Nice updates
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...
Fantastic family/strategy game in a new edition with more useful accessories
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).
Settlers of Catan Rules
Settlers is one of the greatest games ever. I think it was originally created to teach capitalism. Here are my pros/cons:
Pros:
*There is enough strategy for most gamers
*There is some luck which can make things interesting. If you want to
minimize the luck factor then use 12-sided dice
*Great interaction as you get to trade and barter with other players
(even when it is not your turn.) Kids can definitely learn the concept
of re-investing in your assets and great negotiation skills.
*You can change the boardgame set up everytime so you get a different
game everytime.
*There are 2 expansions (seafarers & Cities & Knights) & other add-ons to
change up the game to continue to make the game new and interesting.
*There are extensions that expand the game to 6 players.
*Also, there are ways to "gang up" on the leader, so there are many games
where virtualy every player...
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