At a meeting of our store managers, we discovered that all 7 of us had purchased a copy of Settlers of Catan for his personal collection. I'm not aware of any other game to hold this distinction. The games came to us a few years ago from Germany bearing the German Game of the Year award. It has since been recognized by Games Magazine.

Each player guides a group of settlers toward prosperity on the rich but undeveloped island of Catan. The game begins with laying out the 37 hexagonal pieces of the board. This produces a different game board each time the game is played. By cleverly building and trading resources, each tries to dominate the island. Building roads, settlements and cities (represented by little wood counters) depends upon the resources you collect. What resources you collect depends upon where you have chosen to build and upon the roll of the dice. This combination of strategy and luck is extremely addictive.

A very fun and surprisingly addictive game. Recently, a few of us were waiting for some other players to show up for the game we had planned that night and we said, "Lets play a game of Settlers while we wait!" That game turned into 2 games before they showed up. We were all very happy that they took so long. ;-)

The game comes with four sets of wood counters and can be upgraded to 5 or 6 players with the expansion set. This set, of course, consists of 2 more sets of wood pieces, so the price is a little higher than most expansion sets. . . but oh, so worth it!

Prospector, captain, mayor, trader, settler, craftsman, or builder? Which roles will you play in the new world? Will you own the most prosperous plantations? Will you build the most valuable buildings? You have but one goal: achieve the greatest prosperity and highest respect! This is shown by the player who earns the most victory points. He will win the game!

by Andreas Seyfarth

The expansion offers new challenges to the many fans of Carcassonne. Add a cathedral and triple the value of a city. The Inn doubles the value of a road, but only when completed. There is a new large follower for each player to use, doubling her chances of controlling a city, road, or field.

Also included is all necessary material to allow a sixth player to join in the fun. Finally, there are 6 point tiles to make scoring easier once players have accumulated more than 50 points.

This is a new game (not an expansion) in the Carcassonne line. It has new graphics, a new set of components, a theme set in the stone age, and new rules to match the theme.

Players have figures that can represent hunters, gatherers, or fishermen and place them in meadows, forests, or on rivers. They also have huts, which can be placed on rivers or lakes and are scored at the end of the game as are the hunters. Gatherers and fishermen are scored when forests or rivers are completed. There are special forest tiles that give the player who plays a tile completing a forest an extra tile lay of special tiles with special features.

Fun for kids and adults alike. Components and mechanics are appealing. Rules are simple, and everyone gets to make plenty of choices. Until the very end, anyone may be the winner.

Players of Carcassonne take turns drawing and laying down tiles to create a landscape made of roads, fields, walled cities, and monasteries. When a player puts a piece into the landscape, he make occupy one of its features, such as the road, city, or farm. As his road or farm expands with the addition of new tiles, it becomes more valuable... unless joined to an opponent's feature. The player with the most points once all the tiles have been played is the winner.

On your turn you draw a tile and place it next to one of the tiles already on the table. You decide where to play, but you must match the features on your tile to ones already played. You may then place one of your men on one of the features of the tile you have just laid. Put him in a city and he becomes a knight; in a monastery and he becomes a monk; on a road a thief; and in a field a farmer. The goal is to build long roads, high-scoring cities, monasteries without running out of the men that you need. There is an element of luck as you may or may not draw the tile that furthers your plans, but plenty of skill in deciding how to deploy your tiles and men.

While the box is not preposessing, the game in progress is quite appealing. Winner of several awards and big favorite with Game Preserve Staff, Carcassonne is heartily recommended.

New rules and tiles for Carcassonne. Highly recommended. Includes: 24 new land tiles 20 trade good tiles 6 builders 6 pigs 1 cloth bag Rules

The Game Preserve staff liked this game on first sight. It evolved from the excellent Carcassonne system to be a two-player game with relatively simple mechanics yet interesting play.

Bounded by the castle walls, players work to grow the city. They establish buildings, roads and such inside the constrained space of the castle walls. They position their followers at strategic places: knights to guard the towers, heralds to spread the news, and merchants to sell their wares in the markets.

Castle walls also serve as the scoring track. There are special items waiting along the wall for the first player to reach them. Simple, non-verbal play makes this game interesting for both 8 and 48 year olds.

Puerto Ricoís golden age returns. Players travel now to the capital city of this beautiful island. This card game is based on Rio Grande's popular board game Puerto Rico. It was an instant hit among our staffers.

On each turn, starting with the Governor, players choose to play one of five exclusive roles, each having special privileges. Roles are: Builder, Councillor, Producer, Prospector, Trader.

Simple mechanics and lots of decision making are the reasons our staff is hooked on San Juan.

This small expansion adds the 12 tiles that represent the actual city of Carcassonne and are the starting tiles for the game. During the game, players who help others score points may place followers in the city and later move them to scoring features outside the city. Yet another new way to play this great game!

This is an absolutely gorgeous and well crafted edition that encompasses Settlers of Catan and Cities and Knights for 3-4 players. This edition features three-dimensional hand painted tiles made of dense heavy weight resin and a complete interlocking border. Each player will have a set of hand painted settlements, cities, metropoli, city walls, knights and roads. The special hardwood case is designed to keep your set safe and features a special slotted level with felt lined slots to hold each hex. A wooden tray to hold pieces for play and storage.