Number of Players: 3-4 | Duration: 60 minutes | Recommended Age: 10 years and up Once you've mastered the rules, it is sure to take over your next game night. The only downside is that the world-building game may take a bit of time to fully understand. Plus, we found that players unknowingly learn lessons about the importance and consequences of access to resources, odds, the snowballing effect of luck (or lack thereof) on human success, migration, bartering, and other economic issues Players of all ages also hone their critical thinking and strategic skills with every game. Points can be racked up in a variety of ways: building houses and cities, owning the longest road or the biggest army, and holding point-bearing “development” cards, making this a competitive game up until the last second.Ĭatan is an absorbing and engaging game for teens and adults alike. We set up the game in about five minutes, which begins with each player placing two settlements and two roads on the island. Each tile represents a different terrain that corresponds with a different valuable resource for your civilization.Įach player gets color-coded settlement, road, and city pieces, and earns “victory points” as they build various structures. In addition to numerous other accolades and being translated into over 30 languages, Catan won The Game of the Century Award at Gamescom in 2015. The board is made up of 19 hexagonal tiles that are arranged randomly at the beginning of each game-making sure that no two games are ever the same, which we love for a high replay value. The adventure-based board game Settlers of Catan requires players to battle it out to collect resources and build the biggest settlements on the island of Catan.

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Real life board games