# Anyone play Catan board games?



## Turangalîla (Jan 29, 2012)

Since we are an intelligent, sophisticated community of like-minded classical fans, I thought that perhaps many of you play the Catan family of board games, consisting of the base game _The Settlers of Catan_, and continuing on to the game expansions _Seafarers_, _Cities & Knights_, and _Traders and Barbarians_.

For the record, I consider myself an addict. As of my recent birthday, I now own the complete set, as well as the 5-6 player expansions for all three. I know that the games are immensely popular in North America and Germany (where the games were conceived). I do not know about other countries.


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## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

*Mayfair* is the U.S, distributor to the 'Catan' franchise... I presume it's the same in Canada.

As I look at the BoardGaming shelf in my den, I see the Mayfair vehicles "Empire Builder," "Eurorails" and the beer-and-skittles card-game "Family Business," but no 'Catan' offerings.

For about a decade-and-half of my life, I was (at the minimum) an enthusiastic table-gamer [sports simulations, tactical and strategic games, RPGs (but *never* LARP... I think "larp"ers take it too far)]- but never tried 'Catan.' I had gaming friends/acquaintances who thought it was great- so it's cool that _you_'re enjoying it.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

I can't get in to tabletop strategy/RPG stuff, I use to be an avid collector and painter of Warhammer 40,000 models, but when I actually played a game I found the dice rolling followed by checking for special abilities and hit chances really boring and it put me off. I don't know if Catan is like that as I've never seen it here in the UK, but then I don't visit tabletop gaming shops very often.


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

Perhaps if I knew what it was...


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

Crudblud said:


> I can't get in to tabletop strategy/RPG stuff, I use to be an avid collector and painter of Warhammer 40,000 models, but when I actually played a game I found the dice rolling followed by checking for special abilities and hit chances really boring and it put me off. I don't know if Catan is like that as I've never seen it here in the UK, but then I don't visit tabletop gaming shops very often.


Well then you should have tried playing games that do not include a dice. I find those to be quite boring as well, since most of the game is limited to chance. For a while I played Agricola, which does rely a bit on chance, since you randomly choose the first cards, but the rest of the game purely depends on your own strategy. It's not the most exciting game, and I'm sure there are better games in the genre, but it still is more fun since you are not chained to some random dice numbers.


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