Settlers of Catan

Yesterday we had most of the family up for a Mother's Day BBQ. After the food was eaten and the table cleared, my niece's boyfriend grab our Settlers of Catan game. I was reminded of what a fun family game this is. We have a Friday Family night where we alternate weekly between movies and games and have played Settlers often. It is has been a favorite with my 10 year old daughter for a couple of years. While the game is rated 10 and up my kindergarten son plays with a little help - he loves building roads.

Game Synopsis
Settlers comes with board pieces that represent resources that were valuable to early settlers (like wheat, sheep, iron, brick and forests). To start the game, the board pieces are shuffled and laid out in a preset pattern. Because the pieces are in random order inside the preset pattern, you never know which resources will end up where and the game is never the same twice. Every resource piece gets a number from 2-12 (corresponding with the possible numbers from rolling two dice).

Each player starts out with two settlements at different places on the board. They take turn rolling the dice and getting resources if they have a settlement on a board piece when the number comes up. It's not as complicated as it sounds. If you have a settlement beside the forest piece with a number six on it, and the dice roll is a 2 and a 4, then you get a card with the forest symbol. Players can use the cards to build up their settlements. If you want to build a road, you need to trade in a forest and a brick card.

Don't be intimidated by the thick instruction booklet. Once you read through it and start playing, it becomes addictive. My daughter loves teasing me with trade offers of what I need only to say nope in the end. My son, the little builder, will pretty much trade anything for bricks and wood to get the longest road card.

It is fun game where kids learn negotiation skills through the trades they need to make in order to build up their settlements. Strategy and randomness are also learned. During the initial settlement selection stage you want the best resources by the numbers with the highest probability of being rolled, for example selecting resources near 6's and 8's. However, kids learns that just because your resource is on a 6 or an 8 it doesn't guarantee that you will gain lots of those resources during the dice rolls. Yesterday, I had a resource on an 8 but the 8 was barely rolled which my kids thought was hilarious. There are also expansion sets such as a Seafarers set to game more twists to the game.

I believe that this is a game that Over the Rainbow Toys and Classic Toys offer or you can purchase it online.