Settlers for Two

My son, Alec, has been bugging me to play Settlers of Catan with him lately.
This usually means he has to beg his sister to play with us, since the box
says we are not allowed to play with two. Unfortunately, Valori is not as
big a fan of boardgames as Alec is, and she usually declines the invitation,
meaning we have to find another two player game, or just settle for the
Settlers Card Game.

(Yes, I said settle. The 'kartenspiel' is a good enough game, but it doesn't
come close to scratching the Settlers itch)

I had thought we might try some of the two-player variants suggested online.
Upon further reflection, we decided to just play straight Settlers with two
players. No rule changes at all.

And you know what? We quite enjoyed it. No, there wasn't as much trading,
obviously, but there wasn't as much urgency to trade, either, since your
turns came around quickly. Roads became long and loopy and the longest road
card was hard fought over. The race to be the first to fifteen roads
(without dog legs, of course) was frantic. Forcing dog legs was key, and
quite fun!

The game seemed to start a little slow, since there were fewer resources
floating about. I don't know if this was real or imagined. I may try doing
it again starting with three settlements each, and playing to 11 points. On
the other hand, there's something nice about using the rules right out of
the box for a successful two player game that is appealing.

Both of us agreed that we'd rather play two-player "real" Settlers than the
cardgame. That could bode unwell for all those expansions I've purchased :-(