When my family plays, we try to make the tile selection process as “fair” as possible, evenly distributing the resources as well as the number tokens. Choose well, and you’ll reap the rewards with each roll of the dice choose poorly (or unluckily) and you’ll quickly be cursing those choices. For example, if you choose a spot surrounded only by hills (which gives you brick), then you won’t be able to get the resources necessary to advance your gameplay later on. You need to strategically place your settlements in spots near a variety of resources on the board.

Once the last player places his or her first settlement, that player gets to then place his or her second road and settlement, followed by the remaining players in reverse order. This creates a unique terrain that looks like a map for each game. The strategy and tactics components come into play during setup: Each player takes turns placing two settlements (little houses) and two roads settlements may be placed anywhere on the board as long as there is no other settlement within one road segment. We often play two games back to back, usually at my insistence, so I can have another (usually fleeting) chance to best my kids. It takes about five minutes to set up the board for each game and then around an hour for each match. The Spruce / Sarah Vanbuskirk Setup: Fun to switch up

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