Heartbourne had a slight nerdgasm when he walked by the Mayfair booth at PAX East and couldn’t help but check out some of the new variants of the popular tabletop game, Settlers of Catan. Ron Magin gave us a demo of Catan Histories: Settlers of America – Trails to Rails. Players familiar with the base Catan experience will pick up the new mechanics quickly, but the game seems to be accessible and engaging enough for new players to jump right in.
If you aren’t familiar with Settlers of Catan, the game is a tabletop game for four players that started gaining popularity in America in recent years. Players compete to develop their settlements on an island by building roads, cities, and more to harvest resources. By trading and making strategic decisions, players gain victory points toward winning the game. Expansion packs and variants add new mechanics to the game, such as Cities and Knights, in which players must fight off hostile barbarians, and Seafarers, where players must navigate between islands.
You can get Settlers of America and other Catan games at many retailers, game shops, or online.