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Mayfair the Settlers of Catan Board Game

seafarer's

When I first read about Mayfair the settlers of Catan board game on the Penny Arcade blog, they appeared to like it very much, so I figured I’d try it out one day, and now I finally bought it (along with the Cities and Knights and Seafarer’s expansions) and played it with a friend of mine.

It appears a bit simple at first (a 20 or so grid board with wooden play pieces) and the rules seem perplexed but once you master it, the game becomes a lot of fun.

You’ve a grid of plots that each have different terrain. That terrain interprets to a resource (i.e. a Forest gives you Wood, a Field gives you Grain, etc.). You place numbered disks on each plot which represent to numbers on a 2d6 roll (2-12, except for 7).

catan cities and knights

When that number comes up, any player with a settlement on the edge of the plot that has the number rolled gets a resource (in the form of cards in a deck). You can then take resources to build more settlements, cities and roads. You can also buy a card from the Development deck which is slanted towards one type of card unfortunately (the Knight) but some of the cards let you do stuff like buy something for less, steal resources from other players and the like.

There’s this robber concept where a robber sits on a desert plot and, when 7 is rolled, is moved by the player who rolled that 7. The robber cleans out anyone with more than 7 resource cards (you ditch half back to the deck) and then the player who rolled the 7 gets to take a card from a player adjacent to the plot where the robber is now located. Also, resources cannot be drawn from the plot the robber is on. It creates an interesting dynamic in the game and throws a nice curve into game play.

expansion

The ultimate destination is to get 10 victory points which you get by accepting settlements (1 VP), cities (2 VP), and any bonuses from the Development deck or by having the largest army (most knight cards above 3) or the longest contiguous road on the map.

You are able to make the game a bit better (in my opinion) by getting the Catan: Cities & Knights Expansion – New 4th Edition! Expansion which evolves the game play a bit more.

Even though the wooden pieces are a little bit of retro, they’re still nicely made, the cards are so solid and not flimsy, and the game board is made of solid cardboard which is very good in terms of the contents of the box.

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Author: Sammy IJ

Sam runs a blog that will help buyers and hobbyist to make the right buying decision with his cutting edge game reviews and toys reviews

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sammy_IJ

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Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan is a board game. It is designed to be played by 3 or 4 players (in the standard game), or up to 5 or 6 players with various expansion modules. The game, which was originally designed by Klaus Teuber, is well suited to family play, since no player gets eliminated from the game, setting up the game is quite simple, yet game play is dynamic and can be exciting. To date, the game has been translated into 25 different languages, and has sold more than 11 million copies.

The object of the game is to setup a colony on a previously uninhabited island known as Catan. The island itself is presented using a number of hexagonal tiles which are laid out randomly at the start of the game so as to form a map.

The players turns involve resource management, and trading and interacting with other players. Each player’s turn involves a combination of luck and strategy, and the goal is accumulate victory points by building settlements and upgrading them to cities. There is no combat between the players, however players can harm each other’s progress by refusing to trade, blocking access to resources, or use of a robber character than is involved in the game.

As already mentioned, in addition to the main game, there are various expansion modules and scenarios available. These includes additions for adding more players, exploring an archipelago ("Seafarers of Catan"), and historical scenarios such as building the pyramids of Egypt, building the Great Wall of China, or expanding Alexander the Great’s empire.

Author: Sunil Tanna

By S. Tanna. Discover more about Settlers of Catan at http://www.brainchallenges.com/settlers_of_catan.php

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sunil_Tanna

Winning at Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan is a great board game to play with a large group of people. There are many tips and strategies that you can use to put the odds of winning in your favor.

1.Expand

As soon as you are playing the game you want to expand it by building more roads and cities. When you build a ton of settlements and cities you will be able to get a ton of resources. Remember the more you have the more likely it will be that you get some resource every turn, which is always helpful.

By building roads as well as cities you can also create the longest road and which will give you a couple of victory points.

2.Don’t be a jerk, unless you are about to win

There are a couple ways to be a jerk to people in this game, most notably the infamous Robber and the Monopoly card. This is a game where you depend on other people, or other civilizations to help you trade with and to not turn against you. If you stab them in the back they will definitely remember it next time they have the robber.

Sometimes you have to put the robber somewhere and you aren’t going to hurt yourself so there are always exceptions to this rule. Likewise you don’t want to play the monopoly card unless you are going to win, or get very close to winning because of it.

3.Look for ports

Ports are always fun. They allow you to trade resources without having to rely on other people. At some point in the game it is probably your best interest to head over to a port, especially if it is a port that allows you to trade a resource you have a lot of.

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Author: John Rosenberg

For more on settlers of catan visit http://www.best-family-games.com/Settlers_of_Catan.html

For more games visit http://www.best-family-games.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Rosenberg

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Mayfair The Settlers Of Catan Board Game, Seafarers, Cities, Knights