If you can’t be in Idaho building Beartaria, you can always gather around with your loved ones and build Catan. The Settlers of Catan is a board game that doesn’t sacrifice fun and entertainment when it comes to strategy play.
Imagine controlling a group of settlers trying to survive and thrive on the remote but rich Isle of Catan. There are many harbors and six distinct ecosystems spread out over the island. You must settle the land wisely in order to develop and build a crushing settlement such as Beartaria. But, it won’t be easy! There are many resources to gather, work to be done, and difficult personalities to deal with.
Catan is the perfect game, training the mind to begin interacting with the essentials required in building a successful settlements. All Bears, young and old, will love playing this interactive game for 3-4 individual players or teams. Not only will you have fun, but you will benefit from the strategic lessons learned in this amazingly well designed game. Isn’t that what we’re doing? We’re having fun learning, doing, and crushing while building Beartaria.
How to play Catan?
Each player or team in the game act as settlers who are establishing settlements on the island of Catan. The game begins by selecting land to help build settlements, cities, and roads as you continue to develop the island. The game board, which represents the rich, unsettled island of Catan, is composed of hexagonal tiles representing land suited for different resources. There are Harbors, Plains, Meadows, Mountains, Hills, Forests, and Deserts. Each region will excel in either raising/producing sheep, wheat, wood, brick, or ore. These resources are used in a variety of combinations to build, trade, and develop. The land cards are laid out randomly at the beginning of each game making every game unique and different.
As the game progresses, players roll the dice and earn the resources it takes to develop settlements. If you do not own land that produces the resource you need, you’ll have to trade with another player or team that does. This is where the game gets really interesting. You begin to learn how to barter with different personalities with different needs.
“Sometimes you want to be direct, other times you want to be a bit more cunning and discreet. One thing for sure is, unless you own land in all six regions, you will have to learn how to work with another settlement for trade.”
Now it’s not all strategy, trade, and hard work in finding success. Sometimes luck plays a role. Like real life, there is that certain type of person. Catan calls them the robber and it really forces drama into the game. Creating a settlement wouldn’t be realistic if you didn’t have at least one “must be nice” sentiment at play. This realistic twist to the game forces players to make tough decisions that will undoubtedly affects their relationships with the other settlers and their future goals.
Ultimately, the way to win at Catan is to develop enough settlements, cities, roads and special bonus cards to reach the required 10 Victory Points. The first player or team to reach 10 points wins the game.
If you’re weaning yourself from Babylon this is the board game for you. Give The Settlers of Catan or any of the Catan Series board games a try. We’ve played it many times, especially when the snow starts to fall. This game is a ton of fun for all ages. The really young ones are great partners to help collect resources from others and protect your cards. When you aren’t building Beartaria, our outside crushing, give Catan a go with your loved ones. Have fun focusing on the simple things that make life great. You won’t regret it. Long live Beartaria!
Written By: PurelyLivingPapa Bear
IG@purely.living.homestead
