Mayfair Games has completed their flurry of Catan releases with The Struggle For Catan, a 2-4 player multiplayer card game which follows the revised editions of the 2-player-only The Rivals for Catan card game and the Catan Dice Game. All of these new games seek to emulate the Catan experience with a smaller, faster, and less expensive substitute, so how does The Struggle for Catan perform against its peers? Read on for the full review:

Just the Facts:

Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 45-60 minutes
Age: 10 to adult
Publisher: Mayfair Games
MSRP: $15.00
Release: June 2, 2011

The Gameplay:

As is standard for Catan games, The Struggle for Catan is played until one player reaches ten points. They'll go about reaching that goal by collecting sets of resource cards, then trading them in to acquire roads, settlements, cities, knights, and a new type of building, the city expansion. The twist in this card game is that roads and knights, along with the victory point they grant, can change hands at any time.

Each turn begins with a trading phase, which works quite differently than in traditional Catan. Players can perform trades in any combination of the following three ways:

• Swap a card from their hand with an available card in the resource market (a row of five cards kept face-up next to the deck).
• Discard a card from their hand and draw a random resource card from the deck.
• Trade with an opponent by taking a random card from their hand and replacing it with any card from your hand (including the one you just took).

Simply put, when it comes to trading with other players, there is no wood for sheep in this game. Instead, it's wood for whatever I damn well feel like giving you.

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Tags Catan, Klaus Teuber, Mayfair Games, Settlers of Catan, Struggle for Catan

As The Settlers of Catan passes its 15th anniversary, Mayfair Games is pulling out all of the stops by showcasing its library of related titles. We've already reviewed the revised Catan 2-player card game, Rivals for Catan, and a brand new 2-4 player Catan card game, The Struggle for Catan, just hit store shelves yesterday. In-between those two releases, Mayfair also put out a revised edition of the Catan Dice Game. In this new version, they've gone so far as to add an entire second game that can be played with the Catan dice. Read on for the full review:

Just the Facts:

Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 15 minutes
Age: 7 to adult
Publisher: Mayfair Games
MSRP: $15.00
Release: April 21, 2011

The Gameplay:

The Catan Dice Game is broken down into two games that can be played with the Catan dice: Island One and Island Two, each represented by different sides of the scoring sheet. The goal of each game is to earn points by building the common Catan items: roads, settlements, cities, and control over knights. The dice have some familiar resources printed on them: brick, wood, ore, sheep, and wheat, as well as a new addition, gold.

Players roll (and re-reroll) the dice to get the resource symbols they want and then use them as payment to build these point-earning Catan items. Gold, as the sixth resource, is never used directly in purchases, but can always be combined with a second gold to trade in for any other resource. Read more...

Tags Mayfair Games, Review, Settlers of Catan

Since the early 80's, British author Sir Terry Pratchett has been parodying fantasy literature with his Discworld series. Trust me, it's not a series that takes itself too seriously. Discworld is described as "a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin." Thirty-eight novels later, Pratchett's novels have gained a loyal fan following, and will be the subject of upcoming board game releases from publishers Mayfair Games and Z-Man Games.

First up is Ankh-Morpork from the mind of famous game designer Martin Wallace, set for release at Essen 2011 under his independent label Treefrog Games. As has become customary for the last few Wallace releases, Mayfair Games has picked up the right to later distribute the game in North America.

Set in the city of the same name, Ankh-Morpork is a center for both sprawling commerce and corruption. As an area control game, players will fight over limited space (the city map is carved into twelve areas) to achieve their goals. These goals are the hook to Ankh-Morpork, as they are assigned at the start of the game yet never revealed to other players. When everyone at the table has a slightly different victory condition, players must think on their feet to devise strategies for getting ahead without tipping their hand.

The game hopes to walk a bit of a tightrope, providing enough thematic satisfaction for Discworld fans, while remaining a strong enough game to please fans of Martin Wallace's past successes. On a hopeful note, Wallace himself addresses this issue saying:

The cards bring the game to life as they include most of the famous characters that have appeared in the various books. The rules are relatively simple: Play a card and do what it says. Most cards have more than one action on them, and you can choose to do some or all of these actions. Some cards also allow you to play a second card, so you can chain actions.

Gamers who don't want to wait that long for a trip to Ankh-Morpork will instead be looking to play Guards! Guards! from Z-Man Games, due out this summer. This game takes a narrower focus than Ankh-Morpork, although it is set in the same city. Players take on the rolls of newly recruited members of the city watch, tasked with tracking down and returning stolen scrolls to the city's Unseen University.

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Tags Discworld, Mayfair Games, Sir Terry Pratchett, Z-Man Games

Given the relative popularity of tabletop gaming as compared to other major geek hobbies, there seems to be a dearth of web video content promoting this particular hobby. To challenge that notion, Mayfair Games is stepping up to the plate with The Bob & Angus Show. As a web series co-hosted by two sheep puppets Mayfair is drawing some inspiration from the sheep resource in their mega-popular The Settlers of Catan board game.

Attendees at the recent GAMA Trade Show got a live preview of this show, which will hit the internet this Thursday, May 5th. From there, a new episode will be posted every Thursday as Bob & Angus explore a wide range of hobby gaming related topics. According to Mayfair Games, "Bob & Angus will present the latest news from Mayfair Games, weather, human and sheep interest stories, as well as reviews on both new and classic Mayfair Games titles."

Some teaser footage has been released, which can be viewed on the Pulp Gamer show page for Bob & Angus. While it does not shed light on the format for a full episode, it does give a clear look at the puppet co-hosts. The early impressions from such teaser footage is that this web show will have a fairly high production value, so gamers are eagerly awaiting the show's debut later this week. Read more...

Tags Bob and Angus, Mayfair Games, web-isodes

In preparation for the release of The Struggle for Catan (a new 2-4 player Catan-themed card game) and in celebration of The Settlers of Catan's 15th anniversary, Mayfair Games has revised and relaunched its original 2 player game, The Rivals for Catan. But 2 player games are notoriously hard to make competitive and engaging. Does this one provide enough of a Catan experience to make it worth your while? Read on for the full review:

Just the Facts:

Players: 2
Playing Time: 45-60 minutes
Age: 10 to adult
Publisher: Mayfair Games
MSRP: $20.00
Release: Q4 2010

The Gameplay:

The focus in Rivals for Catan, much like Settlers of Catan, is to collect resources that allow you to expand your principality in pursuit of victory points. These points can be achieved by building new settlements, upgrading existing settlements to cities, growing your army, or expanding your trade capability.

After a brief setup phase, both players have a nearly-identical principality set up on opposite sides of the table, with various draw stacks of common cards dividing the table down the middle. Read more...

Tags Mayfair Games, Review, Settlers of Catan

Since the dawn of video games, board game companies have been trying to port their titles over to the electronic medium. However, when compared to full-length RPGs and platformers, board game adaptations have never pushed the limits of story depth or graphical prowess, and have became a tough sell when costing $50 or more. The audience for such games simply was not there, and adapting a board game became a sure fire way to lose money.

With the arrival of mobile app stores, though, developers have been given an easier road to success. Mobile apps can be programmed inexpensively by small teams, and have very low distribution costs. This is allowing board games apps to exist in a marketplace that caters to small consumer niches. Board game fans are now experiencing a golden age of video game adaptations, as countless classics are available for $5 or less. Today, I’ll be giving capsule reviews of some great board games available in the iOS App Store:

Carcassone

One of the all-time greats of modern board gaming, the highly strategic worker placement game Carcassonne comes to the iOS platform with a deluxe edition.  The features packed into this game include online play, avatar support, and user rankings. This app was also recently upgraded to support the higher resolution iPad screen, and supports "play by mail" between users on any device. Make this game your Words With Friends replacement!

Some of the new electronic additions even improve the game, such as the app’s ability to track placement of tiles. This allows players to monitor what is left in the deck and determine whether a spot has been permanently blocked.  This greatly increases the level of competitive play, and makes Carcassonne a must-buy.

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Tags Apps, Blokus, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Zooloretto

Are you new to hobby gaming? You may have missed the news, but strategy board games, card games, and RPGs are some of the hottest products at the moment. Periodically here on MTV Geek, we'll be running a series of "Know This Company" posts to provide you newbies with a re-education in the world of analog gaming. You may remember Mayfair Games, makers of the mega-popular Settlers of Catan which we previously featured in our "Play This, Not That" series.

Here, Bob Carty looks at the rise of Settlers and discusses some of the other games that Mayfair produces. Carty also goes into detail on some of the extra services Mayfair provides to its fans, such as regional tournaments, white glove demonstration videos, and game-themed merchandise giveaways.

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Mayfair Games Announces 2011 Lineup

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Tags Mayfair Games, Settlers of Catan, Toy Fair