As all Settlers games are currently on offer the question "Settlers 10th Anny or Settlers IV?" rises again.

I know there's a lot of negativity surrounding Settlers IV, but to be honest, I don't really understand why. I own an original boxed copy of both Settlers II and Settlers IV, and must say I had a tremendous amount of fun with IV, perhaps even more so than with II.

IV looks really cute, and I liked the Mayans. Even though it is historically inaccurate to have them using metals, so few games feature them, especially in conjunction with Romans and Vikings. Wine, Mede, and Tequila making was cool, even though the mechanic they were intended for was uselessly overpowered. LAN games were amazing, though combat was horribly broken (Mayan blowgun warrior destroyed everything). So yeah, it had it gripes, but it really was fun.

Now I'm thinking of rebuying a Settlers game, and i was wondering whether the Settlers 10th Anny could give me IV's cuteness and timeless graphics with II's depth. Is there anyone that has played both IV and 10th Anny, most notably on LAN, and could tell me how they compare?

I haven't played Settlers 4 but I have played 2-anniversary edition.

I HATE it. The road system is totally bolluxed. You get the weirdest loops and long connections when shorter more direct ones ought to do. There are often spots on the map that you just can't access at all because apparently road builders don't know how to cut down trees or remove surface rocks, nor how to hire people who do. You end up having to demolish buildings over and over again because things won't link up or you find yourself backed into corners with no way out - except to move every thing or just give up on that side of the map. If you can't get a barracks or other military building up into a far corner or edge AND connect it to the roadway, you can never expand in that direction - hence the need to demolish half your city.

If you want to spend literally hours trying to get roads and buildings placed in some sensible way, you will be happy with Settlers 2 Anniversary.

I don't and I'm not. Having looked at pics of roads in Settler's 2 Gold, it does look like those roads at least run straight. I don't know if I'd be happier with that or not, but I for sure am not happy with Anniversary Edition. Posting on this forum for help with the road system resulted in ZERO responses. I strongly suspect that the majority of the positive reviews of the Anniversary Edition (Settlers 2) must be from people who only played the other version, if any version at all.

Maybe when 6 - which apparently got around the road problem by just pre-defining roads on the map - is down to a couple bucks I'll try another settlers game.

But I don't want to touch anything that is anything like the mess that is Settlers 2 Anniversary with a ten foot pole, and I have no idea which if any of the follow-on games are like this so don't want to risk it. I don't even want to risk trying 2 Gold Edition - given everyone says Anniversary is a perfect recompilation of 2 Gold, perhaps the road system is just as fouled up.

I played setters 2 as a kid and instandly got settlers 2 anny, its true its not a perfect game but i somehow love it, played a lot and im dieing to find more ppl to play with, the game is currently verry cheap so im even willing to gift it to ppl so we can play.