And he passed the time playing a board game called "Romans Vs. The country was picking up the pieces after World War II. SCHMITZ: "Settlers Of Catan" designer Klaus Teuber grew up in 1950s Germany. It is just a remarkable achievement in game design. And even when it's other players' turns, you're not sitting around waiting. SCHMITZ: Erik Arneson is author of "How To Host A Game Night." In his two decades writing about board games, he's never seen anything like "Catan," a modular game where the board is different each time you play it and where the object is not obliterating your opponents but trading with them.ĪRNESON: Every player is involved throughout the whole game. It's one of the bestselling board games of all time.ĮRIK ARNESON: "Catan" was revolutionary, and its impact continues today.
In its 25th year, "Catan" has sold more than 32 million units. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is a fan, as is LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who plays the game in job interviews as a way to size up an applicant. UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Why in the world would I need brick? Players compete for resources on an island and trade with each other in order to build settlements, cities and roads.
SCHMITZ: It's a game of trade and development. UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Two bricks for anything. And my family has dusted off Monopoly, Scrabble, but we usually settle on "Settlers Of Catan." More brick.įamily game night - we've done this a lot this year, thanks to the pandemic. And as NPR's Rob Schmitz reports, many people are turning to a classic one from Germany. If you play according to this variant, you also may immediately use a newly built harbor for maritime trade (trade with the bank at an improved rate).In the pandemic, board games are back. The players may trade, then build, trade again, build again, etc. The "first trade, then build" order is no longer observed. If this isn't possible, the robber stays in the desert.
At the beginning of the game, when all players still have less than 3 victory points, the robber must thus be placed on a hex that doesn't have a settlement adjacent to it. It is not allowed to place the robber on a terrain hex marked with a number if a player who has less than 3 victory points owns a settlement adjacent to this hex. The following variants are highly recommended: The likelihood of receiving better trade offers increases, and the robber avoids your terrain hexes. The less you trade, the more advantages you are giving away.Ī little bit of complaining at the right time often works wonders. Trading with an opponent gives you and your opponent an advantage over the other players. If you trade cleverly, you improve your chances to win the game. Then you can trade 2 wool for any 1 other resource of your choice. Harbors are of particular importance if you can expect a good production of a particular resource.įor example, if you have settlements adjacent to pasture hexes marked with good numbers, you should, as soon as possible, build a settlement on a coastal intersection next to the 2:1 wool harbor. For example, owning a settlement adjacent to two terrain hexes marked with a 6 and an 8, respectively, is more favorable than owning a settlement adjacent to two terrain hexes each of which is marked with an 8. This is the only way to receive as many different resources as possible, thus avoiding expensive trades with the bank.Ī broad distribution of numbers is also beneficial. You should make sure that your first two settlements are adjacent to all terrain types if possible. Therefore, at least at the beginning of the game you should build settlements adjacent to terrain hexes marked with numbers close to 7. This shows that the closer the numbers are to 7, the more frequently they are rolled. If you roll 2 dice 36 times, the statistical distribution of the results is as follows: I'll also give you a description of two variants I like to play.ġ. I wrote down a couple of tips for you, so you can avoid having a similar experience. As you can imagine, I hardly received any resources for the settlement I had placed between terrain hexes marked with the numbers 2, 12, and 3. Well, nobody had told me that with two dice the numbers 6 and 8 are rolled much more frequently than the numbers 2 and 12. I lost my first game of CATAN resoundingly.
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