Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

You definitely need to get Settlers man. Once it starts getting old, get the Cities and Knights expansion. Thumbs down on the Seafarers of Catan expansion though.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out how to play and everyone who has ever played it loves.

I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet but you need a minimum of 3 players to play.

Some other good Euro games are Carcassonne(2-5 players) and Puerto Rico which is fairly hardcore as far as games go.

This is one of the best sites to review and purchase games:
www.thoughthammer.com

Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

While not completely predicated on luck, there's too much luck in Catan to really "dominate". It's similar to that-which-cannot-be-mentioned. And it's not hard to learn. I've played it with lots of non-gamers, and they like it. Catan is really the perfect cross-over game. Teach your family, it will be fun.

Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

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While not completlely predicated on luck, there's too much luck in Catan to really "dominate". It's similar to that-which-cannot-be-mentioned. And it's not hard to learn. I;'ve played it with lots of non-gamers, and they like it. Teach your family, it will be fun.

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ok, well I suppose I phrased it poorly. I agree there's luck to the point where one can't "dominate," but there's a lot to be said about having a dominant strategy. and I think with a game like this, a guy like Patrick (as opposed to his in-laws) would definitely have a leg-up in this department.


edit: i was of course just offering this stuff as my opinion. Patrick, it's a fun game, so you should probably pick it up and try it out anyway.

Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

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or that you (being the rocket scientist with presumably greater reasoning skills than them) will just dominate.

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Well, it does turn out that I do dominate some games to the point that I'm not allowed to play (Trivial Pursuit) or that they want to play 5 people against me and one other guy. There is a bit of satisfaction to be had in that, but you're right - it does get old.

I'm also not sure how excited I am to try to teach them how to play a somewhat complicated game.

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There's enough luck involved that you likely won't dominate them every game, or even if you do, the scores will be close enough that they'll "almost beat you" every time. Fun game. I'm playing again tonight. I do like Puerto Rico a bit more, but Settlers has more of a following among my friends.

Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

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Well, my in-laws are annoyingly fixated on playing games whenever there's a family get-together (read: at least once a week). I hate them. I either pwn them at Trivial Pursuit or I get frustrated playing lame idiot games that require no thinking past knowing how to roll dice or collect all the 4s in the deck. I especially hate games that are predicated on chance. If I must be subjected to these stupid games, I at least want to find one that's actually based on intelligence and strategy and not the luck of the dice or the shuffle of the deck and that is at least somewhat fun.

Is Settlers this game, or is it too complicated to try to introduce to the in-laws? What else should I look into?

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You can also look into Bohnanza, which is purely a trading game. There's a certian element of luck to the shuffle of the deck, but it's rather fun and not really a "thinking" game (well, there's strategy, but on the face of it, its really simple).

Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

There's always this one

Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

The in-laws also like to focus on thwarting me to the extent that someone ends up being forgotten about and is allowed to build up points/tiles/cards and winning almost by default. Am I going to be screwed over something fierce when they ally against me in this game?

Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

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There's always this one

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Oh my aching ass! Don't worry - this is already there and is played by the younger kids. They like to set it right on the wooden floor right behind me and pound on it like there's no tomorrow.

Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

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The in-laws also like to focus on thwarting me to the extent that someone ends up being forgotten about and is allowed to build up points/tiles/cards and winning almost by default. Am I going to be screwed over something fierce when they ally against me in this game?

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Yes, if they do it well enough. If nobody ever trades you any resources and they trade within themselves to cut you off from key expansions/ports/longest road/largest army you are basically screwed.

Re: PASTIMES: Someone tell me about Settlers of Catan
 

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The in-laws also like to focus on thwarting me to the extent that someone ends up being forgotten about and is allowed to build up points/tiles/cards and winning almost by default. Am I going to be screwed over something fierce when they ally against me in this game?

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Yes, if they do it well enough. If nobody ever trades you any resources and they trade within themselves to cut you off from key expansions/ports/longest road/largest army you are basically screwed.

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yeah, this is what I was thinking. they can basically just pool all their resource cards to one player who will essentially pwn you.