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The Settlers of Catan | 
| Brand: MayFair Games
Category: Toy
List Price: $42.00
Buy New: $33.60
You Save: $8.40 (20%)
New (40) Collectible (1) from $28.00
Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 67
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 10 - 99 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 3 x 11.6
MPN: 0029877030613
Model: 4102480
UPC: 029877030613
EAN: 0029877030613
ASIN: B000W7JWUA
Release Date: November 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| | All new 4th Edition!! | | | New Graphics!! | | | New Card Art!! | | | New Packaging & Tiles!! | | | Full Color Rules Book |
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| Accessories:
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| Similar Items:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon. com Review
The Settlers of Catan from Mayfair Games is an award-winning strategy game where players collect resources and use them to build roads, settlements and cities on their way to victory. The board itself is variable, making each game a little different from the next. Each round of The Settlers of Catan is intended to keep three or four players ages 10 and above engaged for up to 90 minutes. 
The game map changes every time for an endless variety of play. View larger. | 
Settlers of Catan engages both children and adults, garnering best-seller status in both Germany and the US. View larger. |  | What We Think
Fun Factor: 
Durability: 
(what this means)
The Good: Engaging strategy game that's different each time you play
The Bad: Requires three or four players
In a Nutshell: The Settlers of Catan is fun, easy to learn, and keeps advanced players on their toes | At a Glance
Ages: 10 and up
Requires: Three or four players
|  | | On the Road to Settlement
The game rules and almanac booklet sets out four pages of guidelines for getting started. Don't worry, the rules are straightforward and the four pages include plenty of illustrations. There's a starting map that shows a well-balanced set-up for beginners to follow and directions that allow more advanced players to lay out the map of the island at random. You'll have to pop the die-cut components of the game out of their cardboard holders before you play your first game. The almanac portion of the booklet is laid out alphabetically, so while playing you can find answers to specific questions quickly. Useful entries remind you exactly what role pieces like the robber play, how actions like maritime trade work, and how to set up the board or finish the game. Exploring and Developing Catan
The board consists of 19 terrain hexes surrounded by the ocean. Each type of terrain produces a different type of resource: brick, wool, ore, grain or lumber. There's also a desert hex that produces no resources. As the game progresses, players use resources to build roads along the edges of these hexes and settlements or cities on the intersections where three hexes meet. Each player begins the game with two settlements and two roads. Each player's roll of the dice causes certain hexes to produce resources, which you collect if you have a settlement on one of them. On your turn, you'll use various combinations of the resources you've acquired to build new roads and settlements, upgrade settlements to cities, or purchase development cards. The ability to trade resources with other players adds a new level of strategy and ensures that the game includes lots of interaction between players. You can also trade without worrying about other players using an unfavorable maritime trade rate. Elements including a robber piece that lets you steal from other players and a variety of development cards add intrigue to the game. The objective of The Settlers of Catan is to be the first one who collects 10 victory points. Each settlement is worth one victory point and each city is worth two victory points. You can also earn victory points by holding the "Longest Road" card, the "Largest Army" card, or special victory point development cards. Best-Selling Game of the Year
It's easy to see why The Settlers of Catan has been recognized as a best-selling Game of the Year in both Germany and the U. S. We found this game to be fun and engaging for both children and adults, and the variable nature of the playing field really made us want to play again and again. When we started pausing to contemplate our opponents' strategy and factoring the probability of different dice rolls into our moves, the game sometimes took longer than expected, but we were so engrossed we didn't even notice until it was all over. Due to the widespread popularity of the original game, several expansion sets (sold separately) are available that allow you to explore new aspects of the game or add more players. The only downside to this game is that you need to have either three or four players to play, so it's great that expansion sets are available that will allow you to add players. What's in the Box
Six sea frame pieces, 19 terrain hexes, nine harbor pieces, 18 circular number tokens, 126 game cards, 16 cities, 20 settlements, 60 roads, two dice, a robber and a rules and almanac booklet.
Product Description
One of the most successful games of all time, Settlers of Catan is a trading and building game set in the mythical world of Catan. Players roll dice to determine which resources are generated each round and then must strategically trade those resources with other players to get what they need to build their settlements, cities, and roads. With multiple ways to gain victory points and a board that changes in every play, Settlers of Catan is a game that can be played hundreds of different ways. The base of a hugely successful franchise, with multiple engaging expansions, Settlers is the core game of many collections, and is a wonderful way to spend time with family and friends. For 3 to 4 players.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 51 more reviews...
 A game with endless varations - most variables of any game! December 23, 2007
Darren Burton (Ogden, Utah United States)
20 out of 31 found this review helpful
Settlers of Catan is a very unique game. It is very easy to learn but hard to master the subtleties of the game. It has several things that make this game unique. The main thing that makes this game unique is that the board can be different each time you play the game. The five land types that each produce a different resource are shuffled each time you play the game. So the board ends up being different each time the game is played.
Another variable is the numbers that you lay down on the land types. The numbers are also shuffled each time. When you roll the dice, what ever number comes up, the land or lands with that number on it produce their resource - regardless of who's turn it is. So you opponents can actually help you on their turn.
A third variable is ports. If you have a settlement on a port you can trade two of one type of resource you have for one you need with the bank. Normally you have to trade four of one resource, to get the one resource you want if none of the other players are willing to make a trade with you.
The fourth variable is the thief. Anytime someone rolls a seven on the dice, they get to move the thief off off the property that he is on, and move it to any other piece of property and to take away one card at random from the hand of any players that have a settlement on that property. The thief automaticly steals what ever is produced on that piece of land for as long as he is there. This denies your opponents precious resources that they need to build roads,settlements, cities, and buy development cards.
Development cards are soldier cards that you can buy to chase off the thief off your property and on to one of your opponents properties. Another type of development card is a victory point card that gives you one point toward the ten point total that you need to win.
Settlers of Catan is designed for 3 to 4 players but you can have up to 8 players with the expansion pack.
Nice updates January 5, 2008
Howie (Arkansas)
28 out of 29 found this review helpful
The primary, and best, addition in this 4th edition of Settlers is a very nice interlocking border which is placed around the game tiles. This replaces the individual hex tiles of previous editions. No longer will your tiles/pieces scatter/split apart when someone accidentally bumps the playing surface! One side of the border has the ports "built in" but you still get a bit of randomness when assembling the pieces. The flip side of the border is blank "sea" on which you can put the included port tokens for a truly random placement.
The updated graphics are nice and colorful but take a bit of getting use to if you regularly play with an older edition.
The box has a vacu-formed type insert designed to hold all the pieces and keep everything neat.
All-in-all a nice upgrade to the 3rd edition.
It's a simple sounding premise: You gather resources in order to build roads and settlements to earn points.
However, there is a wonderful randomness which lends complexity to the game as the layout of the game board tiles differs with each play right down to the number on the dice needed to harvest a resource from a given tile. This makes *every* game unique. Strategy comes into play as you must determine the best location for your settlements and roads to get maximum value/points.
If you've never played Settlers, find someone who has a copy and give it a try. If no one you know owns a copy, go to your local comic shop. Odds are someone there will have a copy readily available and delight in teaching the game to a new player! It's easy to learn, difficult to master, and quick to play with a typical game lasting only an hour or less.
This is one of the truly classic games and belongs on the shelf of anyone who enjoys board gaming.
Fantastic family/strategy game in a new edition with more useful accessories January 5, 2008
Eric Reinhardt (Decatur, GA USA)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Settlers of Catan is an absolutely fantastic family strategy game. I won't belabor my discussion of the game, except to say that my wife (only a 'casual boardgamer', not as hardcore like me) and two boys (ages 8 and 10) have been playing it for over a year, many dozens of times, with continued enjoyment. I have successfully hooked other gamers in my family (brother in law, father) on it as well, so that it shares equal time with Monopoly in our family game marathons over the holidays.
The big point to take away about this new edition of the game is that, without changing any rules, the edition includes some very handy extra pieces, esp. an interlocking set of holders to fit the tiles into, which helps prevent incidental dislocations of the pieces on the board (so common with the older edition). For those of you who have the Seafarers of Catan extension, the holding tiles are much those included in that extension (except shaped to fit the Settlers hex board).
An Almost Perfect Board Game June 20, 2008
Deb Ryan (Bellingham, MA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I agree with all the other posts. Takes the best aspects of Diplomacy, Risk etc, but easier to learn, faster to play, and more interaction and fun. My neighborhood is now addicted, and my 9/8 year olds love to play as well. I highly recommend the Seafarers expansion. The Knights & Castles expansion makes it a much more complex game. If you have an older edition (3rd edition) of Settlers and then get a new 4th edition of the expansions, you will need to get the "upgrade kit" from the Mayfair Games site for $10. It is the frame of the board that fits together to form the water boundary. The older versions did not have this frame, and it makes the older and newer versions somewhat incompatible.
a must have for board gamers August 28, 2008
Matthew Cordeiro
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Settlers of Catan is a must have for anyone who enjoys playing board games. Winning the game requires negotiating with other players, assessing resource supply and demand, and mapping out a plan to get those last few victory points. Yet, players are still subject to the luck of the dice and rules that usually keep the game close until the very end.
Settlers has huge replay value. The game board is actually a collection of tiles that change position every time you play, and there are several different strategies to winning. Additionally, the game has many expansions, scenarios, and variants to keep things interesting.
A few things to consider before purchasing: The base game requires 3 or 4 players - no more, no less. However, an expansion is available that allows a 5th and 6th player to join in, and a 2-player variant is available in the Traders and Barbarians expansion. Also, the game time varies depending on the experience and "efficiency" of the players. I've played in games that take as little as 30 minutes and as long as 2 hours. Lastly, the rules are very detailed, yet easy to understand. You'll need to refer to the rule book the first few times you play for those "unusual" situations.
Overall, this is truly a great game. Since it is not owned by Mattel or Hasbro, it suffers from underexposure in the U.S. Otherwise, you would find it on the shelves of every store that sells board games.
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