I was browsing the Amazon Best Seller lists and noticed that Settlers of Catan was the number 2 item in the Toys and Games category. I’ve played many, many hours of and even once had a blog devoted exclusively to Settler’s of Catan (until their lawyers told me to shut it down). I recently even bought a second copy of Catan because the first version I bought was a “Gallery” edition, which is highly limited. I ended up getting the full version for me and my wife to play.
I love board games and I’ve written before about entrepreneur and startup board games. My sister-in-law must have known this because she gave me a copy of Klaus Teuber’s Catan Adventures, “Elasund, the First City“, which I haven’t played yet, but one reviewer said:
This game has just the right mix of strategy, randomness, and backstabbing to make it fun. You have to be careful, though. too much backstabbing and your wife will never play it with you again! There are multiple strategies you can use to try and win, such as being the first to start the building of the church which will inevitably destroy your opponents’ (or your) buildings if they lie in it’s path. Or you can concentrate on the city walls which will net you extra cards when pirates attack. or maybe you can just go for the straightforward approach and just start trying to build as much as possible and hope your opponents don’t steal your building permits. The randomness is just a roll of the dice but you can manipulate the outcome of that depending on how much influence you have. I mentioned backstabbing earlier; you can use your opponent’s building permits against them. This is a game where come-from-behind victories can be common if people take advantage of influence and let other players unwittingly help them build.
I almost lost my marriage and my kids over playing too much Catan. It’s very addictive. It’s also trademarked in case their lawyers are reading this.