Catan

Today's game review is of the 1995 release, Catan.  For 3-4 players, it plays in 60-120 minutes.

Overview
Your goal is to get 10 Victory Points.  You do this by dominating the island (a collection of hexes), which happens through building (settlements, cities, and roads) and collecting certain development cards.  Each hex has one of five kinds of resources (wood, sheep, grain, stone, brick) that you must acquire to build these structures, as well as a number associated with it.  When that number is rolled, any player with a settlement or city adjacent to that hex gets the associated resource card.  For example, if an '11' is rolled, the orange player in the image below would get 2 grain cards (because they have 2 settlements bordering the hex with '11', which happens to be a grain hex).

a game in progress; image from here

Simplified Gameplay
This game is all about resource management.  To start the game, each player gets to place 2 settlements and 2 roads (if the players are A, B, and C, they choose in the following sequence: ABCCBA).  Turns then proceed clockwise.  On your turn,

- Roll two dice and distribute resource cards to all players who have settlements or cities adjacent to hexes matching that number. If you roll a '7,' you can place the robber on a hex of your choosing (probably one that your opponent occupies) and take a resource from that opponent.  But watch out- the robber also steals resources from any player who has too many cards in hand, including you.  So be wary!

After rolling (and resolving the robber, if applicable), you have several optional actions, which can be performed any number of times:
- Trade resources with other players.
- Build settlements, roads, or cities.  Each type has a differing resource card cost (example: one road costs 1 wood + 1 brick).
- Buy a development card.  These cards can grant additional resources, provide knights to protect against robbers, or have other effects.

Buildings, the longest road, and some development cards grant points.  The first person to accumulate 10 points is instantly the winner, and lord of Catan.

Review
Of ~90,000 games reviewed on BoardGameGeek, Catan has the most ratings (66,800+).  That should tell you it's wildly popular, and many variations/expansions to this game have been produced in the 20+ years since its release.  I've heard the claim that Catan was a game-changer,* its popularity being the catalyst for the explosion in board game options we enjoy today.  So I have to give the game its due.  And it is a fun game- simple to learn, full of suspense, and has no end of variety/strategy.  That said, I don't often choose this game.  The robbing and trading stress me out, games can last forever, and you're ultimately at the mercy of dice rolling- if your numbers never come up,  you're out of luck.  The 3-person minimum can also be annoying.  This is a good game . . . but I'm more fond of others.

Rating: B+

*nyuk nyuk