This WSJ report says that Settlers of Catan is among the most popular board games in Silicon Valley:
Licensed in the U.S. by Mayfair Games, Settlers was launched in 1995 by German board-game maker Klaus Teuber. Mr. Teuber created 19 hexagonal cardboard tiles that are arranged to form an island. The game involves rolling dice to gather resource cards from the island, such as sheep, brick, ore, wheat and wood. Those cards are then used to build settlements and cities, which are each equivalent to one or two points. The first player to score 10 points wins.
Settlers of Catan is available on Amazon or you can visit the playcatan.com website to play the Catan game online. Mayfair Games is also planning to release a version of Settlers of Catan board game for Facebook.
Settlers of Catan Objective:
Play an immigrant on the newly populated island of Catan. Build settlements, roads and villages by taking commodities from the land around you. Turn sheep, lumber, rocks and some grain into a settlement; bricks and wood into road; or try to complete other combinations for more advanced buildings and services.
Take advantage of trades with other players, or at local seaports to get commodities you might lack. The first player to gain ten points from a combination of roads, settlements and special cards wins.
