An Overview of The Settlers of Catan

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_Kingsley]John Kingsley
The Settlers of Catan is one of the most popular European board games of latter years. It is the winner of a number of high profile prizes including the hotly contested Spiel de Jahres award. So what is all the fuss about?
The Settlers of Catan is well presented and comes in an attractive box which highlights the quality of the game itself. Inside the box are the components for playing the game. They include hexagonal tiles, small wooden rods (roads), houses (settlements and cities) and themed game cards. The rules are substantial enough to make game play smooth but not to onerous to read through and learn how to play the game.
What sets Catan apart from many other games is its innovative tile based board. Rather than having a fixed board Settlers is played on a board which is randomly created by laying out terrain tiles representing five different resources. On top of the tiles are then placed (also randomly) small numbered disc tokens. These tokens are used to make dice rolls correspond to the resource tiles.
As the game progresses players place settlements and roads using their resource cards to pay for them. The resource cards themselves are earned by having your settlements on the terrain tiles which are represented by the token numbers. In order to gain resources your number has to be rolled during any player's turn. As each settlement has to be a minimum of two road segments (or two terrain tile sides) away from each other the competition for building spaces on high rolling resources can be fierce.
While settlements represent one card take per time your number is rolled, they can be upgraded to cities to represent two card takes, so upgrading to cities is also a high priority for some players. To build new settlements you need to have a link to existing settlements and this is where roads come in. They can be used to either block other players progress or to further your own progress, or of course both. The player with the longest road is also able to claim the longest road and hold an extra 2 points.
The robber piece is a pawn that players who shake a 7 can place on any other terrain tile they choose. When the robber is on a tile no resources can be collected from that tile.
There are also other cards which affect gameplay, knights for example can be used to move the robber piece off a terrain tile or to build the biggest army, which gives the player 2 points. In a game that only requires 10 points to win that is a big advantage! Development cards can also be collected for points and there are some action cards which enable you to do such things as build two extra roads for free etc.
The Settlers of Catan is relatively simple to learn for a themed strategy game, but the depth of strategy can be amazing. The interesting yet non controversial theme makes the game ideal for mixed crowds of people. Both gaming hobbyists and families enjoy this award winning game.
John Kingsley
For more information check out The Game Gate's [http://thegamegate.co.nz]Board Games website where you can purchase [http://thegamegate.co.nz/node/313]The Settlers of Catan.
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