Years after fearless seafarers discovered and settled the island of Catan the population has grown significantly. Settlements have sprung up across the island and on the coasts, and trade between them has become indispensable. Catan needs a central trading site, so the Catanians have decided to build their first city. The ideal location would include a port, houses for builders and merchants, warehouses, taverns and a big church in the center. They have named their new city "Elasund" after their ancestral town in their old homeland. In the long tradition of German board games, Klaus Teuber is to Germany as Richard Garfield is to America. Germany has some great games, but never before "Settlers of Catan" has a single game won so many awards in the German Board Game Awards as "Settlers of Catan" has won year in and year out. Best game 3 years in a row, best supplement for each and every supplement that has come out for the game. They built a game so flexible and so well that they even published a 250 page book detailing tons of new ways to play the same old game! Having established such a rich history, It looks like Teuber has nowhere to go but down. Which is almost true. I can’t honestly argue that "Elasund" is in any way, shape or form better than "Settlers" but I can argue that it’s just as good. Contents The first, most striking thing about "Elasund" when you open the box and peel the gameboard, and the 4 thick cardboard sheets containing all of your game-markers is the Black plastic insert designed to hold every card, block, die, and even the wooden ship in the box without allowing them to slip and slide around. The insert is very well designed, in that if every marker is in the right place you can instantly tell if you’re missing a piece. Normally, with most board games, missing a piece or two isn't a problem. Teuber doesn't make normal games. Like any good German game, The cardboard is the thick press board with plastic laminate pictures that resist (thank god) wetness, and fading and scratching. 2 Wooden dice, 10 wooden colored blocks per player along with 1 colored "disk" (which looks more like a peg) for each player, and the wooden ship round out the collection of cardboard buildings nicely. When the board is together and during game play, the Buildings almost stand out on the board changing the experience and immersing you in the game. The only complaint about the contents I have is the Rulebook. While the rules aren't convoluted, and after the 4th read through they become very clear and simple. The rules are written in such a way that you just don’t feel like you’re getting it until you sit down with the pieces and play through. It should also be noted, that several important rules mechanics are in the rules pamphlet, but they are a single sentence, and are almost too easy to gloss over. Game Mechanics Teuber continues to build on his extremely successful production system. The beginning of every turn you throw 2 dice, add up the result. Normally the result produces resources for you to influence the game, or change the gameboard. In this case, the 2 resources are gold, and Political Influence. Naturally, the most commonly rolled result on 2 dice is a 7, and naturally, Teuber added a special rule whenever the dreaded 7 came up. Up until now the 7 was a number to be feared, because it always meant bad things for players late in the game, and there was usually very little to gain. In a massive 4 player game of "Settlers" A well laid out victory plan could be destroyed by the player before you rolling a 7 and costing you your resources. Many times have I lost the game due to this mechanic. While "Elasund" still keeps the spirit of the mechanic, it’s now a mechanism to even the playing-field instead of level it. Early on in the game, a 7 doesn't hurt anyone really. When you roll a 7 you may choose any number to produce but that particular row doesn't actually produce. Later on in the game, if someone has victory point cubes on the board (meaning they are getting closer to winning) they lose gold and influence if the ship goes in the right spot. Any other time, the ship moves along the Y axis of the board. If you roll a 6, the ship goes on the 6th row, and each of your production buildings give you and your opponents 1 gold or one influence depending on the building and who controls it. In order to "Build" Buildings, you must place "Building Permits". Normally you can only place a building permit in the row the ship has landed on. (Rolling a 7 allows you to put the ship wherever you want, and thus a boon early on instead of a problem) Most buildings only require one building permit. You start the game with 5 permits, costing anywhere between 0 and 4 gold. In order to place the permit, you pay the gold and put it on the board. This is where the "gamesmanship" gets interesting. Several of the buildings require multiple permits to build. If you are the owner of the highest priced permit in a building area, you may use your opponents permits to build your building, provided you pay your opponent the price of the permit for it’s usage. You can use influence to upgrade cheap permits to expensive ones, and you can use influence to move permits also, creating a sort of permit moving chess match. It is also very important to note that the larger buildings can displace smaller buildings off the board. So if your opponent has built a 1x1 well, you can bump it with your 2x1 merchant, and your opponent can replace that with a 2x2 tavern. You can replace his tavern with a 2x3 building, and your opponent can replace that with a piece of the 3x3 Church. Since any building that is 2x2 or bigger is worth Victory Points, replacing and bumping your opponents buildings is necessary to win. Another important mechanic is the use of Pirates later in the game in conjunctions with building "Walls and Towers" During the game, you may opt to build part of the communal wall around the city of Elasund. Any wall section not worth a tower gives you influence early on. But the 3rd, 6th, and 9th wall section give you "Towers" Towers are worth 1vp each that cannot be taken from you in any way. Keep in mind that there is not enough "Wall space" for both players to build all of their towers and walls, so the battle for building the "wall" tends to escalate quickly. Anytime you roll a "Pirate" and you have a Tower piece in play, you may collect one of the discarded Cards from your opponents for placing the Pirates on a row that intersects one of their buildings worth VP’s. (Wow. I hope that sentence made sense...) Finally, There are "Trade Squares" On the furthest left side of the board, there is a windmill, and you place your "disk" on the square marked zero. The left most city limits (against the ocean) and the 2, and 12 rows have Windmill marks on them. For every odd number of "trade fields" (Windmills) your buildings happen to cover, beyond the first, you get 1 VP. Gameplay This game is a cut-throat game. You can use your opponents permits to build your buildings, use your buildings to push their buildings off the board, and use your permits to "Block" other players from building somewhere. The most well laid plans are struck asunder by scheming opponents and the board can change a LOT in the 3 other players turns it takes to get the dice back to you. Since the turn is structured in such a way that you must have permits on the board in order to build, but must build buildings before you place permits, you must announce to every other player your intentions, wait a few turns, and hope they didn't throw anything on the board to sabotage your plans. This creates an interesting Dynamic when players are looking at what you did on your turn and are trying to predict what you’re going to do, then they use their turn not to further their own plans, but to simply screw with your plans!!! Overall though, this doesn't lead to hurt feelings as much as a feeling of "Oh yeah?! Just wait till I pee in your pool party bud, just wait." You find yourself scheming in an evil genius sort of fashion, so much so, that it’s easy to lose focus of winning and more on kicking your opponents while they are down. There are so many ways to score victory points, it isn't uncommon to watch someone make a 7 or 8 point swing with one building. (Say 4 for themselves, with a big (2x3) building worth 2vp, and 3 trade fields for 2 more vp. While nuking 2 other opponents’ buildings worth VP’s and taking someone elses' trade field VP’s away.) Which leads to excitement and makes going pretty tense when someone’s only got 4 vp left to win. What I don’t like One thing that I've always loved about Teuber’s games is the diplomacy of the game. Settlers of Catan allowed for a no-holds-barred, type of environment where players are trading with each other, taking advantage of the way trades had to be done, and even stabbing each other in the back. (I once watched a guy trade a good chunk of his resources away with promise to "get them back" because he was scared of losing them to a thief roll. The gal he traded them to used the resources to build all kinds of stuff and eventually win the game. Even though he refused to trade with her the rest of the game, and the rest of the table put an "embargo" on her, she still had such an advantage she won.) While you can still coerce people in game to submit to your will, the mechanic is definately not as strong as it could have been. Really the only leverage you have on players is placing your highest cost building permit. There is no mechanic for trading gold for influence, or gold for buildings, or influence for anything in the game. It’s quite frustrating to want to trade, and not have any way to do it. While I’m seriously working on getting "house rules" out that experiments with trading, it just kinda takes the wind out of my sails to know I can’t do it in the first place. A minor starting game balance issue also comes up too. Since the Church can be in any one of 9 different configurations, covering a total possible 27 squares on the board, the two players who’s starting colors are adjacent to the church are more likely to be displaced late game than the 2 players who start 1 square away from the church. 66% more likely. Since the Church is a mid-late game VP machine, and since you can put your "starting" buildings back on the board as long as there is room if they are displaced this seems a bit unbalanced. Not so much so that it takes away the fun, but I’d certainly rather be green, or red in a large game than blue or yellow. Finally some hints and tips if you own the game –Try to stay out of "permit wars" if you can. Each turn you upgrade a permit it costs, influence, and gold, and costs you material you could be building with. By all means encourage your other players to get into permit wars, either verbally, or by placing a cheap permit that makes it look like you want to steal, or block a permit from 2 other players. If you can do this, you get 2 or 3 turns of building other places, while your opponents focus on one spot. –Building walls early is almost always worth it. If you can get one tower on the 2 cost wall row (Walls cost 2 gold each to run horizontally and 4 gold each to run vertically) You can never be punished for having the tower. In the 4 gold row, you spend more gold, AND it can cost you resource cards down the line. –Never lose focus on what you’re trying to do. Just because your opponent gave you back 3 vp cubes doesn't mean you’re down and out. Don’t focus on picking back on him, focus on getting those points back. If the two happen to coincide, so be it, if not, move on. The board is fluid, and ever changing. –Early in the game, do whatever is necessary to get your own buildings on the board, you start with 2 home buildings, but you have 2 more home buildings that can be purchased and placed. Keep them as central as possible. You’re only worried about jump starting production, not longevity of production. –Don’t forget about Influence. Later in the game influence is more important than gold, and only the Tavern produces it over 2 vertical squares. (The other two take up horizontal squares only, meaning if you roll a 6 on a 1x2 influence you only get 1 influence) There is a north arrow on all but 3 counters, each of these counters must coincide with north in order to keep the balance of the game. –Given the choice, take red, or green, not blue, or yellow. 2, 3, or 4 players. Always. –If you've got 7 gold early on in the game, consider getting the first church piece out. Even though it’s crazy expensive, having the ability to protect your buildings from the church is a huge boon. Good luck, and happy gaming.