inconsequential ruminations

Chris brought over Settlers of the Stone Age, as Catan is always a sure-fire winner for our group. We played with four. It is innovative and ingeniously develops on Settler’s mechanics. It was a very pleasant evening.

Rick Heli seems to be a big fan. His description of the game and beginner’s strategy advice is as succinct as ever. He includes a link to a two-player variant and a page of links about the background.

This variant has no roads or boats, instead explorers are sent out of settlements. Once they find a suitable spot, they are converted into new settlements. As the starting points in Africa are converted to desert and because there are bonuses for exploring, there is a nice thematic feel of emigration originating from Africa, spreading across Eurasia over to the Americas and Australia.

It is well worth trying. There are 14 copies for sale right now at the BoardGameGeek Marketplace right now. Apparently the German version, Abenteuer Menschheit, is perfectly playable in English, although I only tried the Rio Grande version.

Rating: 7

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 22nd, 2005 at 07:42 and is filed under boardgames.