Settlers of Canaan is very similar to Cheops in that you may buy bricks to build a temple which is worth victory points. Unlike Cheops the map doesn't put necessary terrain (like rocks and wood) isolated from your starting position.

The production in the game is seriously increased. There seem to be more 5,6,8, & 9's added to the board and only a single 2 and 12. All five 2:1 ports are adjacent a land of that produces the same type of goods. The copper (aka gold river hex in Seafarers) is located in the middle of the board, can be set up upon at start and has a value of 10 (Most often when these hexes are used, they are placed a far distance from the main start up areas of the map.

(I think this is a design feature to attract non-gamers. They will be getting something almost every turn.)

By mid game, the players had huge hands every roll, I ended up losing simply because the plague (i.e. robber) came up three times when I rolled the dice and I didn't have a chance to spend the excess.

The new event cards had some interesting ideas, but not enough for me to get the game.

I think the board and card artwork is a bit garish. Your tastes may differ. The cards were printed on thicker stock than normal cards, but that did not affect play that much. The wood components are the same as the standard version.

Now if you have friends or relatives who will not touch anything that doesn't have a religious theme, this might be worthwhile. Or if you have to have to every version of Settlers. You might want to get it. Otherwise, I would not.

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com