Review Details

Settlers of Catan 4th Edition

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on September 15, 2009):

Catan is one of those games that is incredibly easy to learn and play, complex in its strategies, and infinitely replayable thanks to its randomness.

The land tiles and numbered chits are randomly placed at the start of each game, meaning that no two games will ever really be the same. The rules are fairly simple. Collect resources, use the resources to build settments, cities, and roads, and be the first person to reach 10 victory points. A large chunk of the game play, and the real fun, comes in the form of negotiating with the other players, trying to trade your excess resources for theirs, positioning your development to block other players, and using the robber to prevent someone from collecting resources from a tile.

The artwork in the 4th edition of the game is better than what was present in the 3rd edition, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the flimsy cardboard pieces they used for the tiles in this printing. The tiles in my copy and other copies I have played with are bowed and don't quite fit together properly making things awkward as tiles slide around and shift all of the roads and buildings, making you stop and put everything back where it was. Apart from that, the game is always fun to play with friends and gets even more interesting when you add the 5-6 player expansion and/or the Cities and Knights expansion. High recommended to anyone who likes strategy and negotiation games.