Long overdue Settlers of Catan experience

Boy, talk about being late to the party.

I first became aware of Settlers of Catan not long after it first came to American shores in the mid 1990s, but somehow I contrived to miss out on the initial wave of popularity. I think I was still too focused on wargames at the time. It wasn't really until I came across Boradgame Geek and then the Meetup groups that I realized how much wider the adult gaming interest was.

In any case, I took advantage of a rare Thursday night off to join a local Meetup gamer group. Like most Meetup gamers, the majority of this group are very casual gamers with little exposure to even the eurogames (let alone something like a wargame. One fellow mentioned how he had played a wargame once -- it was Risk).

Still, the Meetup hostess had promised a Settlers game would be available and I wanted to finally play it. And there's something to be said for not being dropped into a group of experienced Settlers players for your first game. I was familiar with the rules, having studied my own copy, but there are subtle points to the game you're not likely to discover without playing a little.

We had one fellow who had played the game a few times, as had the hostess. I had read the rules and the other three players were newbies. One was the Risk player, one fellow had played a few euros it appears and the last gentleman wasn't used to playing anything other than traditional Ameritrash games like Monopoly.

It was an interesting game, and I felt pretty good about where I ended up, in third place with 7 VPs. The Risk guy actually won it going away, scoring 10 while the experienced fellow was second with 8. The other three players were far behind, with Hostess at 4 (she had the Longest Road), and the two new fellows with 3 each.

I suspect the game may work better with four players than with the 6 players we had using the 5-6 player expansion. Even with the bigger map the board seemed a little too crowded and there was a little too much down time. I think the 4-player version may be better on both counts.

Our game was also a bit on the long side, which is probably attributable to the number of new players we had.

I'm looking forward to trying it again.

I broke down and finally got it.

I witnessed the initial wave of excitement over The Settlers of Catan back in 1995, but dismissed it as a passing fad. It seemed to me that the excitement over collectible card games led by Magic: The Gathering that was reaching its initial peak in 1995 was the bigger deal.

Time has proven that collectible games were, for the most part, a dead end. Aside from Magic: The Gathering and a handful of other collectible-type games, the genre didn't prove to be a lasting success. The collectible game genre has more shipwrecks than the Bermuda Triangle.

In the meantime Settlers of Catan has spawned a couple dozen expansions, been mainstreamed to the point of appearing in mass market outlets and inspired a whole host of other "euro" games.

And I took part in none of it. Well, I went ahead and traded away my copy of Carcassone: The City (a handsome game I've never been able to get on the table) for a copy of Settlers which I know will hit the table as I already have opponents lined up. Better late than never, I suppose.

Catan threatens Hasbro cash cow?

Well, that seems to be the opinion of this industry analyst at TD Monthly, anyway:

http://www.toydirectory.com/monthly/article.asp?id=3680

Hasbro has reigned as the absolute market leader of the board game category for many years. Last year, the company sold $815 million in the United States. This is the equivalent of about $1,220 million at retail, or a market share of 53 percent. Games and puzzles are also Hasbro’s largest product category, accounting for nearly one-third of its sales last year. While Hasbro does not break out gross profit by category, I understand that games and puzzles represent about 40 percent of Hasbro’s gross profitability. Its single largest board game brand, Monopoly, has sold, over its lifetime, about 300 million pieces and moves about 3 million units every year in the United States alone. This fat tidbit has long attracted the attention of competitors, but none has succeeded in capturing it. However, it looks as if things are about to change.

The writer then summarizes some action in the category, namely Mattel and Blokus, Lego and some unspecified games and Mayfair with Settlers of Catan.

He also claims Hasbro's game business was down.

Hasbro’s board game business declined last year despite strong demand for the category. I predict this will happen again in 2009 and 2010.

Turns out that's not entirely accurate. According to Hasbro's Q4 transcript: Board games were up 2% while the total games and puzzle category was flat compared to a year ago.

So apparently puzzles were down, not games. A significant point, I think.

Frankly, I don't buy it. Hasbro has such a dominant share of the board game world that it's going to take a lot more than a couple of hot games to change that. Blokus and Settlers of Catan have been out for a while already, and I see little evidence they're about to displace Monopoly.

Indeed, his very premise may be mistaken. He seems to assume that it's a zero-sum situation and that any growth in board game sales by other manufacturers will necessarily come at Hasbro's expense. On the other hand, it may be that renewed interest in the category will boost sales for all concerned. More games may mean more game players which may lead to even more game sales. Games are not necessarily competing against other games for sales but are competing against other forms of entertainment.