The Bottom Line: Great game, playable from 9-99, easy to learn, impossible to put down, and you can find it for around 27 bucks. Can you ask for any more?
openroad's Full Review: Fantasia The Settlers of Catan
Overview
I first played this game last year when a friend brought it over for a game night. It was easy to learn for me, but I have played alot of strategy games. I have since taught 20 plus people to play the game and would say it is moderately difficult to learn for the average player.
Game details
The goal of this game is to become master of Catan by getting 10 victory points before your opponents. Points are aquired by building Settlements (1 point), upgrading settlements to Cities (total of 2 points), having the largest army (2 points), or the longest road in the game (2 points). The map is made up of 6 sided hexes that are placed before every game begins. 5 resources exist in Catan, and each hex is marked one of those 5. There are Wood, Bricks, Wheat, Iron, and Sheep. With those 5 resources you must build an empire to rival all others! To begin a game you turn over all land hexes and shuffle. Then begin by flipping them over one by one and placing them in a row. You then build off each side of the initial row until a normal looking map is built, round in shape. You then place numbered circles from 2 to 12 on each hex. These decide what resource card are picked up when the 2 dice are rolled. You must have a settlement adjoining a resource to have access to it, and roads must lead between all your settlements. Next the water hexes are placed every other space around the whole map. Finally you place the "ports" between each water hex. These ports allow you to trade unwanted or unneeded resource cards to the bank at better exchange rates.
For instance, you have 5 wood cards in your hand, but you need 1 wood and 1 brick to build a road. You may always trade to the bank 4:1. Give the bank 4 of one type card from your hand and take one of what you want from the bank. This is a last resort as it's a bad deal for you. If you have a settlement on a 3:1 port, you may trade 3 wood to the bank instead of 4, and still pick up the brick you need. The best of all is the wood port, allowing you to trade wood at 2:1 ratio. There are 5 specific ports mimicking the 5 resources. They can only be used for the resource depicted on the port. The 3:1 ports are wild cards and can be used to trade any 3 cards.
Trading is the heart of the game. Trading between players is usually cutthroat and happens every turn. Any player can initiate trades on their turn, and may trade with any player they wish. Resources that are rare can fetch very high trading prices, with one player having a glut of iron and no one else having access to any. This leads to raised voices, and high blood pressure. :) There is also a robber who moves on a roll of 7 and can be placed on any hex the player wishes, making that hex useless until the robber is moved again.
Lastly are the development cards. They can be purchased using 1 wheat, 1 sheep and 1 ore. The most common card is Soldier, used to boot the robber off your lands and to try and aquire the largest army card. Other cards are: Year of plenty, (2 free resources) Resource monopoly, (all players give a resource you name) and Road building (2 free roads).
Pros
The game is so simple at the core once learned it's surprising it is so addicting. The setup of the land and sea hexes is very easy, and creates a new gaming world every time it's played. I usually set the game up, and when playing with experienced players it's fun to hear exclamations when each hex is placed. Then the loud groan the the desert and robber land in the center of the board causing havoc in the resource distribution. Pieces are high quality wood, and even with the 6 player expansion the colors are all quite different. Replay value is enormous, as the board is always changing and house rules can add a twist here and there.
Cons
There are not many faults with the game. The few I have are purely nitpicking on my part. I don't think this game should have shipped as a 4 player game. Add and extra $4.99 to the purchase price and throw in the extra pieces. The game is a total blast with 6 players, and won't be experienced by as many people since it was released as a 4 player game. The game lacks any sort of combat, or even an hint of espionage in the base game. Obviously Mayfair games wanted to release the Cities and Knights expansion, which only adds part of what I think it should have.
Overall
This game is a triumph of design and should be in every home in the nation! I have played it with my Mom, Aunts and Uncles, friends, kids, neighbors, Grandparents, you name it they will love it! And the most common comment is: so, uh can we play again soon? Also, even beginners have a good chance with this game, as a first timer has won at least 4 games that I can remember. Settlers has a high race-for-the-wire factor, that hard to get in a game feeling of being in a dead heat with every other player and no one knows who will get there first. Many games I have played have ended with the winner finishing on the exact same turn that 1 or 2 other people would have won. It keeps you coming back for sure!
Also, the Cities and Knights expansion is highly recommended. Game times do go up however, from 1-2 hours for a standard game to 3-5 hours for C & K. I have not played the Seafarers expansion, but I'm sure it would be a blast. You can combine all 3 games for a 100% Settlers overload!
Ease of learning: 7
Replay Ability: 9
Strategy involved:6
Game quality: 8
Overall: 8 (score climbs to 10 with Cities & Knights expansion)
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