Slashdot Mirror
Catan Online Set to Debut This Month
Thanks to GamingReport.com for the news that http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=14646>The Settlers of Catan Online will make its international online debut at Spiel '04 in Essen, Germany. "Catan Online will launch exclusively at MSN Games this winter. With MSN Games' base of 30 million registered users worldwide, more people than ever before will have access to this global gaming phenomenon." Besides being able to check out the game in depth, MSN is going to be running several tournaments and exhibitions of the game.
Settlers of Catan is a German Board game created by Mayfair Games. In it, you use cardboard tiles to randomly assemble an island (Catan). You then begin the game by placing two settlements on the board. Each tile on the island represents a resource, with a number between 1 and 12. You roll a pair of dice, and the number that shows up dictates what resources "appear" for that round. Resources are used to purchase roads, settlements, and cultural improvements.
It's very simple to learn, but *very* hard to master, and is possibly one of the best board games ever made.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_Catan
Settlers of Catan is a board game that started in Germany and is huge in Europe. Apparently there are leages for it over there. Myself and many friends of mine play settlers often.
It's a great board game because there is a great deal of veriablity from one game to the next. This is due to the board being composed of tiles that change every game and the die roll. Depening on the way the tiles are layed out (randomly), certin resources become more or less valuable and this changes how one needs to play the game. The object of the game is to be the first person to get 10 victory points.
During the game there is a lot of player interaction as resources are bartered back and forth.
A game of regular settlers (there are expansions and variations) with people who know how to play typically takes from 30 to 60 minutes.
The game has some similarities to Monopoly and Risk but is really a completly different kind of game. Most people to like Risk seem to really enjoy settlers.
There are at least three different environments for playing settlers of catan online.
http://www.s3dconnector.net/ is a very nice client, with lots of options for choosing 'house rules'.
Also because of the ladder setup, many people don't quit just because they're losing, a perpetual problem with onlinegaming environments.
http://solito.free.fr/catane/ is a nice client, but there's no rating system, so not so many people use it.
http://settlers.cs.northwestern.edu/ is the 'original' site. It lacks the nicer graphics, but is often heavily loaded, with lots of players around, (when it's up)