‘Settlers of Catan’ Is Taking The Internet By Storm, But What Is It?


If you follow football, you might have noticed that Settlers of Catan has made its way onto many popular sports sites today. The reason? According to the Wall Street Journal, the Green Bay Packers are enthralled with the game.

The Green Bay players have become notoriously competitive with the game, and that’s not unexpected. To be a professional football player, you need to be competitive. However, in the WSJ piece, author Kevin Clark noted some of the player’s behavior when playing Settlers. In fact, some of the players become so wrapped up in Catan games, backup QB Scott Tolzien is known for slamming the board when he loses. Settlers of Catan has awoken the competitive fire in the team, and they aren’t even on the field.

Settlers of Catan board
Settlers of Catan board — players aim to settle the island of Catan. Each tile produces a resource, unless the robber token is on the space.

While the Internet is buzzing about Settlers of Catan, one question remains: what is it? Settlers is a board game, one that requires tactics, skill, strategy, and some luck to win. According to the Settlers of Catan website, the game consists of a board divided into hexagonal segments (19 in all) and have different terrain features on each spot. Each player selects a spot where three of the plots meet and place their starting settlement. A player rolls two die and then add the numbers together. The plots are numbered as well, and those players who have a settlement adjacent to the tile will get a resource card that corresponds to the resource the plot produces. The idea is to build more settlements and upgrade them to cities.

The overall goal of Settlers of Catan is to gain 10 victory points. You gain these points from each settlement you own: one point for a settlement and two for a city. You can also gain points due to a development card that grants a player a point. Catan also has multiple expansions available, which can change up the monotony in the game. While the resource tiles are randomly placed at the beginning, some of the expansions to Settlers require a fixed board.

This isn’t the first time Settlers of Catan has made headlines. A few years back, Settlers came up when it was the talk of Silicon Valley, being played by companies there internally. In fact, Catan was attributed as replacing the normal “golf course” meetings helping to introduce prospective business partners.

Hopefully, for Green Bay’s sake, the Settlers of Catan games don’t interfere with preparing for the NFC Championship game this weekend against Seattle. Otherwise, you won’t be able to blame the refs this time.

[Featured Image via Amazon, Board Image via Settlers of Catan]

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