tooth soup

photo credit: gadl

A few of

my friends and I sat down and popped the cherry on my newly gifted Settlers of Catan board game last night. We’ve only recently been exposed to the world of board games beyond Snakes-and-Ladders and Charade-likes, a world that apparently is ruled by ‘ze Germans’. This is not your typical board game, where a strict linear path is followed to victory, no no. This is a board game where your plans may involve the collection of bricks and wood, in order to build a road that can join two settlements, which will result in you collecting the ‘Longest Road’ achievement and net you two of the ten elusive Victory Points required to win. Your opponent, in the meantime, has gladly traded you the bricks which he has a glut of, for coal, which he can now use to upgrade one of his settlements to a city and purchase a wild-card that forces all the other players to, say, hand over all their sheep. He cackles maniacally as he shepherds these illicitly gained lambs into his arms. Previous to last night, there is no board game where I have heard a person cry out ‘YESSSS! You rolled an eight, I’ve finally got wood!’. Settlers of Catan introduces the concept of balancing interaction with the board (which is made out of hexagons–a truly European geometry if ever there was one) with interaction with other players. The former interactions are governed by luck–the role of the die. But the latter are pulled and pushed and twisted by market forces, tainted by personalities, and turned on their head by the various goals of the players. It’s Monopoly on crack cut with sherbet, but with a hard-cap limit on play that removes any chance of leaving the game out for completion at some later, apocalyptic date. In fact, despite us not knowing what the hell was going on for the first few turns, we hit the victory conditions in less than an hour and a half; a perfect time for an afternoon play over beers. Overall I’d give it the best rating for any board game I’ve played on any criteria scale you care to use. Most hobby shops/games places stock it, or you can look for cheaper versions online or for the computer if you prefer clicking, but I don’t think it would carry the same weight of experience as the desktop version.

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