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Posted: **Sat Dec 26, 2009 1:00 pm**

My parents got this for Christmas for everyone coming home.

We played 4 people (none of whom had ever played before), and the game took about 4 hours. We played again later and it took a little less than 2 hours.

The basic idea is to settle an island nation, and get resources to build settlements/cities (which give you more resources), or buy cards that give you special benefits. The winner is the first to get 10 points, with different things giving you points.

A couple of interesting notes about the game: It's intended to be a balanced game, and to make it so that everyone can do something on every turn. The time we played, almost everyone was in the lead at some point. Also, you can trade resource cards, so even if it's not your turn, you can still trade with the player whose turn it is. You can also collect resources on other players' turns.

There are a variety of mechanisms to keep the rich from getting richer: a robber than steals resources cards if you have too many; Cards that allow you to steal; The importance of trading - people can just not trade with the top player, etc.

So far it's been pretty fun. If anyone's played a good online version, I'd be interested in trying it out.

4/5 so far

Posted: **Sat Dec 26, 2009 1:01 pm**

Oh, the balance can be a little frustrating. The first game, I had a setup that would have allowed me to move quite a bit forward, then I lost half my cards, which radically altered my strategy for the rest of the game. So it's hard to plan since there's some random.

Posted: **Sat Dec 26, 2009 11:42 pm**

There is a 360 version that you can download for $10. My copy of the game also came with a free trial of the PC online game for 1 month.

If you enjoy this you might want to try out Carcassonne which is a tile match game where you build roads and citys.

Ticket to Ride: Europe is cool too. You draw cards to connect different cities which earns you points. There is a US map and some Switzerland maps in other versions. The US was the first and is the most basic.

Board Game Geek is a great website for other board games if you end up liking Settlers. Board games with Scott is another good site with this goofy guy who does video reviews of games.

Posted: **Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:01 am**

You can also play these games online for free: http://games.asobrain.com/index.html

The names are different, but the games are the same. Although if you play with the expansions be sure to read up first, Settlers with the expansions is a lot different from the basic game.

Posted: **Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:04 am**

But really, if you liked Settlers, there's a whole lot of other board games you will love. And the best way to try some out is a gaming group. If you are near a university - or even a large community college - there will probably be a board gaming group meeting at least once a month. Go hang out sometime and play some games. Most of the ones I've been to have had good people having a good time and ready and eager to share their favorite games with visitors.

Posted: **Sun Dec 27, 2009 3:15 pm**

The only part I'm not sure about is how random it can be. Superior strategy != guaranteed win.

Posted: **Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:49 am**

True, there are no guarantees, but statistically speaking superior strategy > inferior strategy. There is a random element that is not overcome every game by good strategy, but over multiple games it will make a fairly consistent difference.

Most boardgames will work like that, although the random element changes (dice rolls and drawing cards are the most common). Without that random element, it's just chess with different rules.

Posted: **Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:02 am**

Settlers is also in the gateway game group. Those games tend to have a big random factor in it that helps beginners some.

I guess the idea is that they won't lose each time or at least get their ass kicked and get discourage too soon.

Posted: **Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:27 am**

TPRJones wrote:True, there are no guarantees, but statistically speaking superior strategy > inferior strategy. There is a random element that is not overcome every game by good strategy, but over multiple games it will make a fairly consistent difference.

Most boardgames will work like that, although the random element changes (dice rolls and drawing cards are the most common). Without that random element, it's just chess with different rules.

Right, I'm just trying to figure out how much I do/don't like the amount of randomness. I appreciate some randomness, but there might just be too much in this game.

Grundy's comment helps.

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Settlers of Catan - Boardgame