'Simply Catan' is a simply wonderful beginners' game

PARKERSBURG — One of the first modern board games I ever played was a game called "Settlers of Catan," and from the first roll of the dice I was hooked.

Up until then my board game experience had consisted of the old standby games, such as Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble and Hungry Hungry Hippos, all of which, with the possible exception of Hippos, I found to be pretty dull.

But "Settlers of Catan," produced by Mayfair Games, changed my opinion of board games and was the catalyst for my new-found hobby and interest in gaming.

Now SimplyFun Games has come up with "Simply Catan," a beginners version of the game that streamlines the rules and setup for new players, and if anything has managed to improve an already exceptional game.

The main rules are the same for both games, and for the basic and advanced versions of "Simply Catan." The island is comprised of hexes, each indicating a different kind of terrain. Each terrain has a random number between 2 and 12, and you use two six-sided dice to determine which hex produces a resource that turn. You use resources, represented by resource cards, to buy roads and towns, to upgrade your towns into cities and to buy Development cards, which can represent anything from armies to churches to bountiful harvests.

Towns and cities are very important, because you only get resources if you have a settlement on a hex when its number is rolled. Cities produce more resources than towns, and you have to connect all your settlements with roads.

Players get victory points based on the number of towns and cities they have, and certain Development cards also can give points. Players also can win victory points by having the longest continuous road or the largest standing army. The first player to reach a designated number of victory points wins the game.

Other game elements include the Robber, a game piece that moves around the board and blocks hexes from producing resources; ports, which allow players to exchange certain types of resources for other resources; and the ability of players to trade with one another. It is almost impossible to produce enough of every kind of resource, so finding different ways to monopolize and trade resources while preventing your opponents from doing the same is a huge part of the game.

"Simply Catan" differs from "Settlers" in two major ways: the gameboard and a set of beginner's rules.

With "Settlers," the gameboard is comprised of individual hexes that have to be laid out at random each time. Though this means the gameboard changes with every game, it also takes a little bit of setup time, and the tiles are prone to slide out of place. You also have to be careful to include the proper number of tiles for each kind of resource and separate out the water and port tiles to form the edge of the gameboard.

"Simply Catan" uses a beautiful gameboard with the island cut out in the center. The terrain tiles are attached together in rows and are assembled to form the island. The center "string" is five hexes long, and there are two four-hex and two three-hex rows that go on either side of the center. This creates a 19-hex board, and the rows can be flipped to show different resources, allowing hundreds of board configurations.

The main game board has the outer edge of the island, with water and ports already represented. The building costs are marked for each player right on the board, so you don't have to go looking through a book to find out how many resource cards are needed to upgrade your town to a city.

The roads, towns and cities in "Simply" are represented by colorful plastic pieces which look great, and one of my favorite upgrades is with the Robber. In "Settlers," the robber is represented by a black pawn. In "Simply," the robber piece is a group of three unsavory looking characters.

"Simply Catan" also has two sets of rules: Beginner and Advanced. In the beginner's version, players need only seven victory points to win the game instead of 10. Another victory condition, The Largest Army card which gives two victory points to players with the largest army of at least three knight (Development) cards, is only used in the advanced game. The Longest Road card, which gives a player two victory points for having the longest road of at least five linked road sections, is used in both versions.

There are some other minor differences, but most of the changes in the beginner's version are simply meant to speed up gameplay while giving the players fewer elements to track. Once you move on to the advanced rules, "Simply" and "Settlers" are pretty much the same game.

I love "Settlers of Catan," but I love "Simply Catan" even more because of its beautiful gameboard, great pieces, and easy-to-introduce beginners rules. If you are looking to get into gaming, or want to buy a game that almost anyone can learn in an evening, I would highly recommend "Simply Catan."

For more information on this or other SimplyFun games, go to www.simplyfun.com.