CATAN!!

This is what Catan has become in our house. What started out as a "chilled out" game of friendly family rivalry soon became a cutthroat, desperate struggle for survival and expansion.

For anyone who has played Catan I'm sure they will understand. It's a game I love but very rarely win. Luckily its also one of the greatest boardgames ever created.
The idea in a nutshell is to expand your empire of roads, villages and cities to gather more resources to buy more roads, villages and cities! The strategies are endless and due to the random board setup no two games are really the same. The first to a certain number of Victory Points (usually 10) wins!

This is how we started.

I'm white by the way. I felt I had a strong early/mid game tactic with the wood, wheat and brick resources with a bit of wool now and again. At this point I was confident although splitting my starting villages was a gamble perhaps.
I thought Brown had missed a trick by centreing on a lot of wood requiring him to trade heavily for other resources. Red had tried a similar tactic to me so was to be watched and Orange was playing for a late game tactic with the ore.

By this time, late game, I was attempting to join my empires, securing the Longest Road title, and in for a good chance on the win. Red had struggled after getting a little boxed in as I had hoped but Brown thrived suprisingly after some good wood trades. It was Orange though who had been gaining power quietly in the background as Brown appeared to be the bigger threat as demonstrated by the Robber placement!
Although I was sweating I still felt the game could be mine.

Well, I failed to see the threat rising in the North! All eyes were focused on Brown in the south as he was making a play for my Longest Road title worth 2 Victory Points. Red made a valiant effort despite being badly hampered by Brown and myself blocking her in when Orange won it by sudden and unstoppable VICTORY!!!

Easily one of the best games your money can buy. So much fun for an hour or two.
This isn't meant as a review or rules explanation (these can be found easily nline) just raising awareness of awesome games that don't require a screen and do require interaction with friends and family.

For a very entertaining view of the rules and gameplay check out the excellent channel Geek and Sundry with Wil Wheatons Tabletop (below)