Thursday, December 20, 2007

Settlers of Catan -- best board game ever!

Ottawa is currently experiencing a surge of interest in an unassuming board game -- Settlers of Catan. It seems that Mrs. Tiggy Winkle's is the only retailer which regularly stocks this German game (at a reasonable price, anyway), and they were sold out across Ottawa yesterday evening (as well as last week when I checked, and should've put my name on their next shipment). Settlers is literally being sold as soon as it's unpacked from Toronto! Sale clerks were perplexed as to the cause of the game's sudden popularity...

Settlers of Catan has a boring name, the box's design is outdated, and the description doesn't make it sound any better. In short, unless someone else has forced you to try the game, and you survived the learning process, there is no way you'd begin playing on your own. Settlers simply isn't the type of game you pick up thinking "Oh, this looks fantastic -- I'll get it for Suzy!"

Settlers requires an introduction by an experienced player. It's like... a virus.

I've gone the the States a couple times in the past month for Christmas shopping, and have looked everywhere for Settlers to no avail (I've gotten a number of strange looks). I was hoping for a cheaper American price, but it appears that the only US retailers which carry Settlers are the online variety -- they haven't even heard of the game in Waterstown or Messena.

Will Nathan receive Settlers for Christmas? Or an IOU? Stay tuned for the final outcome this Tuesday!

1 comment:

Elaine said...

I noticed some Google searches were landing here while looking for Settlers of Catan in Kingston, ontario -- DH just found it (and most of the expansions) at the S&R downtown! He said it was ~$42 and the expansions wer ~$20. Not too bad!