Catan - 19 tiles and wood for sheep

No single game can claim to have changed the modern board gaming landscape as much as Klaus Teuber’s classic, Catan. Having sold more than 32 million copies worldwide and printed in more than 40 languages, Catan is one of the most popular board games on the planet, winning countless awards and appealing to both experienced gamers and those new to the hobby.

With gameplay that rewards forward planning, resource management, a little bluffing and negotiation and not a small amount of luck, Catan is a game easy to learn but tough to master, the cornerstone of any gaming collection and the natural first step for anyone looking to move deeper into the hobby.

And, of course, it brought ‘wood for sheep’ into the board gaming lexicon if nothing else!

Components

In Catan, players will be collecting resources to build villages, cities and roads in an attempt to expand their civilisation on the newly conquered island of Catan. The first to score 10 victory points before any of their opponents will win the game. Every player will begin the game with two villages, each with one road attached, on a grid of 19 hexagonal tiles. Each tile has a number on it and players will roll two dice each turn. Those players who have a settlement adjacent to a tile with the rolled number will collect the resource that tile produces. Fields will grant wool, forests provide wood, so on and so forth.

Players can also spend their resources on Development Cards which will often grant bonuses such as additional roads (required to build future settlements) or victory points. 

The board itself is composed of 19 tiles which can be set up in differing layouts with a beginner board recommended in the rule book. However, they can also be shuffled and laid out randomly. There is a six-sided, thick cardboard frame to surround those 19 tiles and keep everything correctly sequenced. There are numbered discs that can then be assigned to each tile, again as prescribed by the rule book or randomly, for dice rolls. 

Each player is given a pool of small wooden roads, villages and cities, basic but adequate and tactile along with a chunky and clear cardboard player aid. Resource and Development Cards are simple but well printed and, like the rest of the game, iconography is intuitive.

The rule book itself is a little dry but relatively brief with clear gameplay examples and a glossary of the most often used terms to quickly resolve those all too common rules arguments!

Gameplay

Calling Catan a Eurogame, while technically true, feels more than a little reductive. While collecting resources is a key part of the gameplay, there is room here for player interaction, manoeuvring around the board trying to cut someone else off from whatever they need and negotiating the absolute best deal for the stone lying in your hand achieving nothing but so vital for another player’s masterplan.

Deciding exactly where to build your next settlement is vital. Players must weigh up where to build to give them an opportunity to collect all five resources while also taking into account the probability of that tile actually giving up its resources from the dice rolls. This can be a delicate dance that all players are trying to perform on the same board simultaneously. Things can become very congested very quickly on the island of Catan.

Added to this, there are the harbours on the outskirts of the board, tempting players with access to resources otherwise difficult to obtain at a cheaper rate and the robber who roams the play area, blocking players from receiving what they need. 

One key thing to note with Catan is that the base game is exclusively for three to four players. While there are fan-written two player variants available on the internet, they diminish the core negotiating elements so important to the game. If you predominately play games exclusively with one partner or friend, there are better options out there. For a family or group of three or four people, Catan shines, tactical bantering and cheeky trade offers included.

And it is also worth pointing out that part of the fun of Catan is its ability to be a leveller. There is a large element of luck that ensures that no matter how well you plan, those new to the game can achieve a series of lucky rolls of the dice to sneak to victory. If you are someone who doesn’t like to be beholden to the Dice Gods, Catan might not be for you.

Conclusion

But as far as I am concerned, Catan is for everyone. Easy to learn, vibrant on the table and with all the ways to randomise on setup, infinitely replayable, Catan is an intrinsic board gaming experience, something to be shared with friends and family.

The ruleset can be taught and picked up quickly but there is enough strategy and competition to ensure everyone is involved in the game at all times. The trade negotiating aspect of Catan encourages table talk and banter and adds to the atmosphere this wonderful game creates around the table. There is a reason Catan is one of the best-selling games of all time and you would be well-advised to creep that ‘total sold’ number up towards 33 million here on Chaos Cards!