BGN Reviews Catan Histories: Settlers of America

The latest Settlers incarnation is one of the Histories series. These games take the Settlers formula and apply it to a specific time period. Previous entries included Struggle for Rome which put players in charge of the 'barbarian hordes' who pillaged the cites of Ancient Rome throughout Gaul, and who eventually settled to make settlements of their own.

This year Catan is heading to the new world with Settlers of America: Trails to Rails [Amazon, Funagain]. Players are tasked with settling the USA from East to West during the industrial age, founding towns that collect resources and the like. The goal, is to develop your economy through your network of towns and to finally ship goods inland on your own rail networks. Dubbed the Catan Train Game by many, Settlers of America is one of those nice hybrid titles that takes the best from both settlement and economic genres.

And now Board Game News has a review. It does a great job of breaking down the game from stem to stern and talks about its pitfalls (some darn long games) as well as its shining points. Here's an excerpt:

"While it has many similarities and familiar mechanisms to its ancestors, Settlers of America has enough new twists and concepts to give it a fresh feel. Players must be adept at balancing all of the different aspects, and there are important timing considerations. The ability to bounce back and forth between the different actions - building, trading, moving - allows players wide creative latitude and provides ample opportunity for clever play. All of these are big plusses and would appear to make this new version one of the best in the series."
-Board Game News

Check out the full review here.

October 7, 2010

BGN Reviews Catan Histories: Settlers of America