Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan is one of my favourite board games of all time (up there with Trivial Pursuit, Boggle, Scategories & Cranium) it's a strategy game, similar to Risk but more about cultivating a world than over-taking other people's worlds.



"Gameplay:

The players in the game represent the eponymous settlers, establishing a colony on the previously uninhabited island of Catan. The island itself is laid out randomly at the beginning of each game from hexagonal tiles ("hexes") of different land types. Numbered tokens are then placed on each of the tiles, except for one desert hex.^[5]

Starting with two settlements and adjoining road sections, players build roads, settlements, and eventually cities as they settle the island. Roads are built along the edges of the hexes, and settlements at the corners; no two settlements may be built on adjacent corners. Positioning of roads and settlements allows a player to deny other players access to essential resources, and good building is one route to victory.^[4]

Each turn, a roll of the two dice determines which hexes produce resources. This is the main random element in the game. Normally, players with settlements adjacent to those hexes receive resource cards of the appropriate type, with cities yielding more resources. However, if the dice roll is 7, the "robber" token must be moved to a different hex. This allows the player to prevent that hex from producing resources and to steal a resource card from another player.

The resource cards can be spent to build more roads or settlements, upgrade settlements to cities, and to obtain development cards for later use; or they can be stored for trade or later use. When a seven is rolled, players with too many stored resources lose half their stored resources, making the choice of whether to build or store resources a difficult one.

Players are allowed to trade among each other the resources they have produced, and to trade "off the island" for a hefty price. By building settlements in certain positions, players may obtain better off-island trading prices. Bad luck in the game can be mitigated by trading, and trading is the main method of player interaction in the game; astute trading is another route to victory.^[4] If a player is winning, other players may refuse to trade; this allows them to catch up with the leader.

A player receives a victory point for each settlement built, and another for each settlement upgraded to a city. Various other achievements, such as establishing the longest road, grant a player additional victory points. The victor is the first player to possess ten victory points on his turn.

There is no combat. Apart from moving the robber, refusing to trade, cutting off building routes, and using certain development cards, there is no way to harm other players. The layout of the board and restrictions on building allow for a player to be boxed in through poor play or bad luck. Also, given the random component of the board layout, it's possible for a player to gain a monopoly on a certain resource, then demand steep trade rates from the other players. Home games generally take between one and two hours to complete.

Teuber's original design was for a large game of exploration and development in a new land.^[6] Between 1993 and 1995 Teuber and Kosmos refined and simplified the game into its current form. Unused mechanics from that design went on to be used in Teuber's following games, Entdecker and Löwenherz. The game's first expansion, Seafarers of Catan, adds the concept of exploration, and the combined game (sometimes known as "New Shores") is probably the closest game to Teuber's original intentions.^[1"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_Catan

There are quite a few different expansions for the game as well as the original board games, as well as expanders to allow for more people to play the original and each expansion including Seafarers of Catan & Knights & Cities. Plus a whole slew of other Catan games based on the original including Starfarers of Catan & Catan Kid's.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wiki/page/Catan_Series

There is also an online version of the game that can be found here:
http://catanonline.com/

The one I want the most is the Settlers of Catan 3D Collector's Edition!



http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/104903