Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Tonight we tried a variant of Settlers of Catan, Traders and Barbarians.

The Variant actually is several variants, Fishermen, Rivermen, Caravans, Knights and Barbarians. We only had time to play Fishermen and Rivermen. Both variants were rather interesting and the addition of random cards to replace the dice was really interesting, It kept the probabilities while removing the randomness. In our first game using the cards to generate the numbers for resources. Sort of like Blackbeard or the old Status Pro series of games.

In the Fishermen variant the deserts are replaced by lakes and by fishing you can trade to get other items that you might not get able to get your hands on normally.

In the Rivermen variant you gain funds for building along rivers and building bridges, you can also spend your funds on resources, but beware, if you are the low man financially you will have penalties while the richest man will gain rewards.

If you haven’t played Catan you will need the base game for the variant, if you have you will likely find the it a welcome addition to the game.

As we had five players we were playing the 5-6 player versions of both.

Since the games are played on a roter on our game night it will likely be a bit before we get back to Catan. I believe the new version of Axis and Allies in on the list for next week.