Has anyone here every played Settelers of Catan?

Question

i've played the board game many times with my family...we're a little obsessed, but i just found a way to play online. Has anyone ever played it?

Answer 1

Oh yea for sure.  Its a really great game, or was, its been around a while.  Seafarers is really cool too and way worth the investment.  I think its a lot of fun.  Never played online though...

Answer 2

Settlers of Catan is a good, solid game and a great introduction to the wide world of games beyond those sold at mass-merchant retailers (e.g. Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, and the endless litany of Monopoly re-themes).  While I like Settlers well enough, I do find that the use of dice makes the game a little more random and unpredictable than I like.  For example, in a recent game, I had settlements on each of the 6-hexes.  Over the course of 12-or-so dice throws, 6 did not come up once, but 10 was thrown about six times (and unfortunately, I was not on a 10-hex).  This randomness can be mitigated by using a Dice Deck (basically a deck that has all of the permutations of dice throws in it, so all combinations will come up, though with a shuffled deck, the order will be different).

In addition to Settlers of Catan, here are some other "gateway" games that I enjoy:

1) Bohnanza (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/11) is a card game that uses trade and negotiation. Basically, players are bean-field planters (Bohn is German for "bean", so the title is a terrible pun). The key to the game is that there is no hand re-arrangment, so the cards in your hand are a queue that you will eventually need to plant, or trade with other players. The trading is important, because that is your way to get beans you don't want to plant out of your queue, while getting the beans you do want from other players. Plays 3-6 players, though it hits a sweet spot at 4-5. 25-45 minutes. Available online or at specialty game shops.

2) Power Grid - (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2651) This one is a great game of resource management and planning. Players are building networks that power cities. Players purchase power plants at auction, then buy the raw materials (e.g. oil, coal, garbage, uranium) that power these plants. Then after expanding the powered networks, the players use the raw materials to provide power to the cities and get income. It's a very good game where planning and positioning will reward a player. 3-6 players. 70-100 minutes. Available online and at specialty game shops. (The #2 game on BoardGameGeek.com).

3) Ticket to Ride - Germany's Game of the Year 2005. (BoardGameGeek.com entry for Ticket to Ride - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9209). Though it doesn't have negotiation or trading aspects that you enjoy in Settlers, I still think you would enjoy this game. This is a great game for families and groups of friends. Players get points by building routes across a map of the United States by collecting and playing colored train cards that correspond to the routes. In addition to getting points for the length of the routes played, each player has secret goals of destinations that need to be linked by their train cars, and players who complete their secret goals receive bonus points at the game's end. Available online or at specialty game stores (and some Toys R Us). 2-5 players, 45-75 minutes.

In addition to those, there are two expansions that change the Settlers game a bit, Seafarers of Catan introduces sea routes and alternate board set-ups, and Cities and Knights gives further depth into the game with management of knights to move the robber around, as well as city improvements. I haven't played either, so I can't give you a recommendation here.

There is a wealth of board game information for you over at BoardGameGeek.com, including many more recommendations like these. Some 1500-2000 new games and expansions come out every year that aren't Monopoly, Life, or Trivial Pursuit.

Answer 3

A truly excellent game. One of the best ever made. Ther are a ton of expansions out for it look them up over at www.boardgamegeek.com