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This is propably one of the better board games I've played. For those who might wonder if it has any similaritys with the PC game Settlers. The age and epicness is the same  but the game is totally different. I started out playing it, when my brother got it as a christmas present. There is alot of tactic and gosuness in this game. Recently I visited my brother, and we played online on http://games.asobrain.com. Really fun and interesting I've noticed. That site has ranking and all. The expansion of the game, Cities & Knights, which is an advanced version of Settlers of Catan is especally interesting. If you havent played it yet, you should test it out!
![[image loading]](http://kylelibra.com/hambyblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/10273.png)
Here is a small introduction how the Settlers of Catan works out.
First off, this game is turned based, roll dice, do your stuff, end turn.
You have 5 different resources: Bricks, Lumber, Wheat, Sheep and Ore. You create a map from these recources, and place numbers from 1-12 on each resource. You use two dices each turn to determine where rescources are produced. Each players starts out with 2 towns and 2 roads to place on the map. They gain rescources depending on what they have placed on that rescource: town(1) or a city(2). You can also trade rescources with the bank, 4:1 or 3:1 / 2:1 if you have a town or a city at a harbour card. Or with another player. With these rescources you build roads(1 lumber, 1 brick), towns(1 lumber, 1 brick, 1 wheat, 1 sheep) and cities are uppgraded from towns(3 ore, 2 wheat). Towns and Citys should be placed at numbers that are most likly to appear on the dices. (6,8) The 7, which will appear the most (statisticly) will bring another piece into the game: The Robber. He who gets 7, can then move the robber on a number and make this rescource invalid for the time the robber stays there. As well, pick a card from whoever has a town or city connected to this rescource. Also, every time 7 appears on the dices, anyone with more than 7 cards, will have to throw away half. The game consist of development cards aswell (1 wheat, 1 ore, 1 sheep). These can contain Knights (works as robber) and different special cards. (like monopoly card that gives you all of one rescource of your choseing from other players) The goal in this game, is to get the points decided during the start of each game (usually 13) You gain points from towns (1) cities (2), development cards with points (1), longest road card (2) and most knights card (2).
BEFORE YOU MOVE ON. Play Settlers of Catan first.
Cities and Knights is a more advanced version. Here you start out with 1 town and 1 castle. Knights are used differently, not as cards, but rather as units within your roads. You can build and uppgrade these knights with the cost of 1 sheep and 1 ore. And activate them with 1 wheat (like in Settlers 2 ^^ brewery ftw) You need these Knights to defend against barbarians that appear. Aswell as chase away robbers from closeby robbed rescouces. In order for the barbarians to appear, you have an additional dice with colors. Black(Barbarian), Yellow(Trade), Blue(Politics) and Green(Science). Whenever this dice hits black, it will be one step closer to barbarians arrival. Citys also supply you with community cards depending on your rescource fields. (1xtrade = city at sheep) (1xpolitics = city at ore) (1xscience = city at lumber) These community cards are used to uppgrade citys. 1 card for 1st uppgrade, 2 for 2nd etc. This brings us back to the new dice. Every time you uppgrade your citys, you gain dice numbers. (1st uppgrade 1 & 2 on normal dice, are activated) (2nd uppgrade, 3 etc) Each time your dice is thrown, and shows for instance [green 2 and 4] whoever who has their lumber community city card uppgraded gains a development card. These contain all kinds of crazy shit. In Cities and Knights you can also build ships (1 lumber 1 sheep, roads on water) as well as city walls(2 bricks, increase robber card limit by 2 each city wall)
GOGO gl hf
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My friends and I just recently got into Catan and it a hell of a lot of fun to play. We recently got the Cities and Knights expansion and my friends are soon to acquire Seafarers. I'm terrible at it, I typically just get screwed over by my friends for the sake for screwing me over. Still a great game.
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On May 26 2009 08:49 Athos wrote:
My friends and I just recently got into Catan and it a hell of a lot of fun to play. We recently got the Cities and Knights expansion and my friends are soon to acquire Seafarers. I'm terrible at it, I typically just get screwed over by my friends for the sake for screwing me over. Still a great game.
go play online, practice and own them
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I'm a big fan of Catan. I've played the board version quite a few times, and have it on XBLA. Sadly, I haven't played in 6+ months, but it's a great game.
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We have the board game here at our house. 
I usually play online because IRL games take FOREVER especially with non-experienced people.
Asobrain games I finish in like 5-10 mins max... both regular and cities and knights. Fast play FTW.
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On May 27 2009 02:03 Telemako wrote:I used to play online here: http://games.asobrain.com/Great game, haven't tried cities and knights yet Awesome, thanks Playing bots right now, as soon as I get the hang of this, anyone wanna play me?
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GrandInquisitor
New York City13113 Posts
If you play and enjoy Settlers of Catan, I recommend trying out the following two (also German-style) board games:
Ra
Dominion
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I downloaded settlers of catan a year ago or so and played against computer opponents for a few hours, and felt like the best strategies were simple and reasonably obvious after a few games, and it really just came down to luck. Since the best places to put your starting towns are really easy to see, it's luck as to what options are available to you when it's your turn to pick, and to a lesser degree luck in the random variation of the dice. Over a long game the impact of dice tends to minimize itself, but I couldn't get over the fact that sometimes I was just forced into picking relatively crappy starting positions because the best two or three got picked before it was my turn. Then if I get to pick first, I get one good spot and one absolutely terrible spot.
Do you guys who have more playing experience with it have a different experience? I hate playing games like this and risk that look like strategy games, but once everyone understands the absolute basics, it's all down to the dice.
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Russian Federation1401 Posts
I play this game quite often, expansion included. I seriously reccomend this game to anyone. It might seem a little random at first, but the better players will win many more times in general.
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Played this back in 99 when I lived in Germany. A friend of mine made a pirate version with cardboard base pieces. He made the buildings by baking silly putty. It was pretty awesome.
Fun game, but frustrating. We were scrubs I guess (hi Sirlin) because we got rid of the rule that you could lose half of your resource cards if you had more than 7 (IIRC) and someone moved the bandit next to you.* It made it impossible to save up enough resources for a couple roads and a town so you could surprise expand. If you had to spend constantly to keep from losing resources people would see where you were going and get there first. It seemed a lot more dynamic to be able to expand long distances all at once.
*I think we changed it to losing a limited number, maybe one or two, cards.
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Wow, talk about timing! My friends and I just got into this game - we're playing a lot online. It can get really frustrating at times but it's also a very well-designed and balanced game. WHat I mean is that games are frequently close! There's so much depth, it's great to see in a board game. WE're playing a lot at the above site - my username is the same as this
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Well, a LOT of games are about luck... actually, pretty much every single board game. IMO that's what makes it fun. There are other games that require skill (ahem starcraft) but I think the target audience for these board games are casuals lol.
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Germany / USA16648 Posts
Haven't played it much since I moved here ~3 years ago, because the majority of the people I know here aren't much into board games, but I used to play it a lot in high school and after. Absolutely fantastic game. There's also another expansion (Seefarers of Catan), though Cities & Knights is more fun imho. I'd love to play it again.
A friend of mine from high school owns many other Catan games (Starfarers of Catan, the Catan Card Game), though I never really got into any of those myself.
Settlers of Catan is one of my favourite board games for sure. <3
(the PC adaptation is terrible btw)
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On May 26 2009 08:45 ThePhan2m wrote: similaritys with the PC game Settlers.
I'll take 10
but the game is totally different
Cancel that order
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I love settlers, but to be honest I feel like it's a bit imbalanced. Rock is by FAR the most important resource, you pretty much need to settle one of your initial villages by a good rock source if you want to win. The entire game depends on how well you place your initial two villages- nothing else really matters.
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On May 27 2009 03:32 GrandInquisitor wrote:If you play and enjoy Settlers of Catan, I recommend trying out the following two (also German-style) board games: RaDominion
I just recently got Dominion and from the few times I've played it so far it's fun. It also seems pretty replayable because you can switch out the supply decks to vary gameplay.
Setters of Catan is good too. I think I remember playing it with some sort of pirate expansion. I preferred to play it without it because it slowed down turns.
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3 Lions
United States3705 Posts
lol what a coincidence
i was just introduced to this game 3 days ago at a party
I play online at asobrain
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Netherlands6142 Posts
Does anyone play WanCatan (or I think nowadays it's Pioneers of Peru or something because of copyright issues)? It the board game but you can play vs each other online. I bet I still have the files somewhere. I'd love to have some matches online again (my friends nowadays only wanna play poker T_T ). Been a fair while since I last played.
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GrandInquisitor
New York City13113 Posts
On May 27 2009 04:32 stenole wrote:Show nested quote +On May 27 2009 03:32 GrandInquisitor wrote:If you play and enjoy Settlers of Catan, I recommend trying out the following two (also German-style) board games: RaDominion I just recently got Dominion and from the few times I've played it so far it's fun. It also seems pretty replayable because you can switch out the supply decks to vary gameplay.
For a while I was ranked #1 on the BSW Elo ladder for Dominion. If you play on BSW I'd be happy to play against you =)
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For those who say luck is a big factor, I think it depends a lot of the skill level of those you play with. Of course it is a factor, but among people I play against, there's a group I beat regularly, and another group who regularly beat me, despite the board and dice coming up different every game. Taking maximum advantage of how the board is set up in different ways is pretty important, it might be beneficial to go for a mix of resources, or a lot of a resource and a special port, etc.
Also, strong players who play to win semi-gang up on the leading player (robbing, trading), so though it seems that a strong lead in resource production will compound/snowball into an even more commanding lead, it's not always the case, so you have to be careful as to the strength you display.
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United States37500 Posts
lol, this game reminds me of Travian... >_>
Where's Kaz?! We should play Catan again.
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I was going to start a new thread but since this one exists...
It's time we talked more about Settlers of Catan / Cities & Knights.
![[image loading]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BL27imSN_04/ST_-ij5AWzI/AAAAAAAAARU/Kwf6fBtiju4/s400/12-09-08_2310.jpg)
This is what the game looks like nowadays.
This is a fantastic board game. My friends and I play it at least twice per week. It's not too difficult to learn but has endless possible strategies and replay value. The board is different every time, causing the game to vary greatly in the way that it is played. Cities and Knights is a near-essential expansion that adds the perfect amount of complexity to the game.
I think what I like most about the game is that you are constantly trying to build, as opposed to games like Monopoly and Risk where destruction of your opponents is the goal. The goal is to outcompete your opponents for resources and control of the board. At any point the game can change hands and someone unexpected can win, but it requires thought, timing, and strategy - not dumb luck.
There is also a mild statistical element to the game (to do with dice rolls) that allows me to carry over my knowledge of Craps. How to compensate for these statistical elements greatly affects how you fare in the game, although in Cities and Knights there are ways of getting by without them.
If anyone else has experience playing this game please chime in and offer strategy (especially starting positions and preferred resources). I'd also like to know what the other expansions are like (we were thinking of buying Seafarers since it complements Cities and Knights).
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+ Show Spoiler +On May 26 2009 08:45 ThePhan2m wrote:This is THE BEST DAMN board game I've EVER played (Of course talking about Orig Catan ^____^). For those who might wonder if it has any similaritys with the PC game Settlers. The age and epicness is the same but the game is totally different. I started out playing it, when my brother got it as a christmas present. There is alot of tactic and gosuness in this game. Recently I visited my brother, and we played online on http://games.asobrain.com. Really fun and interesting I've noticed. That site has ranking and all. The expansion of the game, Cities & Knights, which is an advanced version of Settlers of Catan is especally interesting. If you havent played it yet, you should test it out! Here is a small introduction how the Settlers of Catan works out. First off, this game is turned based, roll dice, do your stuff, end turn. You have 5 different resources: Bricks, Lumber, Wheat, Sheep and Ore. You create a map from these recources, and place numbers from 1-12 on each resource. You use two dices each turn to determine where rescources are produced. Each players starts out with 2 towns and 2 roads to place on the map. They gain rescources depending on what they have placed on that rescource: town(1) or a city(2). You can also trade rescources with the bank, 4:1 or 3:1 / 2:1 if you have a town or a city at a harbour card. Or with another player. With these rescources you build roads(1 lumber, 1 brick), towns(1 lumber, 1 brick, 1 wheat, 1 sheep) and cities are uppgraded from towns(3 ore, 2 wheat). Towns and Citys should be placed at numbers that are most likly to appear on the dices. (6,8) The 7, which will appear the most (statisticly) will bring another piece into the game: The Robber. He who gets 7, can then move the robber on a number and make this rescource invalid for the time the robber stays there. As well, pick a card from whoever has a town or city connected to this rescource. Also, every time 7 appears on the dices, anyone with more than 7 cards, will have to throw away half. The game consist of development cards aswell (1 wheat, 1 ore, 1 sheep). These can contain Knights (works as robber) and different special cards. (like monopoly card that gives you all of one rescource of your choseing from other players) The goal in this game, is to get the points decided during the start of each game (usually 13) You gain points from towns (1) cities (2), development cards with points (1), longest road card (2) and most knights card (2). BEFORE YOU MOVE ON. Play Settlers of Catan first.Cities and Knights is a more advanced version. Here you start out with 1 town and 1 castle. Knights are used differently, not as cards, but rather as units within your roads. You can build and uppgrade these knights with the cost of 1 sheep and 1 ore. And activate them with 1 wheat (like in Settlers 2 ^^ brewery ftw) You need these Knights to defend against barbarians that appear. Aswell as chase away robbers from closeby robbed rescouces. In order for the barbarians to appear, you have an additional dice with colors. Black(Barbarian), Yellow(Trade), Blue(Politics) and Green(Science). Whenever this dice hits black, it will be one step closer to barbarians arrival. Citys also supply you with community cards depending on your rescource fields. (1xtrade = city at sheep) (1xpolitics = city at ore) (1xscience = city at lumber) These community cards are used to uppgrade citys. 1 card for 1st uppgrade, 2 for 2nd etc. This brings us back to the new dice. Every time you uppgrade your citys, you gain dice numbers. (1st uppgrade 1 & 2 on normal dice, are activated) (2nd uppgrade, 3 etc) Each time your dice is thrown, and shows for instance [green 2 and 4] whoever who has their lumber community city card uppgraded gains a development card. These contain all kinds of crazy shit. In Cities and Knights you can also build ships (1 lumber 1 sheep, roads on water) as well as city walls(2 bricks, increase robber card limit by 2 each city wall) GOGO gl hf
Sorry had to fix the OP.
I love settlers, but to be honest I feel like it's a bit imbalanced. Rock is by FAR the most important resource, you pretty much need to settle one of your initial villages by a good rock source if you want to win. The entire game depends on how well you place your initial two villages- nothing else really matters.
Uh there is more than one way to win. I'd argue the #'s you pick with your first placements are the most important, not even the resources. Depending on the time in the game and how you are trying to win, different resources will have different values to different players. Creates a really nice trading dynamic with more than 1 victory condition.
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Settlers of Catan is awesome and all, but it's a bitch to set up so I don't play it very often.
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On May 21 2011 02:49 bonifaceviii wrote:
Settlers of Catan is awesome and all, but it's a bitch to set up so I don't play it very often.
I don't see how. Everything is random (numbers, resource hexes, ports) so all you have to do is slap it together (without 6's and 8's beside each other) and pull out the cards. Unless you play the super-fair configuration and put every number and hex where the game tells you to, you can get a game of Catan going in like 2 minutes.
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I play it a fair amount and think it's far better than most mainstream board games (e.g monopoly/risk), and has quite a lot of room for different strategies.
The only problem is that once you are using a few of the expansions, you can go down 'tech routes' which mean you don't have to trade with other players as much (for example rush aqueduct), which takes away a lot of the fun.
Definitely worth buying though.
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Sweet, a TL thread on this game. I met it in college, got owned a few times by friends- has anyone found a good place to play it online? You lose the ability to make trades where in exchange your opponent has to play the rest of the game without a shirt on, but I guess that beats the German, ill-translated client I found last.
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On May 21 2011 03:15 Tal wrote:
The only problem is that once you are using a few of the expansions, you can go down 'tech routes' which mean you don't have to trade with other players as much (for example rush aqueduct), which takes away a lot of the fun.
Is something like this possible in Cities and Knights? What are some good strategies? What are the best starting resource combinations? Here's what I've tried so far.
Brick/Wood: Allows you to contain people with your Longest Road and also build settlements but not cities unless you expand to a good spot. Aqueduct also lets you collect resources no matter what, which can be handy if you don't have too many numbers.
Wheat/Ore: I usually go for this one. It allows me to get a second city quickly and/or rebuild in case the Barbarians come, but if you don't have Sheep then you're pretty screwed for defense. I also find it hard to expand this way, since I'll always seem to be missing either Brick or Wood. Mighty Knights are helpful to get one or two victory points from the Barbs and also move Robbers, but I don't find them THAT useful and would rather have one of the other two perks.
2:1 Port + X Resource: I've found this one to work pretty well since it allows you to have flexible resources at the sacrifice of a starting land hex. If you can get a lot of that one resource then it really works to your advantage, but you can often get trapped against the coast and be unable to expand favorably.
3:1 Port + Random: This one doesn't work too well, since you basically need ALL resources to be coming in at a good rate to make use of this. I think 3:1 port is something to expand to later, but not start on right away.
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i think playing with 4 players will always require extensive trading. dev paths in cities and knights aren't easy to get and i've never really seen a player win by him/herself unless they get extremely lucky with rolls. aqueduct is overrated, because its usefulness diminishes as the game drags on... so unless you get it within anyone getting 4+ settlements, it's generally not that great. i've found that relying in aqueduct isn't a "winning" plan, just a decent way to make up for crappy numbers in the early game, simply due to low production late game unless you get good rolls.
starting builds are just too variable, of course ports are key and it's pretty tough to win without one given you have competent opponents who knock you down throughout the game. definitely plan to survive that first pirate hit though, because losing that first city pretty much costs you the game in most cases... hence i prefer to always start with ore/sheep/wheat, and hopefully set up a port with one of my two starting blocks... it's really tough to have a set build that is "good" because of the port mechanic that pretty much gives you any resource/commodity, pretty much reading your opponent and getting those two first settlements is the most important move of the game.
used to play on asobrain, but account got deleted from inactivity and now their registration is apparently closed 
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It's not so much that aqueduct guarantees you to win, but that it lets you play a viable game with much less trading than normal, particularly if you can get the right numbers (e.g two 6's instead of a 6 and an 8). It's also possible to get extremely early on by trading resources with the bank for paper, even more so if you get an early merchant card.
Along similar lines, the merchant tech route can allow you to bypass the other players by either stealing everything you need, or just creating the resources. When these options are combined with 2:1 ports, the possibility of expanding out to sea, and the extra 'choose one resource' that the dice replacement cards often offer, you get a strange situation where you are playing a trading game where you don't need to trade. It's still interesting, but it's a shame to lose the incredible dynamic of bullying and undercutting each other for resources.
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Roffles
Pitcairn19291 Posts
If you rush to Aqueduct, it's certainly worth it. Being able to draw every turn is simply too good to pass on. Unless you happen to be on tons of numbers or are simply playing to build quick settlements and establish map control, Aqueducts are the way the go. Plus, the green cards are great in helping you build up as well. But if you're getting it after establishing a couple other settlements on the board, it's pretty much worthless except for the Green card draw.
Personally, I prefer the yellow card tech route, as it allows you to not only screw over others, but also trade at efficient ratios instead of having to rely on 4:1'ing or trading with others. Especially when you're winning, it's nice to have, simply because others are reluctant to trade with you if you're on top.
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On May 23 2011 18:42 Roffles wrote:
If you rush to Aqueduct, it's certainly worth it. Being able to draw every turn is simply too good to pass on. Unless you happen to be on tons of numbers or are simply playing to build quick settlements and establish map control, Aqueducts are the way the go. Plus, the green cards are great in helping you build up as well. But if you're getting it after establishing a couple other settlements on the board, it's pretty much worthless except for the Green card draw.
Personally, I prefer the yellow card tech route, as it allows you to not only screw over others, but also trade at efficient ratios instead of having to rely on 4:1'ing or trading with others. Especially when you're winning, it's nice to have, simply because others are reluctant to trade with you if you're on top.
agreed. a rush to aqueduct is good, but i think the usefulness diminishes as the game goes on or as you yourself get more settlements and numbers (unless you've managed to inventor yourself some crazy squares with limited numbers). i always prefer the yellow route as well, because there's just so much you can do without fully relying on the dev draw (the other two routes). definitely requires you to keep track of the cards in your opponents' hands though. it's just too bad that sheep has diminishing returns as well as the game drags on.
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I love settlers but I've played it FAR too much. I've since moved on to other games that are less known such as: Puerto Rico, Agricola, El Grande, and others. Settlers is definitely a great game though, but eventually the luck factor of the game gets annoying. One of the reasons I enjoyed it though was because of the interaction beteween players that is required...a lot of the other board games lack in this regard, but generally make up for it with less luck factor.
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EPT
