Caracassonne vs. Settlers of Catan?

[Joshua Randall]

Can't believe no one has posted this link yet:

www.boardgamegeek.com

Settlers of Catan -- http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/13
Carcassonne -- http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/822

 

[Cor Azer]

I own both. I prefer Carcassonne myself (check that, I have Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers). I've also tried the Carcassonne: Castles (another stand-alone variant) which is a nice twist, but Ark of the Covenant (another stand-alone variant) doesn't interest me.

I don't feel there's any more randomness in it than with Settlers, and the fact that you can play with only 2 players gives it a big boost in my opinion.

 

[Setanta]

Of the two, I prefer Carcassonne. Settlers just feels too much like craps to me, without the possibility to win money or the free drinks. Both of them boil down to playing probabilities.

I strongly prefer the meatier, less luck intensive games in the genre, such as Puerto Rico, Princes of Florence, Goa, Power Grid, Tigris and Euphrates, etc.

 

[Maerdwyn]

I own both, and will reiterate the 2 person vs group argument.

I will also say that of my non-gaming friends, most seem to prefer Carcassone (And more specifically Carcassone: Hunters and Gatherers) to Settlers. Two of my friends, who had never boardgamed before, played it, loved it, and now own several other "German" games besides. It's a great gateway drug. The husband's mother (A very conservative Indian lady) visited them in New York City last summer, and they introduced her to the game. In the week she stayed with them, the three of them played C:H&G eight times, times 2-8 at the mother's request.

 

[JesterPoet]

Can't believe no one has posted this link yet:

www.boardgamegeek.com

Settlers of Catan -- http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/13
Carcassonne -- http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/822

Me either... I was waiting for someone to post that.

 

[FungiMuncher]

As for Settlers, once I got a little deeper into the strategy, the random factors make it feel like I'm competing against the board itself - how do I force out resources more consistantly, and do it better than the other players.

Also check out the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_Catan

There are several additional places to play online listed there.

 

[jmucchiello]

Me either... I was waiting for someone to post that.

I mentioned boardgamegeek.com (and funagain.com) in reply #5. I post there too.

I strongly prefer the meatier, less luck intensive games in the genre, such as Puerto Rico, Princes of Florence, Goa, Power Grid, Tigris and Euphrates, etc.

Yes, yes. All excellent games. Only T&E (I think) can handle 2 players well though.

However, although Settlers says it is for 2-4 players, the board gets really crowded if you have more than 3 players and no expansion set.

That's part of the strategy of the game. It is possible to get surrounded and still win at Settlers (if you got good location at the beginning)

I wore out of Settlers really fast, talk about a luck game!

Just like you can vary Carcassonne with giving each player an initial hand. You can reduce the luck in Settlers by creating a set of 36 cards numbered 2-12 in 2d6 distribution and draw them rather than rolling randomly. Amusingly, the brettspielwelt version of Settlers actually provides a histogram of the dice rolls so you can see if some die roll is rolling more often than it should.

I'd suggest if you want to try the two out, there's a website where you can play online for free:

www.brettspielwelt.de

for help in english, try

www.brettspielwelt.com

I do believe that www.brettspielwelt.info for English. Gaming on brettspielwelt is a great place to become good at playing these and other strategy board games. If you see the term BSW on boardgamegeek, they are referring to brettspielwelt.

I might look into Carcassone the game, since although Settlers is great it can't be played with just two people - and the name of Carcasonne might convince my wife that it is worth giving it a go

If you primarily play with only 2 players (as couples often do), I would recommend Lost Cities, Hera & Zeus, Caeser & Cleopatra and other games in the Kosmos 2 player series published by Rio Grande Games. (Lost Cities is also online at BrettSpielWelt.)

I'll still take Puerto Rico over all the above any day of the week.

 

[robberbaron]

Don't know Carcassone, but Settlers is brill!

Re. graphic style:
I have the early English version where the tiles are basically photographs (at least they look like them), rather than the pretty poor stylised pics of the more recent versions.

 

[d20Dwarf]

If you primarily play with only 2 players (as couples often do), I would recommend Lost Cities, Hera & Zeus, Caeser & Cleopatra and other games in the Kosmos 2 player series published by Rio Grande Games. (Lost Cities is also online at BrettSpielWelt.).

Balloon Cup is a really fun 2-player game, too.

 

[scadgrad]

Of the two, I greatly prefer Settlers. I do find that Carcassonne has a stronger appeal to "non-gamers" (spouses, etc.) than does Settlers. You might call it a Tetris Effect. Both are outstanding games though; why not buy 'em both.

Chalk me up as yet another Puerto Rico fan. It is the most enjoyable resource mgmt/strategy game on the market IMO. Beautifully designed, elegent graphics, infinitely replayable; I can't imagine that anyone who likes board games would not adore this game.

Other great games in addition to those already mentioned in the posts above:

Medici
Web of Power