Originally released back in 1995, Catan is my elder by a single year. After thirty years of revision, this stalwart tabletop legend is as recognisable within the community as Monopoly is to those outside it. Whether it’s the warmup game at the start of the night, or the cause of the “let’s play one more” call to action as midnight looms, Catan is never far away from the table. Revised and revisited many times over the course of its three-decade-long history, the classic’s latest edition is cleaner and more concise, ready to convert another generation of occasional dice rollers to hardcore hobbyists.
I’ve played countless games of The Settlers of Catan, but it never hurts to rehash the basics. Played with three to four people, Catan is a competitive resource-gathering game set on the titular unexplored island. Players race to collect and use resources in a bid to establish the largest community before their rivals have a chance to lay claim to the land for themselves.
The hexagonal board is filled in with 19 equally hexagonal terrain tiles surrounded by a frame depicting the sea. The tiles are comprised of six different terrain types: three hills, three mountains, four fields, four forests, four pastures, and a single desert. These tiles are placed in a predesignated order for those playing for the first time but can be randomised for subsequent sessions. Similarly, number tokens are distributed to each tile, denoting a number between three and 12. That’s save for the desert, of course, that tile is home to the robber (more on that bastard in a moment).
A familiar sight for most fans of tabletop gaming
Five resource cards correspond to the terrain types on the board: brick, ore, wheat, wood, and wool. During the set-up phase, players place two settlement tokens at a cross-section between three terrain tiles, collecting the three resources that the second settlement touches. This demonstrates the resource-gathering mechanic used at the beginning of each player’s turn. The active player rolls two dice and adds the pips together. That number corresponds to tiles on the board that generate resources that round, allowing players with settlements touching that tile to earn said resource.
Oh, and if you roll a seven, that activates the robber. This friendship-ending meeple is yours to control when you roll a seven, letting you place it on any tile on the board. Once you do, you can steal one resource from a player who has an adjacent settlement, which is likely to piss them off. They’ll be really pissed knowing that, while the robber is there, that tile no longer produces. They’ll be begging to roll a seven, and you’ll be wincing at the thought of retaliation each time they have the dice in their hands.
Resources are then spent on building roads, settlements, cities, and development cards. Settlements can’t be built directly next to each other, and they need to be connected to a road, so building those will allow a player to reach different resource tiles and expand their chances of generating resources. Victory points are the ultimate goal, of course, with settlements being worth one and cities being worth two. The game ends immediately when one player amasses ten victory points.
Well, I just lost two friends
Development cards inject additional means of earning victory points, like having the longest unbroken road, for instance, and trading resources with other players is legal on your own turn, so a healthy commerce can theoretically bloom, just don’t expect trades to always be fair. It’s as simple as ever, it’s as cutthroat as ever, and after 30 years, it’s still a hell of a good time.
If you’re a veteran of the game, none of this will be news to you, and if you’re waiting for the new wrinkle that the 6th Edition introduces, you’ll be waiting forever. This fresh new coat of paint doesn’t mess with the formula at all, but it does make it simpler than ever to learn. Resources previously known as lumber and grain have been colloquially called wood and wheat for years, and now the rulebook reflects those more straightforward terms.
Speaking of rulebooks, the updated and far more concise one found in this 6th Edition is 12 pages long and teaches the basics of the game within about ten minutes. While this might not sound like a revelation to some, it’s quite astounding considering the other side of the coin that we often see in the hobby. It’s clean, it uses understandable terminology, it’s well laid out, I love it. I don’t personally know anyone who still needs to learn the basics of Catan, but I do know that this will be the easiest way for those handful of people to do so.
The box management nearly brings a tear to my eye
The game’s overall presentation has been lifted, too, with the newer, crisper box art standing out on my game shelf. The organisation found within the box, now that’s the real winner here. More sustainable cardboard boxes replace plastic bags to keep each set of player pieces together, and the entire inside of the box is compartmentalised to make pack downs a breeze. Better still, each compartment has a picture of the component that lives there printed on it. It’s a little luxury, but it’ll go a long way.
Final Thoughts
Catan is known as a gateway game for good reason. Many, including myself, crossed over from playing Scrabble and Uno to backing another game on Gamefound thanks to this modern classic. 6th Edition won’t be overly exciting to those who already own an older version because it doesn’t offer anything new, but if there’s a hole in your collection or you’re looking to expand your board game horizons, this should be the version you reach for.
Review copy supplied by the publisher
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