Settlers of Catan

[Martin]

Anyone up for a Third Reich campaign? I'll bet we'll finish it before spring next year.

(I'm one of the few people who made it back from the other side with my SAN at almost 100...)

[bakersfieldchimp]

I have no idea of what that means... yet. I'm feeling pressure from my uncle and my cousin's boyfriend to start playing it, We've been playing a lot of Twilight Struggle lately, which is pretty fun. My opinion might be influenced by the fact that I've won all three of the games of it that I've played so far, but still...

[Martin]

For a fun, cheap and unpretentious evening of boardgaming, check out the stuff from Cheapass Games. Very simple but clever games, often hilarious premises (my favorites: Kill Dr. Lucky, a reverse-Cluedo; Give Me the Brain, zombies working the nightshift at a burger joint; US Patent #1, inventors travelling back in time in order to register their time machine as US patent #1). Most games take 5 minutes to learn, and 15-45 minutes to play.

And of course I have to recommend my friends at Gigantoskop and their fine board games, including Spank the Monkey, Badaboom, and Kablamo.

[Andy]

ok nerds: is Settlers of Catan actually worth the $42? Or should I just stick to playing flash games on the internet?  What are the chances I get my ladyfriend to actually start playing?

[yesno]

ok nerds: is Settlers of Catan actually worth the $42? Or should I just stick to playing flash games on the internet?  What are the chances I get my ladyfriend to actually start playing?

I can never get any of my friends, lady and otherwise, to play any games besides Scrabble, Connect 4, or Taboo/yelling games.  I've tried.

[bakersfieldchimp]

ok nerds: is Settlers of Catan actually worth the $42? Or should I just stick to playing flash games on the internet?  What are the chances I get my ladyfriend to actually start playing?

I think it's worth $42, but whether you can get your ladyfriend to play it or not is a totally different matter. My fiancée likes nerd games and so do most of my friends, and none of us are super-nerdy in real life (or so I'd like to think).

[Matthew_S]

ok nerds: is Settlers of Catan actually worth the $42? Or should I just stick to playing flash games on the internet?  What are the chances I get my ladyfriend to actually start playing?

I think it's worth $42, but whether you can get your ladyfriend to play it or not is a totally different matter. My fiancée likes nerd games and so do most of my friends, and none of us are super-nerdy in real life (or so I'd like to think).

Perhaps important to note that, at least for Settlers, you actually need to convince your ladyfriend and  another person -- 3 player minimum. 

I would recommend trying out some online version with the ladyfriend, or at least showing her what it is about.

You should also be able to find it for a few bucks cheaper than $42.

For example:

http://www.thoughthammer.com/settlers-of-catan-fourth-edition-p-4637.html 

lists the game for $33.60

[Gilly]

Xbox 360 has a pretty great version of it on the Live Arcade and I think it's only around 10 bucks.

I think it's pretty easy to get anybody into it. I laughed it off in college because all of the nerds played it in the dorm common areas.... I thought it was probably an incredibly complicated game but after learning how to play a couple years ago, it's actually incredibly easy to pick up and very difficult to master strategy. It's really a great game.

[slipperyslope]

Xbox 360 has a pretty great version of it on the Live Arcade and I think it's only around 10 bucks.

I think it's pretty easy to get anybody into it. I laughed it off in college because all of the nerds played it in the dorm common areas.... I thought it was probably an incredibly complicated game but after learning how to play a couple years ago, it's actually incredibly easy to pick up and very difficult to master strategy. It's really a great game.

True!
I haven't purchased it because I didn't know how easy it would be to find matches on there.

But as for the rest,
it's the type of game that someone of 10 years of age and someone of  60 years of age can most likely get the same joy out of. It's fantastic and not so difficult.

[slipperyslope]

Oh, also -
the game is more fun if instead of calling resources by their name... you call them by two-word rhyming names. IE - sweet wheat (and do it in that silly sort of weird pronunciation of the wh sounds and stuff, you know.. the almost a whistle thing?)

[Andy]

my chick is 62, is that too old?  It falls outside of slipperslopes 10-60 range.

[Mike A.D.]

I know a guy who handmade his own old-timey-looking Settlers of Cataan set. 

As a woodworker, he's really into the shabby/chic look and often beats his projects with a chain as part of the finishing process.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

I know a guy who handmade his own old-timey-looking Settlers of Cataan set. 

As a woodworker, he's really into the shabby/chic look and often beats his projects with a chain as part of the finishing process.

are there any photos of thiese handmade sets, Mike A.D.?  that sounds cool.

[yesno]

This came out for the iPhone the other day.  It's awesome, awesome, awesome.  (It did crash once before I turned down the FX on my 1st Gen iPhone.)

I've played computer games like Civilization before but this is like the perfect distillation of that idea (without the insane complexity and silliness) into a form that takes maybe a 1/2 hour to play.  Board games force designers to be efficient.

I love board games but any board game sessions I try to initiate tend to devolve into a gaggle of cackling, wine-drinking girls.  I am moving shortly and perhaps I will meet some pasty, nerdy guys to play against "IRL."

Now I want to see if there's a turn-based military game.  I used to love Advance Wars for the Gameboy Advance, but it doesn't really have much replay value--I've never been much interested in games where you just play them, beat them, and then they're over.

[fonpr]

... sessions I try to initiate tend to devolve into a gaggle of cackling, wine-drinking girls. 

And you find this to be problem?