Is there a different term to use?

The concept of the visual landscape made from individual cards is why the Settlers card game is one of my top five all time favorite games. The illustrations by Michael Menzel shown so far for the new Princes game are, in my opinion, going to produce an even richer and more enjoyable landscape. Klaus Teuber’s explanation of game play portends an even better game than the original.

However, I’m not entirely happy with the idea of playing theme decks as isolated “ages” in the history of Catan. I enjoy playing the “original” game incorporating two or more of the theme decks with 16 to 20 VP’s required to win. The size of my principality is limited to eight settlements only by the five foot length of my game table. Looks beautiful against the green felt surface. These games, played solo, last about three hours.

I play a solo variant of my own devising that allows me to leave the game at the end of any turn and resume later, with no loss of information because of the delay. [My memory is not of the type to make much use of information gained in earlier stack searches.] Almost all the player interaction is replicated using two new random event methods and the difficulty of the game is easily adjustable. I doubt many others share my delight in solo tile laying games so I’ve never published it on Board Game Geek or elsewhere.

My preferred game length is partly due to the duration of winters here in Vermont.

One suggestion. A semantic choice that troubles me and may be due to the translation from German to English: The fact that successful games engender the development and sale of “expansions” makes the original card game’s use of the word “expansion” to describe the piles from which cards are drawn somewhat confusing. The theme decks of the original game were expansions. I suggest that the new game use a different word to describe the “draw stacks.”

If you need a native English speaker, well educated, lawyer and former periodicals editor, to review the new game’s rules and other text for grammar and idiom usage, I would be glad to help.

I am looking forward to the new artwork and the new game.

Gretings from Barcelona, Spain.