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AndrewB

Settlers of Catan

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No, not a video game. It's quite confidently one of the best board games ever made. It involves competing with other players for land and resources on an undeveloped island. Here are its strong points:

- Simple and easy to learn, loved by players of all ages.
- Complex and varied, each game can be richly different.
- Fine-tuned and balanced, gameplay is flawless, everything clicks.
- Colorful, rich, with various strategies and many elements.

The game is laid out with land and water as honeycomb-shaped pieces, various circle pieces laid out on top of the land as numbers between 2 and 12 (except for 7), representing the possible rolls with 2 dice.

It's better to settle next to land with numbers in the 5-9 area, as they are rolled the most often. However, you'll also want to settle next to all 5 resource tiles (wood, brick, mineral, wheat, sheep) if possible. Settlements and roads are built along the corners and edges of the hexagonal tiles, and it makes for a really balanced and well-working game.

If you're into board games, and have friends willing to play with you, go for it. It might cost in the $30-$50 (American) range, but it's worth it as much as any board game could be.

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I have played it also. It was surprisingly fun. But that was up in Albany. I dont know anyone who has it here :(

Speaking of non-video games. Has anyone played a card game called Flux (it might be spelled Phlux, I dont remember)?

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Yes, Catan owns. Make sure you get the expansion sets for it, such as "cities and knights" or "seafarers". BTW, it's also been made into a computer game, but IMO it's more fun against fellow humans.

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I haven't heard of this game, but the description sounds a lot like an old and highly underrated game called Can't Stop.

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Stratego can get a bit stale if you play it too many times.

After a time you will have exhausted all plausible setups and strategies.

I remember we used to play it a lot back in school. At last we tried to blow a bit of life into it by devising some variants that introduced a bit of randomness, forcing us out of the predictability we had grown into.

One was the "rattlebag". First we would take a flag each and put the rest of the pieces into an opaque bag that would then be shaken vigorously. Then we'd take turns to pick a handful of pieces without looking until we all had a full set. The colour of the pieces was insignificant. You could discern them easily by their orientation anyway. I must admit that occationally one would have an unfair advantage, but more often than not it would be rather balanced. Still each army would be different. One could, for example, have a load of scouts, while the other would have more mid-range officers, but would be staggering around blindly. Another fun situation is if one player has two field marshalls and the other has two spies. The game becomes very tactical then.

Another fun variant is the "blind setup". Here you set up your opponent's pieces without looking at their value side. This means that the setups will be more or less totally random. There is a rule, however. If the flag is in the first line it is a redo. Having one bust the flag with a scout at turn one is simply too boring. This really puts back the old feeling of prowling along in unknown terrotory.

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I've played Settlers of Catan. Pretty fun. I was hoarding the sheep. :P Anyway, though I only played one game and it was pretty damn fun, I'm pretty sure it would get a bit old after 10 games or so.

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Mordeth said:

Yes, Catan owns. Make sure you get the expansion sets for it, such as "cities and knights" or "seafarers". BTW, it's also been made into a computer game, but IMO it's more fun against fellow humans.

I just finished a game of Cities and Knights with my brother and a friend. I won (13 points). The friend had 12, brother had 9.

Incredibly unpredictible. You can feel down in the dumps, and end up winning. Just perfectly fine-tuned.

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the_Danarchist said:

I'm pretty sure it would get a bit old after 10 games or so.

yeah i found the replay value to be very poor. pretty good the first few times but it's too simple for my taste, i prefer games like civ and risk.

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Grogglogobofink said:

yeah i found the replay value to be very poor. pretty good the first few times but it's too simple for my taste, i prefer games like civ and risk.

Word. A friend of mine works at a gaming store, so for a while he was bringing home all kinds of neat games. Settlers of Catan was one, LotR Risk was another (first time I played Risk). There have been several other kick ass games he has brought home with him:

Apples to Apples - Each player has a certain number of cards (5 i think) with nouns on them, often in the form of famous people. One plauyer draws an adjective and plays it on the table. All the other players put down one of their nouns which best fit the adjective. Hilarity ensues. Can also be played the other way around. Illustrations by John Kovalic.

Zombies! - You start out in the town square surrounded by zombies and only a shotgun to survive. Each turn, someone puts down a tile representing another city block and zombies to fill it. By playing cards, players can trip up other players, grab a spiffy weapon or vehicle, or even unleash the vile Government Enhanced Zombies. First one to the Helicopter wins.

Flux - This game is pretty bizarre. You start out with no objective and basicaly no rules, but each time someone plays a card, the game changes a little. Games vary from stupidly short to greatly drawn out, but the unpredictability of it all creats a lot of fun.

Munchkin - A kick ass satirical card game for RPG fans. Each turn, you kick down the door of the next room in the dungeon, behind which waits: vile monsters such as the thing the game master made up on the fly, useful items like the 11-foot pole, or curses like the Duck of Doom. First one to 10th level wins. Illustrations by John Kovalic.

One of the cool things about these games is that they all have expansion pack, taking game play further. That seems to be a growing trend in board/card games these days.

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Risk? Man, that game is almost as simple as checkers.

I really can't imagine any board game ever having better replay value than Catan. Try randomizing the land and the number pieces.

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Dude! My new roomates play this quite na bit! Oh rock on man. Now if I can to remember buy resources.

Kick arse.

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AndrewB said:

Risk? Man, that game is almost as simple as checkers.

well it's simple compared to civ, but settlers of catan doesn't have a lot to it either. mostly just about getting good cards and figuring out what direction to build your roads.

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Are you kidding? To get good cards, you have to place your settlements strategically. Then, you have to hope that the dice are rolled in your favor. Due to the erratic/random behavior of dice, the game often swings back and forth, in favor of one player, than another.

I played another game of Cities and Knights today. This was one of the very few games where one player was the clear Wal-Mart. He had a city next to two sheep tiles, both with 5's. AND he had a sheep port. Each time a 5 was rolled, he raked in 2 sheep and 2 cloth. He ended up with 3 megapolises, and won with more points than me and my brother combined.

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AndrewB said:

Are you kidding?

no, but admittedly, i've only played the regular game, not any of the expansions for it. and as you said, a lot depends on dice rolling. too much, imho.

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I don't relate.

Monopoly is fun for a few times, but the game is usually decided in 10 minutes. Not over, but decided. Although it was a worthwhile experience staying up until 2:30 and breaking the bank.

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It's like my roommate, who plays Axis & Allies and can usually call the game after the end of the first complete turn.

I think that playing normal-rules games with alternate gameboards would throw a real wrench in the works...

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