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The Man Who Built Catan

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Re: The Man Who Built Catan

#51

Post by jl6 »

nogridbag wrote: post #44
Pxtl wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll disagree with the Catan-is-less-complicated. For one thing, Monopoly builds on the familiar roll-and-move mechanic. For another, Catan's setup process is hellishly complex. Maybe if you bought the Family Edition (where you can't customize the board), then Catan is simpler, but otherwise? Catan's manual is short because it's excessively terse. I've never seen anybody successfully learn Catan from the instruction…

Oh wow. Apparently, I've been playing Catan incorrectly the whole time. I never knew an opposing player's settlement can obstruct my own path (and split a path into two).

It definitely splits a longest road but does it obstruct you in building further?

Re: The Man Who Built Catan

#52

Post by krrrh »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #2

I've got a little story as to how addictive Catan can be to some people... About 15 years ago, a friend came to visit in my country with Catan. The simple, original box. He stayed at my place and for days my friend, my roommate and his girlfriend and me kept playing it. Then my friend left back to its country and took his Catan with him. We were so addicted and wanted to play really badly, but it was saturday evening…

Some friends and I made a single-use board with felt markers some years ago. It's also fun to customize the resources to your local environment. Debating how resources should combine was at least as fun as playing.

http://flickr.com/photos/dorywithserifs/3745799327

Re: The Man Who Built Catan

#54

Post by ojii »

habosa wrote: post #8

"The company originally sourced all of the materials for the game from Europe, but, when demand began to take off, the manufacturers didn’t have enough wood to keep up." Couldn't they have traded some grain or ore?

you never trade wood, roads...

Re: The Man Who Built Catan

#55

Post by daliusd »

locusm wrote: post #53

I never played Catan but wondered if it was suitable for kids 8-12 yrs old? Also, anyone play "Escape from Colditz"? man I loved that game as a kid.

Suggested age is from 10 (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13/the-settlers-of-catan).

If you want simpler but equally fun game for younger kids you should look into "Ticket to Ride". My 7 years old daughter demands me to play this game each day.

Re: The Man Who Built Catan

#56

Post by nl »

twoodfin wrote: post #33
mdmarra wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monopoly only drags on for hours if you play by silly house rules like $400 for landing on Go, money for landing on Free Parking, or not requiring an auction when passing on purchasing a property. All of these common house rules artificially extend the game by either injecting cash into the game or slowing the acquisition of property. A vanilla game of 4 player monopoly should take no more than an hour.

In my experience Monopoly games played by the official rules with experienced players would drag endlessly due to trade negotiations. Typically, whenever a player was clearly in an advantageous position, the remaining players would form a loose alliance, shuffling properties and cash in an attempt to stymie the leader. The leader would fall back into the pack, a new leader would emerge, and the whole process would re…

*In my experience Monopoly games played by the official rules... Any thoughts on what we were doing wrong?"

I'm guessing you weren't actually following the rules[1]. If you do follow the rules you'll find liquidity gets sucked out of the game by continual reselling because you are only allowed to sell unimproved properties, and have to sell houses & hotels back to the bank at half price.

[1] http://richard_wilding.tripod.com/monorules.htm#sellingprope...

Re: The Man Who Built Catan

#57

Post by andyjohnson0 »

locusm wrote: post #53

I never played Catan but wondered if it was suitable for kids 8-12 yrs old? Also, anyone play "Escape from Colditz"? man I loved that game as a kid.

Definitely suitable, in my experience. One of my children is in the middle of that age range, and the other is just below it. They both enjoy playing the game.

Re: The Man Who Built Catan

#58

Post by epsylon »

chimeracoder wrote: post #3

Catan was my first German-style board game[0]. I've since "graduated" on to more complicated games, so I rarely play it anymore, but I find that it's an effective "gateway" German-style board game. Almost all of my friends who have played it love it, and have gone on to try (and enjoy) other German-style games. Catan is nice because it's sufficiently more complex (and well-designed) than Monopoly so as to be interest…

To be honest, Monopoly is really a terrible game. It's mostly a game of luck (getting the good dice rolls).

Catan is nice, but it does suffer from the same problem, the dice rolls influence way too much of the game.

My personal favorites for long games are: The Game of Thrones board game, which is really awesome with the right set of players because it favors a lot diplomacy and strategy (the biggest problem with it is the randomness of the cards, but you can patch the rules to correct that); Eclipse, a 4X strategy game, quite balanced and with interesting rules (the bigger your empire is, the more costly your actions are); Civilization the board game, which is also extremely well balanced (all games I've played have seen cultural, financial, military and technological victories being competitive); and finally, for some good fun with friends, Battlestar Galactica (w/ expansions), which is a classical cooperative board game with traitors (except for a few twists). The tense atmosphere of the TV show is well re-transcribed in the game.

For short to averagely long games, my favorites are Agrikola, Race for The Galaxy with the first two expansions (I've probably played hundreds of games of this one at this point), Olympos, Caylus, Power Grid (with slight patches to the rules), Smallworld...

If you like games with no chance at all, try Intrigue. It is a game of pure negociation and backstabbing, and you may end up angry with your friends after playing it :-) (which is why it gets very polarized reviews on BGG and equivalents; much like the GoT board game, it is a game where you have to make alliances and betray them in order to win).

Re: The Man Who Built Catan

#59

Post by tfgg »

pliny wrote: post #46
tfgg wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Oxford there's http://www.thirstymeeples.co.uk/ . It's really good for finding new games, as they've got roaming board game specialists that will recommend a new game, help you get set up and teach you the basics. I just wish they'd get an alcohol license ;) (if only to help their profitability!) After playing a fair bit of Catan, I tend to get frustrated with how it's just a bit too random to establish complex st…

How do they keep the food off the games? Is everything covered in plastic?

It's honestly not an issue I've ever seen come up... though I have wondered about how the extent of wear and tear on the games over time is going to affect their business model.

Re: The Man Who Built Catan

#60

Post by kidb »

jl6 wrote: post #51
nogridbag wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow. Apparently, I've been playing Catan incorrectly the whole time. I never knew an opposing player's settlement can obstruct my own path (and split a path into two).

It definitely splits a longest road but does it obstruct you in building further?

I'm too lazy to look it up right now, but I think you can continue to build on the road, BUT if they put a settlement at the end of your road you can't continue to build.

E.g. if [x] is your settlement, [o] is an opponent's and = is a road:

[x]==[0]= <-- you can build another road here [x]==[0] <-- you can't build another road

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