Settlers of Catan

edited February 2003 in Gaming

Comments

  • edited December 1969
    It's been mentioned before -- especially by Charon -- but Settlers of Catan is one of the best board games in the world, and it's available online if you're Java-enabled.

    I got hooked Saturday playing with people on campus but now I play a lot online, and I've gotten other #CP# hooked, too. So if anyone's looking for a game... surf by CPHL...!

    --MuffinHead the Mutton Magnate (MMM)

    [img]http://www.clanplaid.net/~muffin/questionmuffin.gif[/img]
  • edited December 1969
    [b]Re: Settlers of Catan[/b]

    [quote]
    It's been mentioned before -- especially by Charon -- but
    Settlers of Catan is one of the best board games in the world,
    and it's available online if you're Java-enabled.

    I got hooked Saturday playing with people on campus but now I
    play a lot online, and I've gotten other #CP# hooked, too. So if
    anyone's looking for a game... surf by CPHL...!

    [/quote]
    If you're really into board games and you can tolerate a little German (and no, I don't mean a dwarf from Dusseldorf), I highly recommend you check out BrettSpielWelt (Board Game World) at www.brettspielwelt.com. It's free to join and they have ported all of the best German table games (including Settlers) to Java for international multiplay. The apps have original game look and feel and are generally well-done. There is a significant and growing English-speaking population, and it is possible to get a game almost any time of day.

    If you don't want to play through your browser, there are also client apps for just about any platform. The OS X client works like a charm, and some enterprising people have come up with patches that put English-language graphics in place of the German-language ones in the original. (This is especially useful when you are playing something like Puerto Rico and need some help figuring out which building is which.)

    I cannot recommend BSw highly enough. If you join up, look for Golux -- that's me. I'm usually playing Puerto Rico or Fuersten (Princes of Florence).
  • edited December 1969
    [b]Re: Settlers of Catan[/b]

    [quote]
    If you're really into board games and you can tolerate a little
    German (and no, I don't mean a dwarf from Dusseldorf), I highly
    recommend you check out BrettSpielWelt (Board Game World) at
    www.brettspielwelt.com .

    [/quote]
    Server not found -- I think you mean http://http://www.brettspielwelt.de/ 8) Danke sehr!

    [quote]
    I cannot recommend BSw highly enough. If you join up, look for
    Golux -- that's me. I'm usually playing Puerto Rico or Fuersten
    (Princes of Florence).

    [/quote]
    Puerto Rico is popular with our gaming group but I've never played it. I like Carcassonne a lot, though.

    --Der Muffinkopf

    [img]http://www.clanplaid.net/~muffin/questionmuffin.gif[/img]
  • edited December 1969
    Sorry about the deformed URL [nt]



    questionmuffin.gif
  • edited December 1969
    [b]Re: Settlers of Catan[/b]

    [quote]
    Server not found -- I think you mean http://http
    ://www.brettspielwelt.de/ 8) Danke sehr!

    [/quote]
    Right, sorry... .de, not .com (Doh!)

    [quote]
    Puerto Rico is popular with our gaming group but I've never
    played it. I like Carcassonne a lot, though.

    [/quote]
    PR is fun, but it takes several games to get a sense of the various tactics and strategies.

    Carcassonne (and its variants) are fun, but they rely too much on luck for me. Draw the wrong tile, or have an opponent who draws the right tile, and you can be screwed for the rest of the game.
  • edited December 1969
    Re: Settlers of Catan
    Carcassonne (and its variants) are fun, but they rely too much
    on luck for me. Draw the wrong tile, or have an opponent who
    draws the right tile, and you can be screwed for the rest of the
    game.
    Like a lot of games that blend strategy with an element of randomness -- backgammon, for example -- some people curse the "luck" factor of the tiles/dice whatever, but as you play the game more, you learn how to "create" luck for yourself, by giving yourself a chance to use any tile while limiting your opponent. It's a skill that takes a long time to learn, but in the end, even a "lucky" pull by your opponent should be offset by more than one lucky pull by yourself.

    Besides I think the luck factor is even less than Settlers of Catan... seeing your opponents roll 10 three times in a row when you're not sitting on a 10 hex can be very frustrating. 8)

    --Moof

    questionmuffin.gif
  • edited December 1969
    [b]BrettSpielWelt[/b]

    Okay so I swung by there last night armed with my fading German skills and http://dict.leo.org/...

    First impression: the interface SUCKS BALLS. It is soooo confusing/hard to use/cluttered/complicated it nearly drove me nuts. As soon as I logged in I had little itty bitty windows popping up with annoying sounds. When I expanded them (they were about 20x10 pixels to start), they were chat windows. I had two German people chatting with me right away, and I immediately got a little shell-shocked.

    (Side note: they didn't test their Java code on other platforms very well. The problem with itty bitty windows has to do with setting default sizes manually; it might have worked fine on their development system but it would have been a good idea to test it with others!)

    Apparently I had opened a chat with a "Tutor", who is sort of like a player-helper-non-admin type. Anyway, Ingrida also spoke English, which was a bonus (but I was practising my German anyway) and helped me sort out the interface AND get a Carcassonne game going for me. Very helpful people.

    I played Carcassonne until late, and just before I signed off I ended up playing against a guy from Chicago while another guy from Vancouver watched. Both were relatively new (I think), so I think your comment about the English community growing is true. One of them barely spoke any German at all and said he used Babelfish to do the translating.

    If any non-German speakers want to give Carcassonne (or Settlers) a try on BrettSpielWelt sometime, I can help you out. 8)

    It is kinda funny seeing interface/cultural stuff from the "other side" of the software coin. A good experience.

    --Der Muffinkopf

    [img]http://www.clanplaid.net/~muffin/questionmuffin.gif[/img]
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