Settlers Of Catan Supergame

In addition to playing a half-dozen Dungeons and Dragons sessions during my vacation, we played several Settlers of Catan games.

Here's one game, with a photo taken from the second floor loft of my Aunt's cabin. Starting on the left and going clockwise, a brother-in-law, a nephew, brother, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, brother, sister-in-law, and myself (the empty seat) are playing an eight-player game of Settlers.

My wife was playing, but she had to step away from the table as three of her nieces (from her side of the family) had just arrived and she was getting them organized and oriented into a spare bedroom, so one of my brothers-in-law took over her spot at the table.

We had two more relatives who wanted to play in the game, but there were only 8 sets of game-pieces. We have since rectified that situation, buying two more sets of game-pieces since my return home from the cabins. We can now play a 10-player game if the interest is there.Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/settlers%20of%20catan
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Playing Settlers Of Catan

We made a day of it: first to see the new Toy Story 3 movie with some friends and their son, then back home for a bite of supper and a game of Settlers of Catan.

Once again, our luck failed us and we were beaten by Pamela (who was playing the pink pieces) but, as usual, only a few points separated us from the winner.

I enjoy our games of Settlers of Catan. It has a little D&D endgame vibe to it, as each of the participants play a Prince (or Princess) of Catan, competing with each other to grow the largest and most successful principality. If only it had some army-to-army combat rules, it might be a fast-playing empire-building system for D&D. The economics are admittedly oversimplified, but that's what makes it such a quick game to play.

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Settlers Of Catan: Mighty Empires Tiles

I posted earlier about using the new GW Mighty Empires tiles to create a D&D sandbox game.



I also think they would be great to build a Settlers of Catan board. The Mighty Empires tiles snap together, and this would make it easier to build a board, as the Settlers of Catan game usually needs a frame to hold all the tiles in place.


Someone had the same idea, and posted their version of the Mighty Empires / Settlers of Catan hybrid board over at boardgamegeek.


Great minds think alike.
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Board-making in Settlers and Magic Realm

Settlers of Catan and Magic Realm share (at least) one game feature. Both use hexagonal tiles to create the game board.



While they share this feature, they use those hexagonal tiles very differently.


In Magic Realm, the game is played on the tiles themselves. Each tile has a number of "clearings", and the characters in Magic Realm move from clearing to clearing, along pre-determined roads. You cannot move from one clearing to the next, unless there is a road between the two clearings, which is part of the interest of the game: you must sometimes take a rather circuitous route to get where you are going.


Compare this to Settlers of Catan. In Settlers, the game is played along the edges of the tiles, rather than on the tiles. You build your roads along the edges, between two tiles, and you place your towns and cities at the intersections of three tiles.


Both use hexagonal tiles, but use them in completely different ways.


In D&D I have always used the interiors of the hexs themselves, when mapping features, roads and settlements. It never occurred to me to use the edges of the hexes to locate the roads, rivers and settlements.


This would be an interesting was of using the hexes.




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In Praise of the N00b

We have awesome neighbors.

We live on a quiet culdesac in Citadel, which used to be the community at the highest elevation in Calgary (it's named Citadel for a reason ... back, foul devils!). We have the good fortune of having a great bunch of neighbors. Weekend get-togethers, group camping trips, a yearly block-party, impromptu driveway parties, we enjoy spending time with them.

Recently, we have been teaching the neighbors how to play Settlers of Catan. They seem to be enjoying the game, and this gives us another opportunity to get together with them. More players to get a pick-up game going never hurts!

My point here is, that they were all N00bs, or Newbs, when we started playing Settlers with them. Now several of them are really beginning to show their chops, and the games are getting quite competitive (in a good way). I don't know if this is as big a problem as I imagine, but treating new players (to any game) with distain or derision is a good way to limit your hobby, and also limit your own personal growth.

I enjoy gaming with N00bs. I think they bring a fresh perspective to any game that I quite enjoy. Us grizzled old gamers can learn a thing or two, about immersion, from those newer players.

Hug a N00b today.Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/settlers%20of%20catan
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Settlers of Catan

Honestly, I resisted playing this game as long as I could.

I have a large extended family. I'm talking large here. I have seven siblings, roughly 50 cousins, and probably just as many second cousins, not to mention 9 nieces and nephews. Easily half of my siblings, and a third of my cousins, play Settlers of Catan. They started playing roughly five years ago, and they often invited us to come and learn to play, but we usually begged off. I'm sure part of it was because they all seemed so well versed in the game, and we were afraid of being badly outmatched. But we also heard the post-mortems, with one person being mad at another for being cut-off, or for playing a particularly nasty card against them.

We were finally roped into a game, a couple of years ago, under false pretenses (we were invited over for dinner, and afterwards, the Settlers boardgame appeared on the table) but have enjoyed the game ever since.

I mention this game, not to review it (there are lots of good Settlers sites on the web) but to discuss the applicability of its rules and mechanics to the OD&D endgame.

I mentioned levels of abstraction earlier. One of my frustrations with the D&D endgame is the lack of structure around stronghold and empire-building. Once you have "plunked" down your stronghold, it is assumed that you will derive a certain amount of resources from the hexes you control, regardless of the productivity, resources available, or populace. There is also little in the way of rules to govern upkeep of your empire, from building and maintaining roads, providing improvements and benefits to your subjects, maintaining your army, interacting with other empires, and so on. Some of these can happen at the micro level, I suppose. But part of the attraction of the endgame was to control kingdoms, direct armies, and oversee the macro operations.

One of the interesting things about Settlers of Catan is that it both recognizes that different kinds of resources come from different kinds of terrain, but also recognizes that some areas are more productive than others. It would be interesting to add those sorts of considerations to the OD&D endgame.Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/settlers%20of%20catan
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