Settlers of Catan

Replayability:	High
Difficulty:	Low
Avg Play Time:	45 mins
Randomicity:	High

Mike from work introduced myself, Steve and Gary to a very fun board game called Settlers of Catan. After the first 4 or 5 sessions I've grown quite fond of it.

In Catan, players race to score 10 victory points before their opponents do the same. Players are awarded victory points under several conditions providing a variety of ways a player may achieve victory.

The game is played on a mosaic of hexagonal tiles that are placed randomly at the start of the game. Each tile represents one resource type: Wood, Ore, Brick, Sheep (a.k.a., Pigs) and Grain.

Players start the game with two settlements and two road segments, and a few "seed" resources. During play, players collect resources, build settlements and roads or upgrade settlements to cities. There is no warfare or combat.

Settlements are placed on the board at the vertex of adjacent hex tiles. This gives them access to the resources produced by the hexes they touch. In this diagram, the settlement has access to three resources: Grain (yellow), Wood (green) and Brick (red).

Two six-sided dice are rolled at the beginning of each player's turn. The result determines which tile(s) produce resources that turn (at the beginning of the game each tile was assigned a number from 2 to 12, skipping seven). Tiles with a value of 6 or 8 are the most desirable due to the odds of the dice. Each player with a settlement or city on the vertex of the tile(s) associated with the dice roll collects resources of the type produced by that tile.

If a seven is rolled, no resources are produced that turn. Instead, the player rolling the seven moves a token representing a Thief to any tile they choose. The tile occupied by the thief will not produce resources until the thief is removed.

Constructing roads and settlements gives the player access to additional resources elsewhere on the board. Roads are built along an edge between two adjacent hexes and settlements are built along roads. Resources are spent in the construction of settlements and roads.

Resources can be spent upgrading settlements to cities. A city gathers twice the resources a settlement does.

Resources can also be spent for a random draw from a stack of Development Cards. Some cards are worth victory points, others allow the holder to move the Thief.

The tiles that make up the outside edge of the board are ocean tiles. Some of the ocean tiles have trade ports. If a player builds a settlement at one of the trade ports, they may convert resources of one type to another at a cost of either 3:1 or 2:1, depending on the port. Without trade ports, resource conversion costs 4:1.

Replayability

Two factors make this game highly replayable. First, the game board is never the same twice. At the beginning of the game, the terrain tiles are laid out in a randomly, and the probability chips are assigned randomly.

The second factor is the variety of ways one can achieve victory points. Victory points can be earned by having the longest road, the largest army, the most cities, etc.

Difficulty

The rules for the game are fairly simple. A new player can learn the entire game in an afternoon and be able to play well in the same sitting.

Average Play Time

Experienced players can execute their turn in a few seconds most of the time. The most time consuming aspect of the game is deciding which cards to discard, when forced to do so. A 3 or 4 player game usually lasts under one hour, counting the set-up time.

Randomicity

Although there is plenty of room for strategy, the random element in this game is fairly high. Every turn begins with the throw of two dice. Knowing the odds of the dice helps you decide where to place your settlements, but the dice do not always obey the laws of chance.

Summary

Gameplay is fast paced with plenty of variety from game to game. The rules are simple making Catan an enjoyable, low brain-power game. Events in the game are determined largely by the luck of the dice, but the player does need to make intelligent decisions about placement of settlements and expenditure of resources.

All in all, Catan is a fun and challenging game for novices and experts.