Settlers of Catan: An Addiction

Troy, Jung A, Suyeon playing Settlers of Catan at my place

This is our addiction. In the past couple of years, there's been a wave of playing boardgames among my friends.  We started out with simple cardgames like Hearts, and then moved onto other games like Rummikub  and Scrabble.  However, though them all, we can't stop playing Catan.  It's really a bit of an addiction for us...You can't stop playing Catan after just one game.

If you don't know what it is, it's a settling game.  You build settlements on resources and you have to trade those resources for others to build more roads and settlements. Each settlement is a point and each upgrade to a city is a point.  The first to 10 points wins.  The beauty is that the games usually only last about an hour and they're generally pretty close in that everyone seems to have a chance to win every game.  It's not rare to have three of the four players to have a chance of winning on the last turn.  Trading is part of the game and you have to barter, so you can't sit there silently.  It's a very social game and almost never boring.  I suggest it to anyone also who is trying to learn Korean also to play it too, it forces you to speak and can be a fun way to practice using your language.  Some of my friends now use it in their English Teaching classes, too.  They say that their classes have never been better.  They go from building the boards to playing the game.

Unfortunately, in our little circle the girls have been winning pretty consistently the last two sessions.  The boys will get them next time! Even if the games last until 6am!