Settlers of Catan

I had a hankering to play Settlers of Catan tonight. Unfortunately, I was denied the satisfaction. I've been saying for the past five or so years that I should buy a copy of it, but I never do.

The first time I played Settlers was in Moscow, of all places. I was in Russia studying mathematics on scholarship with 12 other students, one of them had brought a copy of Settlers along. It took a couple weeks before she finally convinced a couple of us to try the game, but she did a poor job of explaining the rules (or I did a poor job of listening to them - since this is my story we'll go with the former) and I didn't enjoy the game in the least. I'm not certain what convinced me to try it a second time, but this time around I read the rules first. Then I was hooked.

After that, another friend and I (not the one who had brought the game in the first place) ended up playing a couple games of Settlers almost every night. There were three other regular players that we would rotate through every couple of nights; it usually wasn't too hard to coerce any one of them away from dreary topology or number theory homework. By the end of the semester, I must have logged at least fifty or sixty games. I could go through the rather convoluted story of why I never bought a copy of Settlers after returning to Canada from Russia. Instead let's say that circumstances conspired against that particular fate, and although I've played Settlers many times since then, I've never owned a copy.

Tonight though, a couple friends were visiting and one mentioned how much fun a game of Settlers would be. That got me onto the Internet pretty quickly to see if I could source a copy for less than what the brick and mortar stores usually charge. I found a few at discount prices, but that didn't solve the central problem: We were all jonsin' for a game that very moment.

It was 9:45pm and the Chapters down the street wasn't supposed to close for another fifteen minutes. We rushed out the door and down the block, into the almost empty bookstore and up the stairs to the games section. There were plenty of copies of the Seafarers of Catan and Knights and Cities expansions, but no sight of the basic game. One helpfully sales lady even took a look in the store room for us. Ironic, of course, since every other time I've been through that store I stop at the games section to look at all the copies of Settlers normally on offer.

So Settlers this evening was not to be - but I think tonight might have been the proverbial straw.