Settlement: It grows the economy. Benefits Everybody, hurts nobody.
The artstyle on the box and the name Settlement suggest that we are dealing with a classic city builder or adventure game á la “Settlers of Catan.” That impression is not correct. Settlement is a lightweight engine building game for one to four players.
Each player builds his own colony and tries to build an economy within six rounds of play by collecting and spending resources. To do this, a player has six colonists (action points) at his disposal each round, which can be used to explore terrain, defeat monsters, build forts and expand and operate trading streets.
In an average first round, the player is invited to invest in multiple sources of income. In subsequent rounds, colonies are expanded. Collecting resources and exploring terrain and streets is increasingly efficient because “activating” a row of resources (street or region) always costs only one colonist. Players who do not specialize thus miss out on resources.
As the game progresses, players have more and more money and resources to spend to reinvest in new specializations or invite (buy up) ‘heroes’. These heroes contribute little or nothing to building an economy, but count solidly in the scoring at the end of the game. A player who buys up heroes early has little competition on the market, but misses out on ‘return on investment’ as a result.
A characteristic feature of Settlement is that players operate in a more or less separate economy. Players do not attack each other or trade with each other. The only interaction takes place on the ‘market’ through the limited availability of heroes, buildings and artifacts (rotating bonuses per round). With that, the game invites players to choose different specializations. Occasionally, a player may have to adjust his plans to the choices of an earlier player or to catch his succeeding player flies, but in general players are focused on their own board. Players largely leave each other alone.
All in all, Settlement is a well-organized and entertaining game with a pleasant pace. For new players to the genre, Settlement delivers a pleasant introduction. Experienced players might miss depth, but it is a pleasant little settlement to visit instead a a large metropole.
