settlers of catan - how many players ?

Settlers Of Catan is a three player game and goes up to 4 players with the original game.

There are some card game versions that are two player, but I forget which ones are good and which ones aren't as good. I think the one that is better than the other is called "The Rivals of Catan". It's an exclusively two player game and has similar gameplay mechanics to Settlers. You're building fields and villages and trying to gain points. The box comes with a Basic Game and rules for Theme Games which add more cards to the deck and expand the complexity and play time.

I haven't played Rivals of Catan, but I've heard good things about it.

For a good 2 player game I would suggest Mr. Jack, Blokus Duo or Dominion.

Mr. Jack is a two player game of deduction where one player is a Detective trying to figure out which of the figures on the board is controlled by the other player who is Jack the Ripper in disguise. The Investigator pieces on the board each have special abilities that allow you to do things like turn lamps on or off or to move through buildings instead of the streets. These abilities can be used by either player if they choose to move that character. It sounds complex, but when playing it's very simple and is surprisingly quick and tense.

Blokus Duo or Blokus To Go or Travel Blokus

Despite changing names three times this is one of the most fun games I own. Players are trying to put down their pieces on a board and block their opponents from being able to do the same. Pieces must touch a piece of their own color by corner but not by edge. You now know how to play the game. It's really that simple, but the variation of strategies, the ability to completely block your opponent and the simplicity of gameplay make this one game that I love to play as much as possible.

Dominion

This is a card game, and is the first Deck Building Game. Deck Building Games are (at heart) games where you start with a small deck of cards and you "buy" cards from the center of the table to make a better deck and increase your ability to do more actions or afford better Victory Point cards. Dominion has always been the best balanced of any Deck Building Game I've played, and the base set is great because it plays anywhere from 2-4 players, and it plays 2 as well as it plays 4. The game comes with 20 cards to use for the center Market area of the game and you only use 10 per game, so there are a lot of mixes that you can make from the very first base game, and there are I think 6-8 expansion sets, each with new cards to introduce to the game.

I hope this has been helpful. Happy gaming.

The Settlers of Catan is for three or four players. The Catan Card Game is made for two players and Struggle for Catan can be played by two or more players. May I recommend that two players play Lost Cities of Jambo. Both are published by Rio Grande Games. Here is a list of two players games: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/16912/just-u...