Andrew Yao 2007-07-10
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Intro
Seafarers Of Catan is the game expansion to Settlers Of Catan, as such it does require Settlers Of Catan for its pieces, tiles, number tokens, cards, game rules, and knowledge of gameplay that provide the basis and foundation for the additional pieces (e.g. ship pieces, more number tokens) and gameplay elements that you'll find in Seafarers.
New elements
The learning curve to go from a Settlers newbie to learning to play Settlers is much higher than for someone who already knows how to play Settlers trying to learn the extra elements that make up Seafarers. As such, there isn't a lot pick up. In brief, these extra elements comprise of:
-edge/frame pieces - snap these together like jigsaw puzzle pieces to form a solid frame/border. Then fill in the frame for a tight fitting, rectangular board
-harbor tokens - used in lieu of the sea tiles with printed harbors on them. Since some land tiles right next to the border can have ports, the new harbor tokens can be placed on the borders whereas the old sea port tiles could not.
-ships - sheep are used instead of brick/clay to make these. You can move them one per turn which can save resources in having to make a new set of ships, but unlike roads, ships are vulnerable to the pirate
-pirate - The "sea robber". Restricts movement of ships and allows stealing of a card from those ships' owners, like robbing from a settlement.
-Special Victory Point tokens - these are awarded depending on the scenario. Usually when a settlement is built onto remote islands not initially settled by you.
-Gold fields - Provides one gold resource which is immediately traded for any one of the other standard resources
-changes needed where ships are concerned - Longest Trade Route is just a fancy term for "Longest Road consisting of roads AND ships", road building development card can mix and match building 2 roads or ships, ships can be built instead of roads during initial settlement placements on the shore, while soldier cards and 7s may invoke the pirate instead now.
Scenarios and Gameplay
One thing players notice right away is how much space some of the scenarios take. Unlike board games like Monopoly where the board is relatively small and Settlers Of Catan where at least the size of the layout is fixed, board sizes vary to where they're as small as 19.5"x23.5" but as large as 32"x23.5". 26"x23.5" is the single piece of area you need to accommodate all but one of the scenarios, and improvise by keeping players' own cards and the bank's cards on a side table or tray. Having the frame edges helps because at the very least, you can create the empty frame first to gauge how it things will fit without wasting A LOT of time filling in the hex tiles. Most of these scenarios are larger than the Settlers Of Catan layout, some of them require the tiles and number tokens be set up exactly as shown which adds time compared to a random setup, and scenarios are typically 12 to 13 point games, so that makes games even longer. All of these add to longer game from setup to endgame. Longer games also mean you're likely to place less games per session. These extra "headaches" aside, they're worth putting up with to get your game on. The manual lists out what components you need, diagrams of the scenarios (my copy is a recent edition in full color which takes the alot guesswork out of what some of the black and white tiles would've been), and suggestions on setting up. As far as the groups of scenarios themselves:
1) New Shores - basically the Settlers Of Catan island with a few smaller islands besides it. Provides the familiarity of the original with option to explore the islands and bask in new Seafarers gameplay
2) The Four Islands - These layouts force settlements into more close quarters than in Settlers Of Catan (that in which got pretty cramped sometimes). Exploration is definitely encouraged, as islands are small and building to foreign islands provides special victory points as well as new ground to build and reap resources
3) Oceans - Half of map contains initially unrevealed tiles, which get revealed and assigned a number token (for land tiles) as the player explores them. Encourages sea exploration since mainland is cramped
4) Into The Desert - Similar to #1, but the main island is smaller and non random in its tile and token layout
5) A New World - Completely random position of tiles and tokens, with harbor positions chosen by players
6) The Great Crossing - players connect settlements from one island to any settlement on the other island with ships for points.
7) Greater Catan - Enormous sized map that requires 2 copies of Settlers Of Catan create. Tokens get reassigned from mainland to the smaller islands when needed. This is an 18 point game that uses 8 city pieces.
Except for #2 and #3, the other maps with larger landmasses, expanding out to sea isn't always an advantage. Sometimes, players who just stick with building within the mainland will win before other players who expanded can reap significant rewards from the sea (e.g. settling on gold fields, obtaining bonus victory points, or even production from extra, standard land tiles), so despite what the name "Seafarers" might imply, emphasis is still on sound strategy and not blindly building out to sea because it's "the" thing to do.
Some of the scenarios have no randomness to what tile goes where and what number token goes on top of it. The harbors will also always be in predetermined spots, but at least the type of harbor that goes there is still random. These will lose some favor with Settlers fans that were into the sheer randomness of the tiles and tokens, but at least there are plenty of other scenarios which do offer higher levels of randomness
