Settlers of Catan. Ever heard of it? Realm is always wanting to play Settlers. He wants more board game extensions, but I don’t know why. If he can’t get players for the original game, why would he think more of the same is a good idea?
Last night – being the beginning of a new year and all – the family acknowledged Realm’s delight in collecting wheat, brick, and ore. We all sat down to a rousing game. Some of us were more rousing than others, specifically Magne who decided his resource cards were all made of gold and wouldn’t trade. There was Dawn, who held the monopoly on wood for much of the game. Did I say monopoly? Why yes, I did. At some point mid-Catan-torture, I turned to Realm and said, “This game is Monopoly! It’s just monopoly re-packaged!”
This is a significant discovery because early in our marriage we had to ban Monopoly for a healthy relationship… with each other, with other couples, with our parents and siblings. Realm is terrifically competitive when Atlantic Avenue is on the line. He gets mean and calculating. Generally, we want our friends and family to visit again, but he’s not thinking about that when he’s bankrupting them with a sparkle in his eye. He’s not thinking of the short responses he is going to receive from me while I simmer over his quiet chuckle when finagling me out of my best property.
Yes, I think Catan brings out the worst in us. Magne goes into power-hungry mode, and Pearl starts trading using her Batman voice. Okay, Pearl uses her Batman voice for everything lately. “Pass me the salt,” comes out much more threatening, and “the peanut butter cookies were delicious” takes on a Beetlejuice quality. Her Batman voice did not intimidate anyone out of their sheep, though. Pearl lost, Dawn won, and Realm began a campaign of assuring me it was a great game that I played well but for the slight infraction of trading in four brick for a wood when I should’ve offered him three for a trade instead.
Well, my good deed of playing Settlers is done for the year.
Rilla Writer 
Ah, I’ve never heard of the game and was thinking from your post title there should be more fighting until I Googled it and discovered it’s actually Settlers of Catan 🙂
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Sorry for the confusion. I shouldn’t assume it’s a well-known game. We go way beyond the settling part, hence the title of my post. There should be canons and muskets added. I bet there’s an extension pack for that. 😑
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That would spice it up a bit 🙂
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Looks like an interesting game. I read in the wikipedia article that there was a video game released at one point. There even was a short film in 2014 released. 🙂
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A short film? I will look that up. Thanks for the info!
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I’m crazy about Catan but hubby doesn’t like to play when it’s just the two of us. He says it’s too easy to beat me because he knows my strategies. 😒
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Well, that’s not any fun! I wouldn’t think playing two player would work. ? If I happened to like Catan, I would probably pretend to be three different players – complete with props, like hat and mustache. I might even say, “I mustache you to play Settlers of Catan with me.” But it’s obviously not a favorite, so I’ll save the hat and mustache for Splendor or Balderdash.
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