Catan, the staple of board game collections for over 25 years, is a classic for a reason. Catan functions as a great introduction into the world of Euro (European) board games. So when your new friends ask about your board gaming hobby, you can start them off with a nice, relaxing game of Catan… until someone decides not to trade any of the sheep they are hoarding…
Game overview
Catan is a game that is played over the course of several rounds, in which players compete for control over the resources of the Island of Catan. Building roads and settlements to make use of the resources marked on the various tiles by bordering the tiles you wish to claim the resources from, which are collected when their number is rolled at the start of each turn. Trade with other players, or the ports on the coast, for resources to help your building efforts.
The first player to score 10 points wins the game.
Components
The tiles that make up the island of Catan clearly depict what resources are on said tile, be it a pasture for sheep, a wheat field for wheat, etc.
The island tiles are well framed by the water pieces which border the island of Catan, giving the island its structure.
The cards are sized 54mm x 80mm, so a fair bit smaller than the standard card size (65.5mm x 88mm) but the text on the development cards are clearly legible. Though the box the cards come in do not fit the cards again once they are sleeved.
The numbered tokens give the game variety in what numbers need to be rolled to claim the resources on the tiles, making every game unique.
Interesting Mechanics
- Rolling the die to decide what tiles resources are produced which can result in producing resources your opponent needs and none for you
- Variable setup leads to greater variety in successive games
- Trades are able to be made with whoever is the current player but not between players whose turn it is not
- Development cards add a level of strategic decisions, whether to wait to build a settlement or buy a card now that can give you victory points, free roads, extra resources, etc.
- Ports along the edge of the island offer ways to trade with the “bank” rather than the other players, though you do need to build out into less advantageous positions in order to gain access and the trades are at minimum 2:1 trades.
Balance
Catan is fairly well balanced, but there can be balance issues depending on how the tiles and number tokens are set up, some spots can be objectively superior/inferior than others, but other than those cases the dice being rolled every turn give a fair chance for every number to be rolled every game.
Though a player may start in a superior position they may be lacking a resource which the other players can easily starve them of that resource, should they get too far ahead, forcing them to trade with the ports at an inferior trade.
The development cards can really shift the balance, a player can sit back and build a military using the Knights and gain extra victory points from both the knights and victory point cards to steal a win out from under the other players.
Final Thoughts
There is a reason Catan has stuck around for over 25 years, it is a great gateway game into the world of Euro board games, though the mechanics included have been built upon and improved by games that have come out since, Catan is still a worthy addition to any board game collection.