A short write up of the game Settlers of Catan
Settlers of Catan was a lot of fun to play. The amount of decisions one has to make in the game makes it challenging yet fulfilling. By implementing trading system, which is, in my opinion, a very big part of the game, it allows players to have more interactions than more traditional board games such as chess. In Catan, players are able to build their settlement and roads around resource fields they choose. There are a total of 5 resources — brick, steel, wheat, wood, and wool. Depending on the number rolled on the dices (2 of them) and the resource fields around players’ settlements or city, players are awarded resources. Numbers are labeled on top of the various fields, corresponding to the rolled number on the dices. Other aspect of the game includes a robber who can halt a selected field’s production; a trading system with the bank, which is a lot more expensive (usually) to trade with a player and a port (in which one can build a settlement adjacent to it for a cheaper trade than the bank).
The goal of the game is to reach 10 victory points as fast as possible. Each settlement count as 1 victory point, its upgrade, a city, accounts for 2 victory points. Other achievements are also given out as 2 victory points, including the longest road and the biggest army. Another way to earn victory points is by getting development cards, which you also trade in with resources.
It was a lot of fun to play this game, simply because there is a trading system where players can bargain with one another. There are also various different ways to win the game so it allows for more versatile play style, as players can stop someone from getting the longest road but at the same time earn another victory point by building their settlement. One does not have to worry about getting bored of the game if we were to replay it because all the numbers and the fields can be rearranged completely differently from the previous game, making it a longer lasting game with a new challenge each time.
I enjoyed the game along with its rules a lot, though I think that cards that induce a reduction to all player’s cards, such as a natural disaster card that reduces all player’s wheat and sheep card, would add to the challenge of the game. Either this, or the natural disaster card can halt the fields from functioning for 2-3 dice rolls.
Image source: http://divisbyzero.com/2010/01/06/playing-the-probabilities-in-settlers-of-catan/
