Settlers of Catan

The German Invasion Begins

I was too young to see Jaws when it released. I eventually saw it in a theater, during a re-release. But the initial release was an event. Not initially, but people kept coming out of the theaters and telling friends “You gotta see this.”¹ The typical Marvel movie now has a $200+ Million dollar advertising budget, a disappointing opening and is gone two weeks later.

Jaws was the number one movie for 14 weeks. Four-teen. Mostly on word of mouth.

Settlers of Catan arrived like that. (I know they now call it “Catan.” They can have the “Settlers of” when they pry them from my cold, dead hands).²

Back then, during the early days of the web, gamers traded information via Usenet (rec.games.board) and a few online sites. There weren’t yet online stores importing games; just a few people who placed big orders and resold them. So when I arrived at a convention I made a bee-line to one of those retailers and asked what was good. He said this one game in a red box seemed popular.

I got the last copy.

30th Anniversary Box Cover. Still pretty red (Image provided by Publisher)

During the convention all the copies were in use; nobody even bothered reboxing it between games, as other players were waiting. The convention ran an impromptu tournament and over half of the con-goers participated. The first round took multiple sessions because there were not enough games. People really wanted to win … because that meant you got to play during the second round. Lose and you’d have to wait for the tournament to end for a copy to free up.

Klaus Tueber’s Settlers of Catan was a blockbuster.

Gamers called Germany to order a copy. Those of us with copies took them home to great acclaim. Others told stories. Mayfair Games quickly struck a deal for a US rights & printed their own copy. Shortly — although I’m sure it seemed longer to those who hadn’t gotten a copy from German — the game appeared in the United States.

Germany’s board game revolution didn’t start with Settlers of Catan. Short board games suitable for the entire family that played in an hour and that lacked direct conflict had been quietly growing over the prior few decades³. Those of us who’d haunted Usenet and ‘zines had discovered games like Modern Art and Tal der Könige and introduced them to other gamers raised on American games, with their much more direct conflict and “Take that!” Those other games were appreciated, but Settlers of Catan didn’t need the help of any critic. It broke out from game stores into main stream bookstores. Modern game companies printed a few thousand games in a print run, hoping to sell out. Settlers of Catan has sold north of 35 Million copies.

It’s a game that has stayed the same as my opponents have changed from strangers at a convention, to another couple, to my wife and children …. and to my wife and adult children. There seems to be a cottage industry of Youtube videos on strategy, reviewing world championship games, and all things in between. We aren’t quite at the point where you say “I play boardgames” people will say “Oh, like Settlers of Catan?” as their first guess. But sometimes they do. Sometimes they still say Monopoly. Sometimes they say another European game like Ticket to Ride. After Tueber’s massive hit American publishers struck deals with the Europeans and scoured their back catalogues. Game stores started importing. Distribution deals arose. Gamers became aware of Germany’s massive Game and Toy Fair at Essen, and more and more started crossing the Atlantic, looking for lightning to strike again.

All of this because of a small island where your two starting villages collected some resources that you traded with your neighbors so that you could expand your …. empire isn’t the right word. There is no colonization and subjugation, just expansion. No armies, just roads and noble knights to protect from the foul robbers.

Thirty years later, it seems like that island nation has never stopped expanding, which is why I believe it is one of the most Influential Games of the 20th Century.

1. The marketing strategy was actually much more than word of mouth, and clever, but never let the truth get in the way of an accepted reality.

2. But “Settlers” is an acceptable shortening, because that’s what people called it if they wanted to shorten the name.

3. See our article on Acquire for more on “German Style” games.