Give Me Your Sheep, Ore Else

Maybe it’s all the indoors weather we’ve been having, or maybe it’s recession nesting, but lately our talk has been turning to board games. Jess kept singing the praises of one game in particular – The Settlers of Catan – a German import that has an innate sustainability focus. So when she lugged it to work last week, through the rain and more rain, we couldn’t help but carve out some time on Friday afternoon to play. The premise of the game is that when a group of settlers go about colonizing the deserted island of Catan, the one who uses and trades his/her natural resources most efficiently will be the winner.

It’s everything you’d expect if you were a 17th-century colonizer, minus the perfectly-happy-before-you-arrived indigenous people: there are roads, settlements, cities, even a robber. And, yes, there’s a bank too. But forget that fake, pastel-colored excuse for money; this bank deals in Brick, Wheat, Wood, Sheep and, of course, Ore.

Whether you win (Jess), almost win (Jeffrey and Ivan), or lose (Lauren), there’s something thrillingly primal about starting from scratch, relying entirely on the land and your own wise management of resources.

And, in case you’re thinking that we’re a bunch of board game geeks, well you’re not entirely wrong, but it’s worth mentioning that we aren’t the only ones going berserk over Settlers. Just this spring, Wired did a piece on the growing craze, even daring to call it a “Monopoly killer."  Gasp.

So, feel like settling? Swing by for a game. If it ever stops raining, we’ll be on the roof.

Image: Alexandre Duret-Lutz  / Flickr.