My Foundational View:

I travel by plane a lot. Not weekly, but, I’m in an airport at least 4 times a year, and it’s more like 10 or 20 (last year was really slow). Often, I fly with my wife. I always buy cheap, or my company buys cheap, and I live far away from any of the company hubs. Either way, there are longer layovers in Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, and nowadays, Taipei.

There’s a lot of boredom associated with airports. Bigger airports just have more stores with more expensive designer stuff than small airports. The wireless networks available usually require some kind of pay-for membership. Therefore, the best way to defeat boredom is a good game.


My Premise:

Settlers of Catan Card Game (SoCCG), is the prefect airport layover game. Most airport layovers are anywhere from 30 – 300 minutes long. If it’s a 30-45 minute layover, there’s no problem, read a book, chat with a co-worker/stranger, listen to music, run to make it to your flight on the other side of the terminal, or do something simple to burn the small amount of time.

Longer layovers are difficult for me. I don’t like to read for long periods of time (unless it’s a wargame rulebook), and often conversation will turn to areas of conflict after about an hour (religion, politics…anything you might see on the “complementary” CNN). Therefore, games it is.


My Approach:

I will not be reviewing SoCCG in all its glory…there are other reviews about that. Rather, I will attempt to bring out its excellence as a game that can be quickly and easily played with a variety of people at an airport.


Space Constraints:

So, last time I was in an airport, it occurred to me that I had no ability to play War of the Ring. Even though it is a pretty decent game, there’s nowhere to set it up. Another obstacle to WotR is how is it going to fit in my slim and trim carry-on along with all the other junk I got in there?

SoCCG comes in a small box (if you even keep it in the box) that is about the size of hardback book. Its light, so you don’t feel like your carry-on is full of lumber. It doesn’t rattle or make freaky sounds, so, going through security isn’t an issue. The play area is moderately large, but a table in any food-court is easily large enough for Catan to expand out and fill the play area. In many ways, the constraints to the play space add an element of balance, because you cannot expand your settlements far beyond what your opponent can, simply because there isn’t space. However, there is almost always enough space to support every settlement being in play at the same time and two cities being full grown opposite from each other.


Time Constraints:

Layovers are only an issue when they’re over an hour long. Therefore, short fillers, Fluxx, or worse yet, Uno, don’t really fill the time requirement. I can only stand to play Fluxx about 3 to 6 times before I feel like it’s all the exact same, which means that I can have anywhere from 5 – 20 minutes of play out of that game. That’s not nearly enough time to burn the 200 – 300 minutes that is involved with a layover.

SoCCG is just about right in game length; 90-120 minutes is pretty typical for a relaxed game. The game options that arise keep the game light and quick.


Gaming Companion:

My wife is my primary travel companion, and she hates flying. Dramamine and sleep are all she usually achieves on the flights. Layovers are bad for her too because she finds it difficult to relax in the uncomfortable airports of the world.

But, quick game of SoCCG is often just right for us. We don’t have any kids, and so two-player is all we need. In airports, you generally don’t make friends, so, multiplayer games are out for us. When I’m by myself, I will borrow a PSP or DS to pass the time with. But with one traveler, a nice card game goes a long way.


Conclusion:

SoCCG is an ideal game for playing in an airport, though there are lots of other good options. Multiple rounds of Lost Cities would be very comparable, as would many multi-player card games like Loot, or Bang! But I find Lost Cities to be much less fun, and this review is about a two-player game anyway. SoCCG is perfect for two in an airport.

My Rating: 7.5