Gateway Table Top Games: Settlers of Catan

Now when the average person hears "Table top games" or "board games", what exactly comes to mind? Most of us have played those common games, such as Monopoly, Yahtzee, or even Uno, but the table top game world is much deeper than that...One could get lost in a fantasy world slaying dragons, or even building cities to rule. With this series of posts, "Gateway Table Top Games", we will go into a few Table Top games that the average person may not know about, but would definitely have some fun playing. Our first post is about a game called "Settlers of Catan".

In this game, 3-4 players are looking to establish colonies on an island called Catan. The board represents the island, and it is separated into hexagonal tiles with different types of land. Here, players collect, trade, and spend resources to build their settlements. Resources are represented by cards and are produced by each land type (each hex is a different land type).

The goal of the game is to obtain 10 victory points, which are achieved by building settlements and cities with your resources. The catch is that not one person can collect all the necessary resources in order to build their settlements or cities, so you must barter and trade with other players. Dice are also used to choose which hex will produce resources that turn. Anyone who has a settlement on the hex that the dice roll, they get that resource. Another catch is the robber, which steals resources and makes it hard on you to build anything.

It's a game that takes some good bartering, and capitalizing on good opportunities, but also leads to some good times. To see the game in action, check out this sweet video by TableTop.



We'll be back next week with more posts, and more "Gateway Table Top Games"!