro but they're nicely made. The cards are solid (not flimsy) and the game board is made of solid cardboard. I've seen some pretty cheap implementations of games and game components and this one looks solid if a bit retro.
Customer Review: Wonderful board game that I would recommend to practically everyone.
Summary: 5 Stars
When you first open Catan, you may be a little underwhelmed by the prevalence of cardboard pieces (I wish there was a more durable wood version of the board tiles) and the seemingly complicated rule book. I admit, there were a few minor questions it didn't answer that I had to go to the website to figure out from the Q&A section.
With that being said: Never fear! The positives far outweigh those criticisms.
The rule book covers all of the basics you'll need to know to start playing, and, after giving it a good read through, you should be ready to play, even if only one person has the time to read it. Everyone I've played with learns quickly from my basic description of the rules and picks up the rest naturally and intuitively throughout the game. For some reason, the new person to play the game always seems to win in the games I play. Perhaps that speaks poorly of my Catan skills, but, on a positive note, it has contributed greatly to the game's popularity with my friends. You can use a suggested set-up for new players and then after a game or two you can try more advanced set ups... that is a random set up of the board. The coolest thing about Catan is simply that unlike Monopoly the board changes every time you play if you set up the tiles randomly (see the above illustration provided by Amazon). It makes each game challenging and unique and fun to play.
Warning, the game can be a little cutthroat as you vie with other players to occupy the best areas of the board and as you use the "robber" piece to steal cards from other players. Still, everyone's had fun with it and there are ways to adjust the game to make it suitable for kids to play too without hurt feelings.
This is the first "Euro" style strategy game I have ever played and I already think it is much better than Risk, though I'd still give "Diplomacy" the edge in terms of my favorite strategy board game. This game is hands down better than your typical American game, from Monopoly to Life, and a nice change of pace from the games that seem to be most popular with the 20s crowd these days: Cranium, Scene-It, and Banagrams.
Also, you can play this game with two players as there is an official variant designed by Klaus Teber himself available online with some searching. Still, I'd recommend playing with 3-4 if at all possible because the two player version is not as interactive in that the voluntary trading phase of each player's turn doesn't exist and is replaced by a forced trading mechanism using tokens.
Customer Review: Stanley Two-Brick
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this game last year after being introduced to it by a friend while going to university. I brought it over the following Thanksgiving to play with the family (2 sibilings in their late twenties and my parents in their 50's) and it ended up being the highlight of the holiday. We bought the seafaring expansion pack and we were all hopelessly addicted. Now my parents are calling me up all the time asking me to come visit them so they can get the 3-person needed to play! I am happy to oblige.
The game can take a little while to set up if you are still familiarizing yourself with the game. A game usually last about two hours as we do a lot of laughing and carrying-on with ridiculous, corny Settler in-jokes we've come up with, but it seems to go by pretty fast and we are usually ready to play another game or two. The randomness of the board layout and their being multiple ways to win has kept the game interesting. The introduction of the seafaring expansion as also been a great addition to the game. We are all eager to try other expansions.
I was a bit disappointed in the durability of the resource cards. Resource cards are constantly going from the bank to your hands and back to the bank. They started to show quite a bit of wear after about four months of playing. We ended up just lamenating them instead of having to buy new ones. The rest of the game pieces are durable and I don't expect to ever need to replace them. Makes sure you keep track of all those small wooden city and road pieces! They are small and could easily be lost.
Also, the cost of the game is a bit high. If you find that you really enjoy Settlers, you're probably going to want to buy some of the expansions, which are all priced just as high as the game itself. Although the Seafaring expansion has been great fun, it only came with the various colored ship pieces, some more water and land hexes and the manual which had some senarios and outlined a few new game mechanics. It didn't certainly didn't seem like enough to me, but the game has become even more fun with the new game mechanics. If you want to play with a fifth or sixth person, you have to buy another expansion set for the core game as well more for any expansions you have. It's a fairly pricey game if you want to get some of the expansions, but I think it is totally worth it if you do find it addictive and fun.
Customer Review: Game board lacking but still worth the money for its hours of fun
Summary: 5 Stars
If you can ignore the atrocious production quality of the game board (or lack thereof), you will discover one of the most fun, easy-to-learn, yet frustratingly challenging board games ever created. I never knew a board game could offer this sort of a gnarly test of strategic thinking.
Players assemble the game board using card board hexes, each of which represents a specific type of resource such as wood, brick, ore, etc. Since the hexes are randomly arranged, the resources are in different locations every game. Each resource hex is then assigned a production value (using pog-like tokens with the numbers 2-12 on them to correspond to the rolls of two six sided dice). These tokens or chits as they are called in the game are also randomly placed on the hexes and then players begin establishing their settlements, trying their best to locate where resources have high production values and are varied enough so that one is not stuck with only one type of resource. Once initial settlements are placed, players roll the dice in hopes that the numbers corresponding to their location will come up to produce resources for them. As the resources pour in players build roads, settlements, cities (upgrades from a settlements that double resource production), or development cards with special properties that can give advantages to whoever plays them. Players are allowed to trade resources with each other, with the bank, or at ports which give special trading advantages depending on the type of port. Eventually, after enough roads, settlements, cities, and development cards have been placed, one player has accomplished enough within the game to have accumulated the 10 victory points needed to win.
Although the dice bring variance into the game, a player's decisions do matter and better decisions usually prevail. But the dice can level the playing field enough that a newer player can beat someone who is more familiar with the game.
This game will probably eventually become a classic and hopefully will find its way to the shelves of more mainstream retail stores. Board game players will find here a much more engaging experience than they would with a game like Monopoly and while this game is difficult to compare with something like Scrabble or even chess, backgammon, etc., it deserves a place with all of those in your library of games.