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Old 15-04-2013, 17:06   #1
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Default The Settlers of Catane

Hey there,

Yesterday I played my first game of Settlers of Catane, which is quite late considering its age and fame.
Anyway, after one game I find this game to be quite fun, especially as rules are rather simple and should suit for any kind of audience (strong point). The downside for me is that chance is too high, and a good part of the strategy relies on what dice and cards can get you.

Overall, a very nice game, not to be taken too seriously, but that I can see me play with different kinds of people around a table for fun.

I suppose many of you know this game. What is you experience with this game? Should I consider buying it?
And what about official extensions?
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Old 15-04-2013, 17:29   #2
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The Settlers have been rarely played by my gaming group in the last 10 years. Although the game is very good, it does tend to lag close to the end. The game is also very long when you are left behind.

I did try 5-6 players extensions and personally, did not like it. The game is way too long and since you can buy every time, a lot of the fun how to not "bust" is taken out of the game.

The other extensions I have tried gave new options to play, but I have not fund it to be more "fun".

(With few exceptions, rarely I have liked extensions to any game.)

If you liked Settlers of Catane, I would strongly recommend the following games:
Ticket to Ride (Les aventuriers du Rail) - (either original, or Europe version)
Dominion (Dominion: Intrigue is probably the best edition)
Puerto Rico (Maybe a bit more complex, but way richer)
Pandemic - Pandémie (This one is really different - it is a fully coop game. You all play against the board. You either all win as a team, or all loose as a team.)
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Old 15-04-2013, 18:20   #3
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If you play the 6 player expansion with 4 players, usually there's a single player getting the most of it so you won't get the endgame stalemate. But don't increase the required number of victory points. I haven't played it after we got Carcassonne though.
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Old 15-04-2013, 19:35   #4
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Barbu, overall you find it "bof" ("meh" for non-French speaking people). I still have to try it once or twice, because we played with 2 more hill tiles and 2 less grassland tiles (error in the box, borrowed from the game library of my gf's company, and we found out too late to restart), and also because one of my friends got stuck in the middle right from the start and was bored all along... All were beginners or almost.

Shabba, is stalemate possible/recurring in 4-player standard Catane?? I thought one would always manage to win (4/5 cities and/or some cards to go to 10 points).

I have already played Ticket to Ride once or twice: agreed, same kind of game, suitable for casual play, and quite fun.
I keep this thread as bookmark for the suggestion of games. The coop one sounds interesting.
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Old 15-04-2013, 19:41   #5
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Stalemate... no. Tedious endgame... yes.
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Old 15-04-2013, 22:29   #6
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I still think it is a great game to get in touch with german-style boardgames and I have played numerous hours. Unfortunately, last time I played, it felt dated.

Most new games are more fast pasted and the number of decisions per minutes is a lot higher. The game designers are also focusing in the 45 minutes games that are equally enjoyable to the older 1h30 games.
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Old 18-04-2013, 05:36   #7
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I'm a big fan of 'Die Siedler von Catan' and I already had it when the German was the only version...

I think the first two expansions ( Seafaring and 'cities and knights', just translated from German) are also very worth it.

'Tedious' endgames? I once competed in the regional preliminaries of the German Settlers Championship... there you had exciting endgames...
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Old 18-04-2013, 12:59   #8
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Haven't played it for quite some time, but it's a fun game! Simple indeed, and I never experienced it as too long. The card game Catan is even more fun, but only for two players. My ex and I have played that countless times. Really useful as there aren't that many good games suitable for just two people.
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Old 18-04-2013, 18:22   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matrix View Post
Haven't played it for quite some time, but it's a fun game! Simple indeed, and I never experienced it as too long. The card game Catan is even more fun, but only for two players. My ex and I have played that countless times. Really useful as there aren't that many good games suitable for just two people.
My wife stopped playing the card game against me after about 30 games.
So I can still say, I won every game I played the card game ;-)
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Old 19-04-2013, 09:03   #10
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the boardgame is great, especially with the 6 player expan and seafaring.
We always used a map with a small starting island and a large unknown area, and we never had boring endgames. And sometimes the long-time straggler won!
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