Settlers of Catan

[JustBen]

Anyone else out there a fan?

I've heard people bring up Civ when attempting to describe it, but I feel like it's a pretty weak analogy. There isn't really any fighting or development. More like a land grab and cagey player interaction.

Do you play either of the expansions? I can't find anywhere online with any sort of discussion of Cities & Knights.

 

[Matrix]

I have no experience with Cities & Knights; I just have the expantion pack for 5 to 6 players.

I like it a lot. So does my family. You can't really compare it with Civilization, but the game does require tactical insight.

 

[Silverflame]

I like it, especially when I declare "war" on someone and cut off their growth with my roads.

 

[RelativePhysics]

I recently got the Cities & Knights expansion for Settlers, it really makes the game infinitely better in my opinion, it would be hard for me to go back to the standard game now. It offers more opportunity for tactics and you are still capable of a win with a bad starting location.

 

[kcwong]

In my boardgaming group there's one guy who is a big Settlers fan... he bought a lot of them. Catan, Cities and Knights, the prehistoric and the outerspace ones are the ones I've played.

My last game of Cities and Knights... must be at least 2 years ago. We seem to play the prehisotric one more often, but not because we think it's better, but mostly because someone in that session hasn't played it yet.

 

[mindlar]

I used to play very regularly, personally being responsible for about a dozen full purchases by other people.

Personal opinion is that 3-4 people is best played with Cities and Knights on the Seafarers board with the standard hex in the corner with a few islands out in the distance. With a few people that know how to play, the game ends in a very reasonable amount of time.

With 5-6 players, Seafarers on pretty much any map is the way I prefer to play. Cities and Knights bogs down significantly with more than 4 people to the point where I'd rather sit out and watch rather than being an active participant.

Key things that I have found is that having the additional space from seafarers helps keep the people who aren't doing as well involved. It is not uncommon for someone that I'm playing with to get stuck at 3-5 points when everyone else is at 7-9.