Settlers of Catan

[Phoebe]

We have not yet played the Atlantis game although Santa did bring it to us, and he also brought us Settlers of Catan. We have started with this one. I find that this game somewhat neutralizes the negative tendencies of my gaming group AKA immediate family, insofar as it can be completed quickly regardless of how long people attempt to drag out their turns, it limits trading to specific moments during a specific person's turn so there is a minimum of crosstalk at the table, and there is only so much that can be accomplished by wheeling and dealing on the side. Players harm one another at various times by rolling a seven but the action is brief and limited and the way to reverse it doesn't require cooperating with anyone else. This is a great blessing for our family, that we can now play a strategy game that depends more on luck than on nefarious dealings. It feels sort of evenly balanced to me between luck and strategy.

I am interested in knowing, now that we have played multiple rounds, if people have particular setups they enjoy? Do you prefer to play with a random draw of the elements? Do you prefer preset arrangements of a certain kind? Are there twists that might make the strategy element more powerful relative to the luck of the dice? I personally think we should combine it with role playing.

What I don't like about the game is that you can't have five people play it once. Has anyone ever tried to modify it to make this possible, and if so was it a failure due to distributions or space on the board?

[Eliahad]

Quick answer that I have time for: there is an expansion that let's you play 5-6 players.

[Phoebe]

AHA! Thank you, I will investigate!

[Mando]

Our "normal" is shuffling the resource hexes, but we place the number tokens like the setup shows. I guess it could be made even more random if we shuffles the numbers too.

The 5-6 expansion should always be used for a quicker game. It allows faster expansion and keeps players from becoming locked into an area by the other players. Also more opportunities for resource harvesting.

The rule of Catan is that when everyone is resource poor trade suffers and nobody can progress.

Hmmm, I wonder what a Catan-vid 2021 with inflation and supply shortages and transportation issues would play like?

[Eliahad]

My experience with Catan was as follows:

I first played it with my family and it was terrible. We were taught the rules incorrectly, leaving out the information that you could /always/ trade 4 for 1. And secondly, leaving out that the robber actually takes something from someone adjacent to the landed on territory. This coupled with someone who couldn't deal with the 'randomness' factor of the dice, and people who didn't want to trade, ever, made it a terrible experience.

Then, many years later, I got to play with a group of people who were tournament level, and suddenly the game became amazing. Like, super amazing. The dice aren't that random. Yes, if you are waiting for that one die roll, you might be waiting for a long time, but it also means that you didn't diversify enough. You /can/ get hosed in this game, but good, clever play makes up for it. Experts also trade, a lot. It makes the game have flow.

I think the alternative setup in the box works pretty well. If I recall correctly it's, set up the border, shuffle the land tiles, then place the tokens from letter A on in a clockwise spiral out from the center? You might need to adjust one or two tokens after that...but not necessarily.

Aw man, now I want to play again.

[Phoebe]

We've tried it a few different ways now - today going to do it with a random shuffling of the cards and numbers.
I insist the people who go in the middle - i.e. those who are the last to pick home spot in the first round but the first to pick in the second round - have it the best because they can be sure of balancing their choices. So far whoever is in that position has won when we do a random distribution. But we also have a group of players really maximizing the smart choices. One of the things I like about the game is that it depends a lot less on the vicissitudes of personal dealings and persuasion, and pushes you to make smart choices about trading if you really want to win. Like sometimes you're going to trade and sometimes you're not going to trade, but it won't be as easy to influence if, just as a randomly selected for example, you are a very persuasive and deceptive kind of arguer.

[Phoebe]

Does anyone have the SEAFARERS expansion? I found the 5-6 player expansion and might get that one, though it's a bit pricey for my taste, and I examined various others but was not impressed because they seemed to involve using the same map with other tokens that modify what can be done. But the SEAFARERS adds new areas and things, and that looked a lot more exciting. Now I REALLYLLLYLYLYLLYLY want to play a round but everyone here including me is busy with work.

[Mando]

We have Seafarers. The boats are a nice twist. It has been a while but I think there are islands in that one and the thief is now a pirate.

I got Spacefarers Christmas of 2020 and it was the best.

[Phoebe]

YES I want a pirate, that would be even better.

[Mando]

Pirates is a different expansion altogether, but there is one black ship in the Seafarers game.

From what I can tell all Catan games except for Spacefarers will require the original Settlers of Catan game pieces to some degree. All the other varieties call themselves an "EXPANSION".