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Catan: trade build settle by Klaus Teuber: Game Review

Catan

Catan MSRP $49.95

Components 10/10

Playability 10/10

Recommend 10/10

Must Have game

 

 

I recently purchased a copy of the original Catan by Klaus Teuber. I have been a war gamer for the past 40 years so this kind of game is a departure from my normal fare of Tiger Tanks and dive bombers. I am going to review the components of the game and playability. The first things that stand are the important game tiles.

Typical Catan Tile

These tiles are used to make the game board. This way the game is always different and variable. They are well made and easy to differentiate the different resources available. Each tile is well made and great looking, durable and high gloss making the tiles very appealing. They come together into a great looking game board to explore.

Game Board

The second part you see is the variable number tokens

number tokens

and harbor tokens.

Harbor Tokens

They are of the same great quality as the game tiles and look great. These elements all combine to make a great looking world to explore and settle.

Typical Catan Game board
after set up

Next are the cost cards which tell you what each item costs to build in resources. They are big, beautifully printed and easy to read and understand.

cost card

The resource cards and the development cards are smaller than I would like but they are well printed and easy to read. The dice are great looking and match the game but I would recommend a dice tower to get a real variability and randomness and make the game more lively.  These components over all are awesome. Now comes the weakest part of the game. The instructions.

The rule book is broken down into 2 sections, the game rules and the almanac. The attempt was to use the almanac as examples of play in explaining the rules. But the almanac has its own rules inside it that affect the game. What they should have done is forget the almanac and rewrite the rules to have the examples in the rules section that pertains to them. As a result you are going to have several play throughs with big rules mistakes before you get it right. When playing your first couple of Catan games keep the index in the back page of the rule book open all the time and don’t get frustrated. Once you muddle through it the game is worth it. If you want to avoid this refer to my you tube channel  J and D hobbies. There is a run though on how to set up the game. This clarifies all the oddities in the rules and lets you dive right in to playing this great game.

Robert Tufano

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