Settlers of Catan - Looking Forward to Live

The Settlers of Catan is one of my favourite board games. I first played the game a number of years ago and immediatley thought the game was one of the best I've played. The game soon became a favourite of the weekly sessions but unfortunately we overdosed on it's gaming goodness and after a while it got replaced by newer kids on the block. Luckily, it was recently dusted off and brought back into the fold once more.

It's a simple game (in a nutshell): The island of Catan (game board) consists of randomly placed tiles representing different landscapes: moutains, fields, pastures, forests and hills and each kind produces a different resource: ore, wheat, sheep, wood or brick respectively. In addition each tile will have a number (2 - 12 excluding 7) placed upon it.

At the start of the game each player has two settlements and two pieces of road that are placed on the game board. Your settlement placement is critical as some resources will have a higher probability of being generated. With a bad placement you will soon find that your expansion slows to a snails pace while your opponents race ahead.

Players take turns to throw a pair of six sided dice, the result determines which tiles will produce that turn. Every player that has a settlement adjacent to the producing tile will recieve a resource for each (or two if the settlement is a town). During their turn players may build, trade resources, buy or play an action card. Resources are used to purchase new settlements, pieces of road, action cards or you may upgrade an existing settlement to a town.

Whenever a 7 is rolled that player must discard down to 7 resource cards, however on the upside they get to move the "robber baron" onto another tile and steal a resource card at random from any player adjacent to that tile. For as long as the baron occupies the tile then it will never produce a resource.

Points are awarded for each settlement, town or "points" card. In addition players can score points if they own the longest road or have played the most "knight" action cards. The first player to 10 victory points is declared the winner.

It's exciting to see that Settlers of Catan is coming to the Xbox 360 arcade this summer (rumoured May release). Although there have already been PC online versions of the game, this iteration should fit perfectly into the "live" environment. It's nice to see the game getting a shiney coat with some pretty graphics to help further the experience.

So far it looks as if the game is staying true to its boardgaming roots, and the designer Klaus Teuber looks to be involved to some degree. I have high hopes for the finished game. Am I looking forward to this game? You bet I am!

Catan Live: Official Site