Any 'Settlers of Catan' fans out there?

[Jayems]

My Fiancee and I were introduced to the Settlers of Catan board game by her family not too long ago, and now we love it. Anyways, those who know of the game, you may be interested to know that there is a free, online multilayer site that has the game (including cities and knights, which is too complicated for me ) Anyway, it's called "xpolorers" on this site. Sign up for free, don't have to give anything but a username and a password.

Here's the site. Click on the first map image to get in.

ASO Games

[HPLovecraft]

Supposed to be the best board game out there!

I used to be huge into board games before I moved to Toronto, where I have no friends except my girlfriend. She's not big into board games... She tried Axis & Allies once, but that didn't turn out well. Maybe we'll give Settlers a shot.

[JiriHrdina]

It's a great game - haven't played it in a few years but there was a time when it was a weekly occurance.

The city and knights is the best expansion kit. The sea-farers one isn't very good.

[flip]

Have some friends that are quite fond of it. I prefer Diplomacy, although I've only played it once, I like that it doesn't have any elements of chance involved to win. But you need 6 people (at least) to play a comfortable game.

Honestly I'd rather play hold em or omaha any day to board games.

[STeeLy]

I can't say I like the game, but I definitely don't mind it. It's a fun game to play when I'm sober and actually know what I'm doing (Actually, that goes for most board games). It took me a while to understand the rules... but when you know them, it can be fun.

[Rathji]

I love it and since it is one game that my wife wants to play it is our primary choice when it comes to non-Wii related gaming.

[ricoFlame]

we played it quite a bit 3 or 4 years ago, but kinda phased it out. great game though, tons of fun once everyone knows how to play.

[red sky]

Great game for sure and I agree that Cities and Knights is the best expansion so if you buy one, buy that one.

[BlackEleven]

Great game. You can also play Carcassone on that site under the name Toulouse (I guess they just picked another city in France that's close by). It's a lot of fun as well. I play it quite frequently with my sister since we live in different cities and we can't get together to play.

[JohnnyFlame]

Bit of a pain when you get the Seafarers expansion and discover it does not work with the older versions of the original game. So I had to hunt around and finally this year found the adapter pieces at "Revolution".

[troutman]

A good gateway game to the "Euro" style board game. There is a tournament every May long weekend in Edmonton. Other such games include Ticket To Ride, Pirate's Cove and Carcassonne. Settlers is a bit too luck dependent for some - the dice can go cold for you.

http://tripalot.com/games/catan.htm

Beyond that, try Puerto Rico, El Grande, Princes Of Florence, Power Grid, Race For The Galaxy.

There are some great games stores in Calgary - The Sentry Box and Revolution.

http://www.sentrybox.com/

http://www.revolution-games.com/shop/

The top board games as rated at boardgamegeek:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browser...=rank&rank=1#1

A new game, Agricola has unseated Puerto Rico as the # 1 game.

Many of these games can be played on-line here:

http://www.brettspielwelt.de/

[Top Shelf]

Loved the board game and played it quite often before our friends and us all had kids. Now it is nearly impossible to sit for a few hours and play.

I have used the ASO site for a few years now and it is really good. You can play against the computer or real people. For people who love Settlers, but don't have the time, ASO is a pretty good option.

Oh yeah, Cities and Knights is a million times better then the original, but you can play either one on that website.

[mykalberta]

If you have a 360 you can buy it from the marketplace.

Yes its a fantastic game, I have the Anniversary Edition of it. The game is great.

[troutman]

Strategy Article:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/197511

I am going to give you my absolute most valuable tip. At the end of a few games of settlers, write down where folks put their first two cities with regard to vertices. Don’t worry about whether or not the vertices have ore, wheat, wood, or whatever. Just write down the numbers. As each person places a new settlement, write down the vertices of where these go. Write down where they built there first city – was it on an 8/5/4 vertex or a 6/3/11 vertex? Remember, what resources they actually get is totally unimportant, just the numbers.

There are always anomalies, but over the long haul, you’ll find that MOST of the people who win are winning because they have a good distribution of numbers – regardless of what their stated strategy is. A person will often say, “Oh, well, I just tried to get all the ore in the game.” But is that really how they won? Or is it possible that they inadvertently employed some other strategy that had far more to do with the outcome than simply “get all the ore.” Keeping a log of wins/losses, and starting/ending number distribution, will show you over a number of games what’s really working for the winners.

People will keep telling you that Settlers is about the resources, but I promise you, it is about the numbers. If I can’t convince you of that, you should probably stop reading right here. If you can suspend your disbelief long enough to continue, I think you’ll find some really great stuff in here.

The best strategy of all is to diversify – and I’m not talking about resources. You should try to get on as many different numbers as possible to ensure that whatever gets rolled, you get a resource. Above all else, it is of paramount importance to get a good spread of numbers. Grabbing 6, 8, 5, 9, 4, and 10, are a first priority. You may also eventually want to expand to 3 and 11 if there is a particularly valuable or rare commodity on those hexes. For example, if sheep is only available on hexes 2, 3, and 11, you will probably eventually want to build toward a 3 or 11 hex. Both 3 and 11 can be ignored throughout the game, however.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Settlers of Catan is a fantastic game! I've been playing for a few years, and although I can't say I'm particularly good, I enjoy it a lot.

[fredr123]

I've found that Settlers of Catan is a fantastic barometer of geekiness. People who know about it and have played the game tend to test very highly on the geek scale.


Now that I've insulted 80% of CP members, I do have to admit that I know about Settlers but have not in fact played the game.

[kootenayguy9]

I play Settlers of Catan at jsettlers.com. I have to admit I am quite addicted to it and usually play a couple of games every day. I now have over 4500 wins at Case's Ladder using this site.

I guess that means I have a really high level of geekiness. Yikes........I better stop playing.

[ChuckieNZ]

I'll second Troutman's recommendations. Settlers of Catan is a great introduction to the Eurogame genre, and if you enjoy the game I would highly recommend delving into other games like Power Grid, El Grande and the like.

But, to measure really high levels of geekiness, the real question is "Any 'Die Macher' fans out there"?

[flamingchina]

My household plays it all the time.
Introduced my girlfriend to it over christmas, and now she's having dreams of it...
A little scary really...

[Fire]

I started playing the Catan a few months ago. I haven't tried the Cities and Knights version yet.