Description

One of the most successful games of all time, Settlers of Catan is a trading and building game set in the mythical world of Catan. Players roll dice to determine which resources are generated each round and then must strategically trade those resources with other players to get what they need to build their settlements, cities, and roads. With multiple ways to gain victory points and a board that changes in every play, Settlers of Catan is a game that can be played hundreds of different ways. The base of a hugely successful franchise, with multiple engaging expansions, Settlers is the core game of many collections, and is a wonderful way to spend time with family and friends. For 3 to 4 players.

Customer Reviews

 Love this game! - Jul 22, 2010

I played this game with friends - and really enjoyed it! We bought a game for our home and we love playing it! We play with two people just fine. I highly recommend this game!

 Turn Based Strategy - Jul 05, 2010

9 year old against 52 year old, makes a very fun game. Enough intricacies to keep it interesting, but very easy to master. Rolling the dice adds chance elements, controlling your pieces on the board encourages planning and strategy. Very fun, the pace is controlled by the players. Purchased for home, liked it... so purchased another as a gift. The only criticism I see, the board is a puzzle-like card field. Awesome because you can change the playing field from game to game! But I suspect those cardboard connections will weaken with time. We simply take care when putting the game away to keep it 'new'.

 A very enjoyable game - Jul 01, 2010

Having come back from an excellent holiday where I played this game a couple of times with my brother and nephews, I can say that this game was a great bonding experience - it is really good fun and it is not dominated by luck - skill is needed in terms of placing and strategy - the fact that the board changes each time is an added plus.

 Very original and addictive. - Jun 25, 2010

Settlers is a wonderful addition to your game shelf. The basis of playing revolves around economics; you gather and use five resources to build your settlements faster than the other players. This is quantified by "Victory Points" you accumulate by building cities, roads, and amassing an army, among other things.

The best part about this game is how free the players are when it comes to trading resources. This leads to a lot of politics and some backstabbing, which is really fun and unpredictable. Each game is randomized, so no two games will be alike.

Setup is easy and the game pieces are made of wood, a welcome rarity in the plastic gaming era. The only limiting factor is its narrow margin of number of players required. You need at least three or the game is too easy. Four gives players the best challenge but you won't be breaking out this game during parties unless you buy the 5-6 player expansion.

Settlers is a great game, and every circle of friends should have a copy.

 The funnest, most addictive game ever made! - Jun 22, 2010

This game is crazy. It is extremely fun if you like strategy games. It's like combining monopoly and risk, then shortening the gameplay down to about 30 min to an hour, and adding some extra awesome to it. I love this game. It takes a little while to set up but it's totally worth it.

 Best Game Ever - Jun 21, 2010

Buy this game. The board changes every time, many strategies, awesome expansions, and overall very friendly gameplay. Buy Seafarers also - its the best expansion (cities and knights also really good). They're all good. Just buy the combo pack with all expansions for $200 and you will never need a new board game again.

 Fun game for small groups - Jun 14, 2010

We have played Settlers of Catan several times and introduced people to the game. One of the most interesting features is the amount of change that can be encorporated into the game setup to make the game a little bit different every time it is played. The most educational aspect of this game appears to be the bargaining - children would learn the lesson that people need to make compromises that benefit themselves and others to be successful.

 Catan - Jun 10, 2010

This is one of our favorite games. My only complaint is that they give you a frame to put the hexes into, to keep them from spreading, presumably. However, they don't quite fit properly. It is still a great game, and I highly recommend it.

 Found a Fix - Jun 03, 2010

One of the biggest complaints I have seen for this edition of Settlers is that the border doesn't fit right. I had this problem too, so I tried to fix it by ironing out the pieces. It worked!

I set the iron for cottons (high) and used a dish towel to prevent the cardboard from being scorched. First I ironed the pieces port side down, sea side up for about 20 seconds. This caused the piece to warp significantly, but when I flipped it back over and ironed port side up it went flat. I tried port side up first but it didn't work out nearly as well.
Now the border fits together just fine.

 In par with Risk and Monopoly - May 28, 2010

I have played it several times and everyone enjoyed it. Complication and strategy wise it might be little bit easier than Risk but its quicker and more fun.

 An intelligent games for the whole family - May 26, 2010

I'm a big fan of board games, so much so I'm terrified the huge collection of them in my closet will someday collapse and bury me alive. Settlers of Catan is the game that gets played most in my family. Why? Several reasons:
1. The whole fantasy of settling an island, building roads, ports and cities is fun.
2. It has a perfect mix of strategy and luck.
3. Anyone age eight and up can play and have an almost equal chance of winning. I'll help the kids choose their starting places, but after that, they're on their own--and they do win as often as the adults do.
4. While the instructions seem complicated at first, once you start playing, you discover the rules are actually brilliantly simple.
5. Because you assemble the island before you start, you can make it a different game every time you play.
6. The Seafarer's Expansion makes the game even better.
7. Games are neither too short nor too long.
8. Everyone plays with ever turn, so no one gets bored waiting for his or her turn.

My only quibbles:
1. You can only play the game with 3-4 players, although expansion packs let you play with 5-6.
2. The cardboard pieces have warped over time, although this could be because a young guest accidentally turned ours into her own "seafarer's edition" by spilling water on it. The game isn't cheap, so it's a shame the pieces aren't made of sturdier stuff.
3. We're not crazy about thieves blocking resources, so we've changed that to allow for bribes. Essentially, if you roll a seven or play a knight card, you can choose one card from any player. Resources are only blocked if the other player doesn't agree to fork over the card.

This is the best board game you can buy that the entire family can play without ever a dull moment. Highly recommended.

 Super fun Non-traditional Game - May 21, 2010

This game is really a lot of fun. It is very different than any other game I have played. It is stratagy based and the game board can be put together in different ways each time so it makes for entirely different options and outcomes. Really fun and a nice change of pace.

 Great game - May 06, 2010

Excellent game -- if you like Monopoly but find it dated, this a great alternative. More thinking, more cooperation integral to game, ability to change environment with every game, and building tension as players near victory. Excellent.

 A thinking man's game..... - May 01, 2010

Simply one of the best game's ever made!
Addictive, and the game is never the same thing twice, so its play value is way up there.

 Settlers is the best board game ever!!! - Apr 25, 2010

I love Settlers of Catan for several reasons:

1) It's a strategy game, and requires a lot of thought in order for you to be successful in the game,

2) You get to bargain and make deals, and you can be as creative as you want with this - like making loans to people, selling futures, selling real estate, mortgaging property - the possibilities are endless! This game is perfect for those with enterprising spirits or any kind of business savy.

3) This game presents capitalism at it's finest, and would be a great way to teach younger people about economic concepts such as supply and demand, the price system, and how through trade we can improve our lives financially while also benefiting those we trade with, even as we make all trades due to our own self-interest.

The worst part of this game is that it's a little difficult to learn how to play at first, there is a lot to explain. This game is not for stupid people, and will be frustrating to people who don't take well to economic ideas.

Overall though, it's a fun use-your-brain game that's great for families and young adults.

 Great game, iffy build quality - Apr 20, 2010

Explaining the greatness of Settlers would be a whole review unto itself- Amazon provides an excellent description, and it's easier to say that if you regularly play board games with about four people (more through expansions), this is one of the best games you can buy. Catan is one of the kings of "Eurogames"- games entirely about the social aspect and mechanics of gaming, instead of the game's flavor or setting. It appeals to an audience that spans ages and cultures and generations, and you need to own it today.

The problem with this particular version is in the build quality, especially along the island borders. The borders are printed in too-light and too-easily-warped thin cardboard, or thick cardstock. They are supposed to interlock like jigsaw pieces, but due to the flimsy printing, they easily come apart. This quickly becomes an issue during setup, when you lay the hexes inside the border and it takes some help from everyone at the table to get things to line up decently. And if your table or tablecloth is anything less than perfectly flat, it's impossible to get things to fit exactly, and tiles may slip under the border if anyone jostles the setup.

So it's still an extremely fun game, and well worth playing. Much like playing chess on a cardboard dollar-store board versus playing it on a real board, there's quite a difference in the quality of play when you aim for higher-quality materials. I'd still recommend this version if it's the only one you can afford, or the only one you can get your hands on, but if you're already a fan and you want a board you can really put some miles on, I'd look elsewhere.

 Super Fun Game - Apr 14, 2010

Super fun game! I bought Settlers of Catan and the Cities & Knights expansion, along with the 5-6 player extensions for both games. A super fun way to spend an evening with family & friends! I hear it's kind of like Risk (which I've never played) - but better, because everyone is playing until the end, no one is kicked off, or eliminated, during the game. Always something to learn with the game, always a different twist, always a different way to win. So Fun!

 Lots of fun despite frustrating board quality - Apr 12, 2010

The instructions left something to be desired, but after an online tutorial we were off and settling, every day for a week! Even our family not usually drawn into gamefun and the 14yr old video-gamer enjoyed this one.

The biggest problem was the quality of the board. The edge pieces wouldn't stay connected, making the inner pieces slide around. Still fun to play but wish they made the pieces better.

 Absolutely fabulous game. - Apr 05, 2010

I have bought many of this game for my friends' kids.
They all love more than anything!
It is not a simple board game so grown-ups also can enjoy.
The game works not only with dices(purely luck-based), but also with your smart trading skills.

 One of the best board games ever - Apr 03, 2010

Catan is in my opinion one of the best board games of all time. It's amazingly fun to play. By the way: Catan is now also available on the iPhone but of course to play the actual board game is much more fun if you have some good friends around.

 FUN, FUN - Apr 01, 2010

Great game, different every time you set it up. If you're playing with less experienced people the game play is more like 2 hours not 1 hour as I have read at various sites.

 Best Board Game I've Ever Played - Mar 22, 2010

I love board games and strategy games. Risk used to be my favorite until I discovered Settlers. You create the board each games, so the board looks different every single game. No one strategy can be used every game. Endless board arrangements are available. The game is best suited for 3-4 players, but can be played with up to 6 with the 5-6 player expansion. The game is kind of a hybrid between Monopoly and Risk, but can be played in 60-90 minutes. It can be even quicker with more experienced players. You will not regret buying this game!

 Excellent Game - Mar 20, 2010

I was recently introduced to this game by a friend and became completely hooked after my first play through. In general, I like playing board games. I am the kind of person who will go out of their way to have an evening of Monopoly (if you're not cheating, you're not trying). I was a little worried this game would be too much like Risk. I typically tend to shy away from games like Risk simply because they take too long and far too much of the game relies on luck of the dice which I find to be frustrating.

Not so with Settlers. While there is an element of random luck, there is a definite sense of strategy. The rules are simple enough in that it takes about one play through and even the most casual of gamers will be able to start mulling over their plan of attack next time they play.

I was pleasantly surprised by the notion of an expansion pack for a board game. I also enjoy strategy computer games, and in a day and age when good strategy computer games are becoming harder and harder to find, I found the expansion pack feature to be rather exciting. I appreciate the fact that Settlers allows room for adjustment so that you could literally play just this base game hundreds of times and never the same way twice.

All in all, this game is an excellent buy. I have been playing it rather consistently for several months now and still enjoy it each time. I have also invested in the Cities & Knights and Seafarers expansions which I have found to be just as high quality as the original game.

 love it - Mar 15, 2010

the game came quickly and in great shape. It is a lot of fun, but a little hard to figure out at first if you have not ever played the game before.

 Great Game for Everyone! - Feb 22, 2010

I was amazed I had never heard of this game until now. A friend of ours recommended it while visiting, so we ran out and purchased the game right away. That night we played until 1 AM in the morning. This game is fun!

The instruction book is rather large, but the gist of the game is on the first two pages. My 8-year old daughter picked up the game right away and now wants to play all the time. I really like the fact that the game play is different every time. It is definitely a strategy style game and take a few games under your belt to start developing your own strategies.

Our edition came with extra plastic bags for all the pieces. And everything fits nicely into the box. The game board, at first, fit very tight into the surrounding edges. I found that if I took some of the hex pieces and just rubbed the edges on the table to flatten out the nubs created when punching them out of the cardboard that it fit nicely into the surrounding pieces. You might want to do that too.

If you like playing games, this is a must. This is our new 'family game night' game to play. For two players, the game play lasts 30 minutes to an hour. You can figure that for every extra person play, it will add about 30 minutes or so to the game play.

You can't go wrong buying this game!