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Need an addiction for your next twenty get-togethers? Try award-winning Settlers of Catan from Mayfair Games. Not only is Settlers a fantastic game of strategy and dumb luck, there are many Catan expansions to change the game and add complexity. The huge fan-base of Catan have created numerous variations of the games, some with downloadable print-outs, so the love of the game can grow to encompass more and more.

If you're a judge-the-book-by-its-cover kind of person, don't be fooled; Settlers of Catan looks sheepishly boring and lame. But that little box opens up a thousand possibilities of game play, and the resources you need to play and win the game will soon become dear to your heart.

Every game of Settlers can be completely different, forcing players to apply different strategies, because the game board is not a board at all, but several hexagon pieces that fit together to create the board. So the layout of the hexagon pieces can make certain strategies more successful than others. This is especially true as the expansions are added, because there are even more options to utilize.

On each hex piece that represents a resource, a number 2 12 (excluding 7) is assigned to it, and players with settlements a hex with the number rolled on the dice will receive units of that resource. So, there is strategy concerned with placing settlements on the more probable numbers (6 and 8, then 5 and 9, etc), or placing settlements on hex pieces representing the widest variety of resources.

The strategy becomes even more difficult as players begin to build. There's no limit to the number of resources you can hold before building, with the exception that if a 7 is rolled, players may lose a number of cards. But, if a road gets built near another player's road, there is nothing to stop that player from settling on the very spot the other was after. So if a player wants to build two roads and then a settlement, especially in a crowded area, there is a question as to if the player should build one road at a time, and hope there is a spot for a settlement in three turns, or hoard the cards and hope a 7 does not get rolled.

Once you've learned the basic rules and have played a few games, you will see how addicting this game is. As you add on expansion sets to increase the complexity of the game, you may also come up with variations of the game. You can post your variations on University of Catan's website, where others have posted their versions. You will find whole web communities around Catan games, the board game is that much fun. We even went as far as carving pieces out of wood and painting them to go along with one of the variations that we really enjoyed.

There is a computer version of Settlers of Catan, and that is a good remedy for the effects of withdrawal, but I find that most people would much rather play the board game in person. Plus, we all know computers cheat. In addition to the expansions to the Settlers game, there are entirely separate games, such as Starship of Catan for two players and Starfarers of Catan for more, as well as a children's game called The Kids of Catan.

Learn more about this author, Laura Lee Winger.
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