Settlers of Catan Review

Baru masuk ini forum sehari udah bikin review... semangat amat sih...

Ngga sih, cuman I was really surprised almost NO ONE on the board has ever discussed this great and revolutionary game! So without further ado, here we go!

History: Published in 1995 by KOSMOS (Germany) and Mayfair Games (U.S.A), it soon became THE board game to start the fad. Of all the articles and podcasts written and done by the board-gaming community, I've seen only a few which does not include this great game when mentioning what had pulled them into board-gaming in the first place. In fact, Settlers of Catan is the FIRST EVER German-style board to achieve such popularity outside Europe. With its simple mechanics but fortunately complex dynamics, the game rapidly became a haven for those who are looking for an easy-to-learn family game but still deep with strategy and tactical gameplay.

Awards:

1995 Deutscher Spiele Preis.
1995 Meeples' Choice Award
1995 Spiel des Jahres
2004 Hra roku
2005 Gra Roku

Mechanics: In some games, it would become pretty obvious around mid-game to end-game who is going to win. In Settlers, the distance between each player is possible to be kept close. Unless a player is a complete noob to board-gaming, conclusions are always pretty much hidden till the endgame. In fact, I won my first Settlers game against experienced players. IMO, this game does a great job keeping the players on the edge of their seats. Plus, the board is set up randomly thus no game is ever the same. Moreover, a standard game only takes about 30-45 minutes.



Gameplay: The players represent the first settlers on the island of Catan. The island itself consists of randomly laid out hexes of different landscape. Numbered tokens are then placed on each of these hexes, except for the desert hex.



The land hexes are then surrounded by intertwined sea borders that keep the hexes intact. Each player start with two settlements and adjoining roads. Roads are built along an edge segment of the hexes, while settlements can only be built on an intersection of three hexes. As a rule, no two settlements may be built on adjacent intersections.



The placement of roads and settlements is a strategy in itself as it allows a player to prevent others from advancing to other parts of the island. Careful building is the key to victory. As the game goes on, settlements can be upgraded to cities, giving the player more victory points and producing more resources.

On his/her turn, a player rolls two dice to determine which resources are produced this turn. Although I know some Eurogamers are terrified of dice, this random element actually adds fun to the game. The settlements/cities that are positioned next to the land hex with the numbered token that are rolled that turn receive that particular resource. However, if the number 7 is rolled, the player who rolls it may move the robber that is initially placed on the desert hex and move it on top of a land hex to prevent another player from producing that particular resource when its number is rolled the following turns.



The resources are as follows: Brick, represented by the river hex, Ore, mountain hex, Wool, pasture hex, Wheat, field hex, and Wood, forest hex.



These resources will contribute towards building roads and settlements, upgrading settlements to cities and to obtain development cards which will help toward winning the game.



Another important element of the game is trading. Players can trade resources with the bank or by using the harbors following various trading ratios. But the most ingenious and fun method is to trade with other players, which, unlike any other type of trading, can be done outside the trading players' turns. Deciding which trades are the most advantageous to one's self without allowing others to advance too far towards victory is one of the most brilliant factors of the game. This holds the key to high player interaction which makes this seemingly dull game to one with lots of laughs and shouts!

The winner is the first player to obtain 10 victory points.


Components: Overall, the quality of the components are quite high, albeit nothing special. The roads, settlements and cities pieces are solid wood, along with the robber piece and the dice. The cards may be worn out after long, heavy use but that can be easily remedied with the appropriate card sleeves. The art, although it depicts nothing special other than a couple of knights, landscape and a sheep, is really good IMHO. The latest 4th edition of the game comes with in-box slots for all the components for easy storage.

Conclusion: All in all, without this game I won't even be into board-gaming at all. If you seek to introduce board games to your friends and/or trying to broaden your board-gaming group, this is the game for you. Even for board game veterans, I am sure this game will still see a lot of table time. So I say, take a shot at this game and be one of the growing population of Settlers lovers who are not embarrassed to say, "Got wood for sheep?"

wow very nice review, keren coy, packagingnya mantep and keknya boleh juga nih game kalo ga lagi di front line he5

baru join, langsung bikin review ... bagus banget pula ... ck ck ck ...

btw bro, ini di posting juga di BGG? kalo gw yang GeekMod so pasti kasih 5GG deh ...

Thanks bro reviewnya...

gua belom pernah nyoba nih, ketemu dunia boardgame langsung ngeloncatin SoC hehehe...

Ini foto2nya nyuri dari sono...

Lagian reviewnya udah banyak banget sekampung. Gua tambahin lagi kayanya redundant banget deh... LOL

@melchior28,
sudah pernah coba settlers of catan, the card game?

@mamakevin

blum pernah... tapi rasanya ga cocok utk card games deh... byk card games laen yg lebih bagus. i think original is still the best!

wahh thanks for a great review bro
jadi pengen beli dah nih game
tapi minimum maen bertiga ya ?

@Steve
Iya minimum maen bertiga. Walau ada variant utk 2-org tapi ga pernah nyobain. tapi paling asik bertiga-berempat deh. Kalo mau 5-6org mesti beli extensionnya.

kalo cardgamenya khusus untuk 2P loh ...

gw termasuk yang loncat juga, gak maen SoC tapi langsung game laen ... alasannya cuman satu, karna SoC masih pake dice ... game pertama gw Elfenland dan Bohnanza ... no dice ...

indofungames wrote:

kalo cardgamenya khusus untuk 2P loh ...

gw termasuk yang loncat juga, gak maen SoC tapi langsung game laen ... alasannya cuman satu, karna SoC masih pake dice ... game pertama gw Elfenland dan Bohnanza ... no dice ...

btw masih penasaran game SOC yg cardgame.. tapi g liat kok pake dice juga.. @dede Soc emang pake dice tapi ada strategy buat kurangin luck jg kok lewat penempatan house n road pertama kalo... g aja yang lmayan anti dice berpendapat Soc lumayan seru..

yup ... setuju meski pake dice tapi ada strategi nya dan seru ... cuman udah terlanjur waktu taon 2002 lalu, skip SoC, langsung maen ELfenland, Bohnanza, Princes of Florence, dll ... jadinya gak punya SoC deh ...

baru deh pas 2004 lalu cari game khusus 2P, beli si SOC cardgamenya ... gitu ceritanya ...

gw sih lebih tertarik kosmos punya spaceship catan !!!

kohee wrote:

gw sih lebih tertarik kosmos punya spaceship catan !!!

kok gw cari gak ad spaceship catan? starship catan kali ya? maennya kayak SOC juga yah?

eh iya starship catan maksud gw...salah hehehe
ini cuma buat ber 2 (box 2p kosmos)

jgn ketuker sama starfarers of catan lho yg ada roket plastiknya

nah kalo starship catan itu maennya mirip tapi tema diluar angkasa ya ?
kalo yg game kartu 2p itu gmn maennya ? wah keknya seru neh

Aku sih masih lebih prefer vanilla catan~. Spin-off catan mah udah banyak banget tp cuman branches dari original

Walau udah maen boardgame yg lebih susah, bukan berarti ga bisa balik ke SoC IMHO. Lagian kalo kita cek Ranking BGG, SoC adalah boardgame yg paling banyak di review loh.

Gak ada yang review soalnya udah pada ngerti semua hehehe, bercanda.

Anyway, SoC adalah gameboard pertama yang membuka mataku. Dari situ aku ketemu boardgamegeek dan mengetahui banyak board game lainnya. Apa itu monopoli, ular tangga, ato ludo, cuiiih. Jadi, SoC sekarang mungkin bukan menjadi game nomer 1 dalam diriku, but it's still placed in a special place within my heart.

Nice~

Aku cuma maen sekali blum maen lagi. Ntar deh kalo udah pada kebiasa.