Review Details

Settlers of Catan 4th Edition

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on December 13, 2009):

Disclaimer: Since I can't display images in reviews for the Starlit Citadel, it can make explaining game mechanics somewhat difficult without proper visual aid. For this reason, my reviews will only provide a vague summary of how the game is played followed by specific praise or critiques for the game.

Background:
When I was introduced to Settlers of Catan, I was introduced into the board gaming hobby. Since then, I have played the game hundreds of times and acquainted with dozens of people. It is quintessential game to get people interested in the hobby.

So, what is Settlers of Catan? It is a resource management game that has a strong diplomatic element. It is designed to be played with three or four players, but I recommend the latter.

The objective of the game is to be the first player to reach 10 victory points. Those victory points are primarily gained through the building of settlements and cities. These structures not only inch you closer to victory, but they also the main method of acquiring resources. Wood, sheep, brick, wheat and ore are those resources and they are used to make progress in the game. Every action in the game has a cost associated with it. Want to build a road (roads are required to build additional settlements and to get to new resources)? That will cost you a lumber and a brick.
The game board is made of hexagonal tiles (each representing a resource) and each settlement or city needs to be in the intersection where three of these tiles meet. What tiles the settlement touches, those are the resources you can possibly get from that settlement every round.
What I consider the most important part of the game is trading. During your turn, you can say something along the lines of “anybody want sheep for ore” and the other players in the game can react to it. Sometimes no one will want to trade with you (perhaps you are too far in the lead...it's lonely at the top). Other times, someone will accept your deal and hand you an ore for your sheep. But if they smell desperation... they could drive a hard bargain “How about two sheep for my one ore”. This back and forth of trying to get what you need without getting the players too far in the lead is what makes this game tick in my mind. There are three other major mechanics in the game: the robber, harbors and development cards, but I am not in the business of being a player's manual.

What I like:
This game is simple fun. There are not many mechanics to the game, but what's there provides enough depth to last you several hundred games. It is fun making trades and more fun making other people squirm. Do you really need that ore? Is it worth losing two sheep over it?
Replayability. You can get a lot of mileage out of the base game, but this series is blessed with having good expansions made for it. Traders and Barbarians is a particularly fun expansion.
It is not intimidating. New players, to this game alone or the hobby entirely can grab grasp Settlers in a game and being playing on a competitive level with more seasoned players.
What I don't like:
Ironically, diplomacy games are the most violent. The first time one of my long time friends ever punched me was over a game of Settlers. It wasn't a fist fight or anything, but this game gives opportunities to screw other players over. Not only that, it's always personal because you often need to single out individual players and that builds resentment. Though, Settlers is a game that you can play very laid back.
...that brings me to my next point. Settlers can bring two types of playing styles that make the game a lot less fun when those kind of players are around. The first is the loner. Settlers is a game of solitaire to them and only in extremely rare cases will they interact with other players. While harmless, they can dampen the mood at the table. What you should look out for overly emotional players. I mentioned in my previous bullet that the game can be brutal. As soon as they realize they are losing or something unexpected happened to them, they will either sulk or make a personal vendetta against the player who ruined their plans. This causes the emotional player to spend the rest of the game screwing the player who wronged them, even if it means losing themselves.

Summary:
Settlers is a great game and the issues it has are not really its fault, but a reality of the temperaments of people. I recommend everyone who does not have it already to get it.