Mindless Juices

So, the Settlers of Catan, originally from Germany, has taken the board game world by storm. Apparently, it's quite popular and if you haven't heard about it until me, it's actually a little surprising. First, the cons: It really requires three or more people. Games can go from as short as 30 minutes to as long as a number of hours. There is a certain amount of luck involved for those who like strategy. There is a certain amount of strategy involved for those who like luck. Now, the pros: There is a certain amount of luck involved for those who like luck. There is a certain amount of strategy involved for those who like strategy. Randomly generated board, so no two games are ever the same. Multiple ways to win, so you are never completely out of the game. There is trading among players for those charismatic people. There is trading with the "bank" for those hermits. There are expansion packs if you do ever get bored. There's theivery involved for those who like a little evil. There are some random penalties involved for those who like a little misfortune of fate. So, the first thing is that the board is laid out randomly. This means that the land cards which are next to each other (and therefore, determine which resources can be obtained by a single settlement/city) change each time. Next, the numbers that determine the likelihood of a land card producing a resource are also quasi-random. Lastly, the ports (which allow for favorable trading with the bank) also are placed randomly. So, the initial setup of the board changes every game. The quantity of the combos has got to be in the millions resulting in a different game EVERY time. HOWEVER, the randomness lends itself to game. After the initial randomness of the setup, the players get to choose the placement of their first two settlements in a VERY fair way. This allows for players to strategize. If there's a rock quarry land card near a rock port (allowing for favorable trades with rock resources), one may choose to build there. The game begins. Each player rolls the dice to start his turn. The number combo resulting on the dice determines which land cards produce resources. Any player with a settlement on a land card with the number of the resulting dice throw receives a resource for that land type. The turn proceeds with trading (with other players or the bank) and then building (of roads, settlements cities or development cards). Play continues just like that. There are rules about roads, settlements, development cards, etc., but I'm not teaching you the game, just getting your engine started, hopefully. The object of the game is to get 10 points. Now, each players starts off with two points, one for each initial settlement. So, the game is really to get 8 points, but that doesn't sound as good and it's harder to count up points if you don't count the first two settlements. You can build the longest road or the largest army or both. You can build more settlements and upgrade them to cities. You can purchase development cards and get instant victory points. *OR* you can do any combination of any of the above to earn your 10 points. There's a "robber" that allows players to steal cards from other players and hinder the resources created by a land card. You can "steal" the longest road or largest army points by building a longer road or a bigger army than the player currently possesing the title. And any player hoarding resources or just unlucky enough to have more than 7 cards in his hand when a seven is rolled on the dice (most common dice combo), has to reduce his cards by half until he is at or below seven cards. That can be an evil misfortune of fate late in a game. Strategy has players ganging up on the player in the points lead. Stealing longest road or largest army titles can turn the game quickly. A roll of 7 can lend some elements of fate that can stem the tide, reverse some fortunes, or simply level a playing field. And then, there's always the luck of the dice. No matter how few times probability statistics say a 9 or a 6 or a 5 should come up, it's always amazing how you play that game it's just 9 after 9 after 9 after 9... you get the idea. It's easy to wrap your head around when you're actually play I promise. As the game starts out simple and gets more complex as you play. For example, you don't have to worry about cities or longest road or largest army in the beginning. After your fisrt game, you'll have the rules & gameplay down pat and then it will only be a matter of strategy and luck.