Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #249 in Toys & Games
• Brand: Mayfair
• Model: 4102480
• Released on: 2007-11-19
• Dimensions: 11.63" h x 3.00" w x 9.38" l, 2.70 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
From the Manufacturer:-One of the most successful games of all time, Settlers of Catan is a trading and building game set in the mythical world of Catan. Players roll dice to determine which resources are generated each round and then must strategically trade those resources with other players to get what they need to build their settlements, cities, and roads. With multiple ways to gain victory points and a board that changes in every play, Settlers of Catan is a game that can be played hundreds of different ways. The base of a hugely successful franchise, with multiple engaging expansions, Settlers is the core game of many collections, and is a wonderful way to spend time with family and friends.

The Settlers of Catan from Mayfair Games is an award-winning strategy game where players collect resources and use them to build roads, settlements and cities on their way to victory. The board itself is variable, making each game a little different from the next. Each round of The Settlers of Catan is intended to keep three or four players ages 10 and above engaged for up to 90 minutes.

The game rules and almanac booklet sets out four pages of guidelines for getting started. Don't worry, the rules are straightforward and the four pages include plenty of illustrations. There's a starting map that shows a well-balanced set-up for beginners to follow and directions that allow more advanced players to lay out the map of the island at random. You'll have to pop the die-cut components of the game out of their cardboard holders before you play your first game.

The almanac portion of the booklet is laid out alphabetically, so while playing you can find answers to specific questions quickly. Useful entries remind you exactly what role pieces like the robber play, how actions like maritime trade work, and how to set up the board or finish the game.

Exploring and Developing Catan

The board consists of 19 terrain hexes surrounded by the ocean. Each type of terrain produces a different type of resource: brick, wool, ore, grain or lumber. There's also a desert hex that produces no resources. As the game progresses, players use resources to build roads along the edges of these hexes and settlements or cities on the intersections where three hexes meet. Each player begins the game with two settlements and two roads.

Each player's roll of the dice causes certain hexes to produce resources, which you collect if you have a settlement on one of them. On your turn, you'll use various combinations of the resources you've acquired to build new roads and settlements, upgrade settlements to cities, or purchase development cards. The ability to trade resources with other players adds a new level of strategy and ensures that the game includes lots of interaction between players. You can also trade without worrying about other players using an unfavorable maritime trade rate. Elements including a robber piece that lets you steal from other players and a variety of development cards add intrigue to the game.

The objective of The Settlers of Catan is to be the first one who collects 10 victory points. Each settlement is worth one victory point and each city is worth two victory points. You can also earn victory points by holding the ""Longest Road"" card, the ""Largest Army"" card, or special victory point development cards.

Best-Selling Game of the Year, It's easy to see why The Settlers of Catan has been recognized as a best-selling Game of the Year in both Germany and the U. S. We found this game to be fun and engaging for both children and adults, and the variable nature of the playing field really made us want to play again and again. When we started pausing to contemplate our opponents' strategy and factoring the probability of different dice rolls into our moves, the game sometimes took longer than expected, but we were so engrossed we didn't even notice until it was all over.

Due to the widespread popularity of the original game, several expansion sets (sold separately) are available that allow you to explore new aspects of the game or add more players. The only downside to this game is that you need to have either three or four players to play, so it's great that expansion sets are available that will allow you to add players.

Box Contains

Customer Reviews

terrific game, best played with good friends
This game is awesome. You need to be strategic, think beyond your next move, be intuitive about what your opponents will do next. We love all games in our family, any will do, but this game is different to your Cranium or Balderdash-type games which have dominated the market recently. It's cleverer than the traditional games, like monopoly or even chess, as well. I would not recommend it for playing with those easily offended (putting the robber on some people's land can be risky) or those that are aggressive game-players because this is a thoughtful game, where sometimes you have to attack your opponents even if you don't really want to.

Once you get over the tedious explanation of how to play, and everyone gets started, people realise the game is actually very simple. The game never plays the same way twice; Every time you lay out the board, it is different, the odds of gaining the cards of your choice are random, and the way your opponents want to behave is equally unpredictable. You often have no idea whether you have a chance of winning for most of the game.

One of the main advantages of the game is that it can played by an odd number of people, three can play a very good game. Also, this is one of the few games that two people can play and not be tedious. When we play with two, we adapt it slightly and are a little kinder to one another to help the flow of the game. We use the robber (he can steal other people's resource cards and stop you gaining more) but we say after about three rounds he can go back to the desert until a seven is thrown again - the robber otherwise can sit preventing you from getting resource cards for far too long because the odds of throwing the seven and him being moved are reduced when only two play. We also let ourselves collect as many resource cards as we want (in the rules you put yourself in jeopardy of losing cards when you have more than seven) - we find we develop our game in a more interesting way and keep it fast this way. Also, we decide at the outset whether we play to the winning score of 10, 12 or 14 which allows the game a little more time to play out, if wanted. If the game is very even and we are both close to winning we sometimes extend the score we are working towards to play for longer.

My only criticism of this game is, in this new version, the sea section is now in adjoining pieces that do not sit properly allowing the inner pieces too much movement and a messy board is the result. In the older version the tiles for the sea were the same as the tiles of land, and it was a much nicer looking board. We were so frustrated by the hopeless new design (our roads and settlements kept falling through gaps) that we had to score each sea section with a craft knife in two places so that we could force it to sit flat. The board is now better than the original because the sea holds it all together. The maufacturers should score these sections, because already some parts that we scored are not wearing as well as I would like and will, in time, look shabbier than if it was professionally done in the factory.

An excellent game
This is a 'must-have' for all intelligent gamers and for families (12 years and up) who are prepared to spend a little while learning the (fairly intuitive) rules and an hour or two playing the game.

The game is really not too tough to learn. The game board and pieces are attractive and durable. It takes a few minutes to set up and a game will probably last for an hour or two. Every game is different. There is always something for all players to do and you never seem to know who is winning until near the end.

If you really enjoy the game there are various extension sets available. I have purchased the 5/6 player extension and this works really well. My family have spent many hours playing this game.

I'll give you a Grain and a Sheep for an Ore...
I felt I just had to mention the whole bartering part of the game; it's great fun.
Like the previous reviewer, I love the new board and it's a lovely, snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug fit. I've introduced the game to a few friends, some of whom are not normally into games, and they all love it. If learning the game seems a bit too much effort they have their own dedicated website to teach you how to play!
If you're not sure about whether this game is for you, check it out and you'll see what it's all about.