Boardgames - Settlers of Catan poll

[estepheia]

Phew, have I mentioned how I hate December? Today hubby and I spent 5 and a half hours playing a board-game that I bought for Tina. Minimum age is 12, but both children understood the game well enough to play. However, they dwadled and sat restlessly, climbed on my lap, squealed, fondled the cards, gave unwanted advice to their parents (and not even stupid advice) and were genereally noisy, twitchy, and nerve-wrecking. In terms of karma, this one gaming session should at least rate as high as a one-week holiday in Turkey or a 4-figure win in the lottery. *is exhausted*
Tina loves her game (Candamir - a game out of the Settlers of Catan family) but I'd rather play In 80 Tagen um die Welt (Around the World in 80 days - our other brand-new game) three times in a row, than play Candamir again. Next time we'll lower the victory coniditions, because Candamir really drags on and on and on.
I bought hubby a cardgame called San Juan for Christmas, an excellent German game for 2-4 players that is fast and exciting. It's also relatively affordable (13-15 EUR), that game is really excellent. One can only hope that it gets translated into English. If you're in a German-speaking country, I can only recommend this game. Easy to learn, and the 2-player mode is very balanced and fast moving.
I used to read a newsgroup on boardgames, where the US posters raved happily about 'German' board-games - called like that even if the author is Swiss or even Italian. We have the world's largest selection of board- and card games for familes, adults and kids. I know that Settlers of Catan is available in the US. But how far has it spread? I'm curious. I'd love it if you answered my poll.

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[Poll #410584]
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Comments

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

My kids are 10, 7 and 2, and they don't take care of games. We play a board game, or even look at it, and there's enough missing pieces that we can't play again. This is why it's stressful. Otherwise? I like 'em.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Toyah loses components too (she's 5), but our proper board games are kept out of reach, all 75 of them. :-)

[meri-contrary.livejournal.com]

I used to work in a gaming store and we often recommended German/European games made by the company Ravensburger. I believe that's the company that makes Settlers. They are different from the standard American boardgames like Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, or Pictionary. People who were looking for something new or were bored with boardgames were often directed to our European import selection. There are a lot of good, very small, American game makers as well, but because they were from Europe the games were often seen as exotic, and people buy what they feel is exotic and special.

I'm not particularly fond of boredgames - although I do love the occasional game of Trivial Pursuit - but the Ravensburger games are fun and different enough that if my friends break out a game I'll join in.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Settlers of Catan is a product of Kosmos Games, Ravensburger is more geared towards smaller children, but they have an adult range called Alea Games (most games published under that label are very good).

The US version of Settles was produced by Mayfair games.

Apparently one of the versions had purple playing pieces. What I wouldn't give to have a purple set for hubby. He always complains that there are no purple houses and streets - purple is his favourite color.

[meri-contrary.livejournal.com]

Wow, it's been awhile since I sold the stuff. You're all over the game publishers. Cool.

There is purple in Settlers. I always play it because purple is my favorite color too.

[1istener.livejournal.com]

I take it Canada counts as part of America? (Generally to me America is the USA.)

The last board game I played was Trivial Pursuit, but is fun but frustrating because it depends on knowing lots of trivia in lots of subjects. I can't think of one off the top of my head that I like better.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I decided to put the US, Canada and South America under "America" - I know there's a difference, but for the purpose of this poll lumping them together made sense, because geographically it's all way way out there in the West. LOL.

I have played Trivial Pursuit but I find it boring because it's more about knowing> or memorizing stuff, and not about problem-solving. I like board-games that require me to think up both a strategy and tactics to implement that strategy. :-)

Thanks for answering. :-)

[kimberly-a.livejournal.com]

A game called San Juan is actually already released in the U.S. My hubby reviewed it here (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10456.phtml). We've played it quite a few times (mostly 2-player, but also 3 and 4 upon occasion) and enjoy it a lot.

My hubby works in the gaming industry, so we play board and card games almost every day. He receives a lot of games from companies who want him to write reviews, since he has become well-known in the industry for his game reviews on RPG.net. He also buys a lot of games, because there's always something new coming out that interests him.

Because the box in your poll was too small for the extent of my answer, my personal favorite games are:
- Ticket To Ride (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10207.phtml) ("Zug um Zug" in German)
- Carcassonne (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9737.phtml) (as well as the other Carcassonne games: Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9897.phtml), Carcassonne: The Castle (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10059.phtml), Carcassonne: The City (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10928.phtml), etc.)
- Alhambra (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10268.phtml)
- Lost Cities (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10428.phtml)
- Rumis (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10872.phtml)
- Memoir '44 (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10372.phtml)
- Reiner Knizia's Samurai (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10430.phtml)
- Entdecker (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10724.phtml)
- Goa (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10699.phtml)

Many of them are German games, but some aren't. (In my husband's game reviews, there are often even photos of me in the background. Heh.)

The only Catan games I've ever really enjoyed were the 2-player Starship Catan (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9810.phtml) and Historische Szenarien II: Troja & Die Große Mauer (which my husband has not reviewed yet, and which has not apparently been released in the U.S. yet, since the hubby bought the German version). I don't tend to like games where there is a device (like the "robber") which can take my stuff away or screw me somehow. In both of these Catan variations, this kind of risk is moderated by giving you ways to avoid catastrophe through your own actions.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the game, I didn't know it's available in the states. Goody, because it's a fine game.
I used to work in the industry too, in a comic shop that also sold some board-games.

I love most games by Rainer Knizia, some by Alan Moon, many by Teuber. Of the Catan family I like Alexander and Cheops a lot, also the Settlers of Nürnberg - a special edition. I also like the Settlers card game, some of my suggestions were even turned into official cards. :-)

Alhambra is good, but I played it too often, it bores me. I like Eschnapur, La Cittá, Kaufleute von Genua, and Torres.

Goa interests me, will read your hubby's review. :-)

[astridv.livejournal.com]

When I click 'we play Settlers often' it's mainly because that's what people want to play most of the times. My faves are still Cluedo and Scotland Yard, but no one ever wants to give that a go.

Another one we all like to play is 'Abenteuer Tierwelt'. The fun thing is that you don't have to think too hard, because your fellow players will usually screw up your clever strategies anyway. Yet it's still quite nerve-wrecking at times, when the expedition takes a sharp left turn right before you get to your blue whale or whatever animal you desperately want to explore.

[justhuman.livejournal.com]

Why did you make them all seperate polls? No time to waste waiting for LJ to registar all my answers, so here you go.

I have played Settlers, enjoyed it and will play it amongst other games that I like.

I *love* playing board games, the more competative, the better.

Favorite board games include

*pimppimppimp*
Showbiz Shuffle - by Blood and Cardstock. The game is published by a friend of mine, who has 2 other games, also very good. The game has gotten *excellent* gaming reviews and was good enough to be distributed by Wizards of the Coasts in their gaming stores. It would be great fun with your girls. The cards are characatures of movie stars and directors and the players build movies by putting together a director, two stars, and two supporting actors. There's extra kicker cards to spice up the game.

*All the Train & Crayon Games from Mayfaire - Eurorails and such
*Cosmic Encounter -- currently also owned by Mayfair
*Advanced Civilization which was made by (the now defunct?) Avalon Hill (different than the Sid Meyers game of similar name)
*Age of Renaissance also by Avalon Hill
*Carcassonne
*Nuclear War - by Flying Buffalo

My friend from Blood&Cardstock is also distributing some of the games already mentioned,
Too Many Cooks
Lost Cities
Coloretto -- which is really cool game that looks childish on the surface, you're trying to collect as many cards of the same colors, but in stratedgy it's more like Go -- The nice part, you can play it with children and adults
There's one we played recently... with people trying to escape a house with a monster. I'll probably find out this weekend ;-)

Puerto Rico is incredibly popular among the gamers I know, but I haven't played it myself yet.

[justhuman.livejournal.com]

*ugh* sorry about the broken link up there. Oh, we also like Apples to Apples which is a fun party game that can be played with gamers and non-gamers alike.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Why did you make them all seperate polls?
Because I thought I had to when using different features like word entry, check boxes and radio buttons. *blushes*

Puerto Rico is fabulous. But I like its little brother San Juan better.
Will try to write a longer reply tomorrow.
Thanks for answering. :-)

[skipthedemon.livejournal.com]

All my friends have played Settles and I have not. I bought it for (ahem) my baby brother for Christmas. Tried to play it with him today, but he wanted to the other board game he'd gotten instead. :pouts:

One of my local gaming stores has a whole bunch of European board games in stock. It's a nifty place. I live in the Southeastern part of the US.

[unfolded73.livejournal.com]

Am responding in comments rather than in the poll because there wasn't an answer that fit for me. We used to play Settlers often when we owned only 4 German table games (along with Settlers, we had Modern Art and Medici, both bidding games, and a German version of El Grande, where we were constantly referring to translations of the cards). Now there are so many German table games available in the States that we don't play the older ones as much.

Hubbie likes San Juan a lot, as well as its progenitor Puerto Rico. Other games that are in his rotation a lot these days are St. Petersburg and Pizarro. We've played a lot of them over the years. Yes, we call them all German table games. Seems that they are becoming a little more widespread outside of the hard-core boardgamers circle, although I'd like to see a little more variety in our stores and not just a copy of every spin-off of Settlers that has ever been produced. Although I was able to pick up a copy of Carcasonne at the local mall game store for a Christmas gift this year.

Still, I'd say your average American hasn't heard of a single German table game, and thinks of Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit and Cranium when you say "board game" to them.