# Settlers of Catan fans?



## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

I am seriously addicted to this game. I have all the expansions and play just about any chance I get.  Anyone else?


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## arshield (Nov 17, 2008)

I have played it several times and enjoyed it.  But we don't have many gamer friends and it is not the same with two people.  I did pick up the ipad version, but I haven't played it yet.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

I love it, I think it's one of the greatest games ever designed.  I hardly ever get to play it, though, it's hard to round up enough  people.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I own the original plus the "seafarers" as well as the extra-players expansions for each. Haven't played in quite some time though, as my former "serious gaming" group (as opposed to my current "gaming is an excuse to get together to eat and talk" friends) has drifted apart.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Has anyone ever tried any other games from German companies?  I tried Dominion which is card game of sorts.  Didn't much care for it.  I also tried Carcasonne (sp?).  That one is really fun and good for two players.


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

Oddly for the massive geek I am I have never played it.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

It's not from a German company, but Ticket to Ride is fantastic, especially the Europe version.  Carcassonne is fun too.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

It is a fun game. There are many more games that are even more fun. Check out the Alea Bookshelf games. Ra and Taj Mahal are tons of fun. Puerto Rico is a must own. Tikal is another great game. So many wonderful European made strategy games out there.

Ticket to Ride and its expansions are a lot of fun.


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## Tris (Oct 30, 2008)

Only played it once myself. Though one of my friends is a MAD fan and has it in various versions. I didn't know there was SO MANY types and versions of the game until I walked into a game store a few years ago.



arshield said:


> I did pick up the ipad version, but I haven't played it yet.


My friend who is the mad fan would love that! Only I wonder if there is an iPhone version as she doesn't have an iPad (yet). If there is an iPad version there must be an iPhone version too right?

Tris


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Alain Gomez said:


> Has anyone ever tried any other games from German companies? I tried Dominion which is card game of sorts. Didn't much care for it. I also tried Carcasonne (sp?). That one is really fun and good for two players.


I've played that one a few time: a friend of mine is a big-time game collector, and has that and another one based on the same system/format, but the name of which I don't recall. Though not German, another tile-based map-building game I've always liked is the "1830" railroad game.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

I really like Dominion. Great game.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

A.S. Warwick said:


> Oddly for the massive geek I am I have never played it.


You must try it. If you have ever played Age of Empires or Civilization, you will enjoy it immensely.


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## albianne (Jan 22, 2011)

I bought this game one Christmas as a last minute "family" gift but it is still sitting in our game cupboard unopened, I guess I should pull it out and take a look at it again.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

albianne said:


> I bought this game one Christmas as a last minute "family" gift but it is still sitting in our game cupboard unopened, I guess I should pull it out and take a look at it again.


Don't let the boring box deceive you.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

The nice thing about the vast majority of the European based board games is that they are strategy game that you win based on how many points that you score and not based on wiping out your competitors. This is very different from most American based games. There are ways in all of the games to hurt your opponent (build on the same train line, build a settlement where they wanted to, grab a resource they wanted) but normally if you do these things just to hurt them and not to help yourself it will bite you in the butt.

For me, this translates into a more enjoyable gaming experience. I might lose but I am still in the game and have the illusion of hope. Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, all of those types of games tend to leave people pissed off at the end because they were wiped out.

There is a website, board game geeks, that has very nice description of various games and makes recommendations for folks based on age and the types of things they enjoy doing. I have 50 or so games and love when we get to play them. My brother has 300 or so and my cousin has 500 or more. There are many out there and some of the best are not found in stores in the US but can be ordered online.


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## Basilius (Feb 20, 2010)

NogDog said:


> I've played that one a few time: a friend of mine is a big-time game collector, and has that and another one based on the same system/format, but the name of which I don't recall. Though not German, another tile-based map-building game I've always liked is the "1830" railroad game.


This might be the only time I've seen Carcassonne compared to 1830. Yes, each game has tiles, but...yow.

That's like comparing _A Wrinkle in Time_ to _Lord of the Rings_. Yes, both are excellent speculative fiction books but...yow.

Back to the original point... Settlers of Catan is a fantastic game. We own nearly every expansion and variant on that theme. Others along the same level of complexity and replayability are Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride (both previously mentioned), Zooloretto, Pandemic, and Acquire. Dominion is also good, but there can be a bit of "huh?" before you get how to make it work. (Assuming the player has never played any game where you customize decks of cards.)


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

ProfCrash said:


> There is a website, board game geeks, that has very nice description of various games and makes recommendations for folks based on age and the types of things they enjoy doing. I have 50 or so games and love when we get to play them. My brother has 300 or so and my cousin has 500 or more. There are many out there and some of the best are not found in stores in the US but can be ordered online.


Great. The small amount of money I have leftover from taxes will now be spent.  Cool site!


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Basilius said:


> Back to the original point... Settlers of Catan is a fantastic game. We own nearly every expansion and variant on that theme. Others along the same level of complexity and replayability are Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride (both previously mentioned), Zooloretto, Pandemic, and Acquire. Dominion is also good, but there can be a bit of "huh?" before you get how to make it work. (Assuming the player has never played any game where you customize decks of cards.)


I'm going to reveal my true geek here....

I found Dominion to be dull compared to Magic: The Gathering. You're limited by whatever cards are in the box and there are too many steps for each turn for a card game, imho. The Star Wars Customizable Card Game had similar issues rule-wise.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

Alain Gomez said:


> I'm going to reveal my true geek here....
> 
> I found Dominion to be dull compared to Magic: The Gathering. You're limited by whatever cards are in the box and there are too many steps for each turn for a card game, imho. The Star Wars Customizable Card Game had similar issues rule-wise.


I haven't tried Dominion, but I used to play Magic and Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. Vampire was great, I had a Ventrue/Toreador political/bloat deck. Nice balanced game with a lot of depth and nuance to it, fast-paced, constant hard choices to make, opportunities for deals and alliances and bluffing, and the 'prey' system was genius. Nobody wanted to sit to my left


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## Martel47 (Jun 14, 2010)

I like Settlers and have played a couple of the expansions, but I don't own any Settlers.  I played the game the first year it was released in the US and was amazed when some people started talking about it like it was some new hit game thing ten years later.  I've never really invested in games, but have enjoyed playing some.  

About some games not already mentioned:  My 'gamer' friends have gotten me to play Power Grid and I've tried one of its expansions, too.  It was pretty fun, but I have always been frustrated when playing it because I can't beat this one friend.  I had him dominated one game and then another player, who was new, started making decisions that negatively affected me more than the other friend.  Grrrr!

For a card game, I enjoyed Citadels so much that I did end up purchasing it.  I've also been exposed to Munchkin, which was cute, but I was never into D&D so some of the inside jokes were lost on me.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

heheh I have the original Vampire cards when the game was called Jihad. (giggles) I bet those are wirth no money right now....

Munchkin and all its variants is sooo much fun. I never played D&D but know enough people who did that the jokes are pretty darn funny. And then there is the fun of fighting a potted plant that some how or another becomes a level 25 with a doppeldanger while wearing the sacred horns of whatever and the vest of bustiness.


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## Basilius (Feb 20, 2010)

Alain Gomez said:


> I'm going to reveal my true geek here....
> 
> I found Dominion to be dull compared to Magic: The Gathering. You're limited by whatever cards are in the box and there are too many steps for each turn for a card game, imho. The Star Wars Customizable Card Game had similar issues rule-wise.


I quit playing Magic when the qualifying tournaments for the initial pro tour started. 1995? 1996? Some time in that range. The character of the local tournaments changed overnight. They ceased being fun, and got petulant.

I think I still have a large number of cards in storage, but I sold off most of the uncommons and rarer a long time ago.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Basilius said:


> This might be the only time I've seen Carcassonne compared to 1830. Yes, each game has tiles, but...yow.


Sure, they're different games, but I find I do enjoy most games with that sort of road-/map-building mechanic -- perhaps because my spatial perception skills are above average, so such games help offset other strategic weaknesses.


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## albianne (Jan 22, 2011)

With the Settlers of Catan game, roughly how long does it take to play your average game?  Is it something I could take camping with us and play on the picnic table to while away an hour or is it going to take hours to play a game and is it going to be boring if there are just the two of us?


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

albianne said:


> With the Settlers of Catan game, roughly how long does it take to play your average game? Is it something I could take camping with us and play on the picnic table to while away an hour or is it going to take hours to play a game and is it going to be boring if there are just the two of us?


Typical games run about 60-90 minutes, in part depending on the number of players.


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## mom2karen (Aug 15, 2009)

We have Settlers of Catan in the closet waiting to be opened.  We've been playing Killer Bunnies, Dogopoly (not the usual Monopoly knock off, it's got several differences that make it slightly better), Bananagrams, and Zeus on the Loose since the holidays.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

albianne said:


> With the Settlers of Catan game, roughly how long does it take to play your average game? Is it something I could take camping with us and play on the picnic table to while away an hour or is it going to take hours to play a game and is it going to be boring if there are just the two of us?


About an hour once you know how to play. It can easily be adapted for 2 players. But you have to build the board, so don't play on a table with cracks in it


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Martel47 said:


> I like Settlers and have played a couple of the expansions, but I don't own any Settlers. I played the game the first year it was released in the US and was amazed when some people started talking about it like it was some new hit game thing ten years later. I've never really invested in games, but have enjoyed playing some.
> 
> About some games not already mentioned: My 'gamer' friends have gotten me to play Power Grid and I've tried one of its expansions, too. It was pretty fun, but I have always been frustrated when playing it because I can't beat this one friend. I had him dominated one game and then another player, who was new, started making decisions that negatively affected me more than the other friend. Grrrr!
> 
> For a card game, I enjoyed Citadels so much that I did end up purchasing it. I've also been exposed to Munchkin, which was cute, but I was never into D&D so some of the inside jokes were lost on me.


ooo... I've never even heard of Citadels. I'll look it up!


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## Basilius (Feb 20, 2010)

Alain Gomez said:


> About an hour once you know how to play. It can easily be adapted for 2 players. But you have to build the board, so don't play on a table with cracks in it


There's a travel edition. IIRC, it's got a fixed board, so not quite as flexible as the standard game, but it's small enough to be played on a plane.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3972/the-settlers-of-catan-travel-edition


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

ProfCrash said:


> For me, this translates into a more enjoyable gaming experience. I might lose but I am still in the game and have the illusion of hope. Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, all of those types of games tend to leave people p*ssed off at the end because they were wiped out.


In my family, we have the policy: if you're not cheating, you're not trying.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

ProfCrash said:


> For me, this translates into a more enjoyable gaming experience. I might lose but I am still in the game and have the illusion of hope. Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, all of those types of games tend to leave people p*ssed off at the end because they were wiped out.


You've actually finished a game of Monopoly? We call it "Monotony" in our house 

I agree, though, when I play a lot of European board games I find myself enjoying just 'building up' more than the competitive aspect. I like that kind of passive competition.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

Basilius said:


> There's a travel edition. IIRC, it's got a fixed board, so not quite as flexible as the standard game, but it's small enough to be played on a plane.
> 
> http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3972/the-settlers-of-catan-travel-edition


I own that



> You've actually finished a game of Monopoly? We call it "Monotony" in our house Smiley


We all cheated like mad


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Figured I'd point out that there are electronic versions of the game: http://www.catan.com/electronic-games.html.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

I have played in XBox 360.

I prefer Ticket to Ride on XBox 360

Yes I am a dork, why do you ask?


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Ben White said:


> You've actually finished a game of Monopoly? We call it "Monotony" in our house


You must play by the rules then. It's unbelievably tedious that way. Our Monopoly games are extremely dynamic with lots of hiding money under the board, trying to get away with counting 20s like 10s, alliances and backstabbing. It makes it way more interesting.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I like playing Monopoly on my Kindle. The game moves along quickly, and the computer players never leave in a huff or crying like a baby when they go bankrupt. (And I can just viciously click the "Home" button before I do.  )


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

If you have to cheat to make a game fun, it's not a good game


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Ben White said:


> If you have to cheat to make a game fun, it's not a good game


Au contraire, it makes it realistic. Consider history's greatest monopoly barons; they were definitely money-under-the-board types.


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## Martel47 (Jun 14, 2010)

My wife had some friends over and they were playing Monopoly.  No one won because they were NICE to each other.  They didn't make people pay rent if they didn't have it, etc.  Another girl came late and cleaned up because she was actually competitive.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Martel47 said:


> My wife had some friends over and they were playing Monopoly. No one won because they were NICE to each other. They didn't make people pay rent if they didn't have it, etc. Another girl came late and cleaned up because she was actually competitive.


Exactly my point! I hate too nice players. Or like when couples "help each other" the entire time.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

Alain Gomez said:


> Exactly my point! I hate too nice players. Or like when couples "help each other" the entire time.


We never had that problem in my family or with our friends. Our games were brutal.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

ProfCrash said:


> We never had that problem in my family or with our friends. Our games were brutal.


The key is to perfect the poker face. That way you can "accidentally" miscount spaces.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Alain Gomez said:


> The key is to perfect the poker face. That way you can "accidentally" miscount spaces.


Competitive and cheating are two different things, though the first can lead to the second if allowed to dominate over everything else. Playing "cut-throat" and "no prisoners" is one thing, and I can handle that fine. Cheating I will not put up with, and if I caught you doing so in any game -- and it _is_ just a game, let's remember -- would be the last time I'd play any game with you. Sorry if that sounds holier-than-thou, as that's not really what's intended. I realize everybody has different life experiences, different priorities, etc., etc., and so forth -- I just have no interest in winning by cheating; I'd rather win by playing better but honestly and within the rules. Maybe that explains why I'm a middle-class peon instead of a rich "captain of industry" -- and I'm perfectly happy with that.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

Heck, half the fun of Monopoly was the cheating. If you got busted you had to give up half your money and your properties, house rules, so people at least worked at being smart in their cheating. (winks)


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

ProfCrash said:


> Heck, half the fun of Monopoly was the cheating. If you got busted you had to give up half your money and your properties, house rules, so people at least worked at being smart in their cheating. (winks)


If everyone goes into the game knowing that some forms of "cheating" are allowed and expected, that might be one thing -- essentially just another set of "house rules" for the game. But if we're glorifying cheating in general for any game, that's a whole 'nother thing in my mind. Can't say it interests me in either case, though, but then I never really cared that much for Monopoly anyway.


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## metal134 (Sep 2, 2010)

ProfCrash said:


> We never had that problem in my family or with our friends. Our games were brutal.


Ditto. One time, I caught my brother cheating at Monopoly, fudging the die roll so he would land on Boardwalk and get the monopoly. We argued for about 5 minutes, then he folded up the board, cracked me in the head with it and ran like hell.

On the OT, I have both Carassone and Catan on XBOX 360. I quite enjoy Carcassone. Haven't delved much into Catan yet.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

I bought Catan for my iPad and keep meaning to figure out how to play


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Chad Winters (#102) said:


> I bought Catan for my iPad and keep meaning to figure out how to play


There's a steep learning curve. But once you play it through, it makes perfect sense.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

metal134 said:


> Ditto. One time, I caught my brother cheating at monopoly, fudging the die roll so he would land on Boardwalk and get the monopoly. We argued for about 5 minutes, then he folded up the board, cracked me in the head with the board and ran like hell.


 

Oh yeah, it's definitely a full contact sport. I used to get in wrestling matches with my brother all the time as he tried to safe-guard his secret stash of money.


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## CegAbq (Mar 17, 2009)

I realize this is a REALLY OLD thread, but one of my DDs convince me to get this for our family gathering over the weekend. It was such fun - I hope I can get everyone to come back for more playing.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

Love Catan. We got the Little Man (4 1/2) Catan Junior for Christmas. Not Catan for Kids (which is awful) but Catan Junior which is great. 

I would suggest the Cities and Knights expansion. I have heard good things about the Pirates and Barbarians expansion but have not played it myself.

If you liked Catan, I would check out Carcassone and Ticket To Ride. Both are pretty easy to learn, play reasonably fast and are a ton of fun. I would also point out that Catan is available as an App on both Android and Apple so you can download it and play against others online or the AI whenever you like.

We moved our games upstairs. I have an entire bookshelf that is Catan. Catan in the German (better artwork), Catan in English, Sea Farers expansion, three historic variants, Stone Age Catan, Star Trek Catan.... I like Catan


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

Alain Gomez said:


> Oh yeah, it's definitely a full contact sport. I used to get in wrestling matches with my brother all the time as he tried to safe-guard his secret stash of money.


I never thought of Catan as having a steep learning curve. It is one of my intro to board games, games. The rules are pretty easy and after a game or two it is not all that hard to figure out what the strategy is. The Catan App has a really good tutorial and is actually a pretty good way to learn the game.


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

Now here is a coincidence ... you started this thread, never before mentioning Catan and my daughter's family introduced us to it just on Christmas eve. Enjoyed it, by the way. May have to get it and see if I can scare up some players in our community.


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## Sean Sweeney (Apr 17, 2010)

I watched DW, MIL, SIL, and SIL's friend play this about a month ago.

Took them two hours to finish. I read instead.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

They either played a ton of expansions or really, really slowly.


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## Sean Sweeney (Apr 17, 2010)

MamaProfCrash said:


> They either played a ton of expansions or really, really slowly.


The latter. No expansions.


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

We use a timer when my husband and one of our friends play. The two of them get into ridiculous trade negotiations. The only way to move the game at a reasonable pace is to set the timer. It will be easier now that we have an Echo.


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