Last night my house mates and I were treated to a new board game at our friend James's house. The Settlers of Catan. Interestingly, we hadn't really played a board game together of a strategic nature since high school.

Those were the days, with Risk and Diplomacy (I liked Diplomacy but I wasn't very good at it). But the Settlers of Catan is refreshingly balanced and since we're all beginners at it, it's very exciting too. I'm sure eventually it'll become boring.

I know James Robertson likes to play Puerto Rico a lot, but it's probably not wise to introduce yet another board game until we've mastered this one.

We're playing just the standard Settlers at this point and James is considering buying some of the expansion packs - such as the Seafarers and the Knights. We'll have to see how things go. At this point, we're all very eager to have another game.