I am looking at either 'Carcassonne' or 'Settlers of Catan'. Which one would you recommend?

Question

I enjoy strategic games like Risk and Diplomacy.

I also enjoy playing Roborally.

Answer 1

I'm going to differ and recommend Settlers of Catan, between those two.

Carcassonne is a very simple game, and is fairly enjoyable.  But its simplicity just means there is not a lot to it; pick up a tile, place it, decide whether to put a piece on.  That's the whole game.

Settlers offers a lot more options and possibilities.  You can try to spread quickly and get lots of villages.  You can try to build to cities quickly.  Add in Seafarers or Cities and Knights, and you get a nearly limitless set of possible games.  To me, Settlers just has a lot more depth.  Since you already have played games like Diplomacy and Robo Rally, the slightly greater complexity of Settlers shouldn't be an issue.

However, you need 3 or more for Settlers.  If you expect you'll often only have 2 players, go with Carcassonne.

Personally though, if you do with Carcassonne, I'd recommend Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers.  It fixes some problems of the original game, and I think its more fun.

However, there are TONS of other games to choose from.  If you like a bit of conflict mixed with resource management in a very playable game, you could try Age of Empires III.  If you a fast action game that's a bit like Risk but much more interesting and exciting, pick up Nexus Ops while its still around.

If you don't know it already, check out boardgamegeek.com - you can learn tons of stuff about games there!

Answer 2

Both but if must choose between the two Carcassonne is the more flexible of two when it comes the number of players. It plays just as well for two as it does for five. Settlers is really only for three or four unless you buy the expansion for five and six.

Answer 3

For my personal preference, I'd recommend Carcassonne, for a couple of reasons:

1) Play time - you can get in a game of Carc in much quicker than Settlers

2) Rules simplicity - With the exception of farmers, pretty much every role in Carc is straightforward and easily explained.

3) Number of players - if you find yourself with 5 players, you're going to need to head out and grab the expansion in order to play Settlers, while Carc supports up to 5.

Happy gaming!