I want to like the Settlers of Catan expansion, Cities and Knights of Catan. I really do. But I hardly ever play it, and when I do, I'm reminded that there are some key problems baked into it.First of all, truth be told, despite the general revered status of the original Settlers of Catan among those in the German game know, my opinion of the game has slowly but steadily eroded since I was first exposed to the game many years ago. For one, it has the one player gets screwed early problem that I've mentioned before. And though the game certainly makes room for strategy, I've increasingly come to feel that the luck component is a little high. I've personally won a game of Settlers in 20 minutes -- including setup time -- because I decided to be crazy and start the game on only four numbers. When those numbers came up with miraculous regularity (the second longest good dice streak of my life, perhaps), I destroyed the other players.
Given that a game I used to think was amazing isn't all that to me anymore, you can maybe understand why I'd be pulling for the Cities and Knights expansion. It adds some more elements to the game... considerably more, actually... giving it a city infrastructure element that appeals to the Civilization PC Game fan in me, I think.
But it takes a simple little game and draws it out. For whatever flaws Settlers may have, it plays rather quickly. Even among a slow group, if everyone has played before, you can finish a game in an hour or less. In my experience, Cities and Knights can easily double that time. And sadly, what you get doesn't really justify the extra time. It certainly doesn't bring double the fun.
I played last night for the first time in years, and got to see all the flaws come rushing back. One player's starting city was pillaged by barbarians in the first few turns. The winning player was drawing one amazing card after another from the deck, while anybody else earning bonus cards seemed to get the not-so-great options. And despite the fact it was virtually a runaway victory, the game still took an hour and a half.
I like the idea of Cities and Knights of Catan, but the reality of it just doesn't deliver. Here's a case where more isn't better.
4 comments:
Just sell or trade the damn thing.(BGG is your friend! Seriously, they've got automated trade tools over there, take a look.)
That' what I did several years ago. I had Settlers and Seafarers, and I found that I didn't enjoy them anymore (for the very problems you highlight here) and I just got rid of the buggers.
Never looked back. And ah -- the breath of fresh air...
FKL
That's something I've found with nearly all Settlers expansions. The original game was so good, all they can do is add length and complexity without actual improvement.
Another note regarding your "luck" statement...I came to the belief, back when we had our regular game night on Friday, that luck was all that determined who won our games. When you had me, you, Chuck, Tom, Sandy -- all pretty equal skill-wise -- it comes down to luck who wins our games, whether they involve dice, cards, whatever. Half the time we played Princes of Florence, I could determine if I had a chance based on my opening three cards. If I got lucky with those three, got stuff that overlapped nicely, I could win. If they overlapped perfectly, I was almost assured of it, unless someone else had a perfect alignment or someone went crazy with bidding on something I needed.
Just my crazy observations...
Another not-subtle hint to push me back to BGG. :-) Message received. :-)
"The original game was so good, all they can do is add length and complexity without actual improvement."
Ah come on now, Jason. The original wasn't that good to begin with. It was incredibly novel in 1995, but it's rather stale now. (Whereas something like Acquire is still going strong... no thanks to the new, crappy edition by Hasbro).
FKL
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