#90: Settlers of Catan Card Game

Settlers of Catan Card Game

• designer: Klaus Teuber
• publisher: Mayfair
• date: 1996
• BoardGameGeek rank/rating: 260/6.97
• position on my top 100 in 2005: 81st
• age: 10+
• # of players: 2
• print status: in print
• cost: $16.00 (GameSurplus)

Five years ago, I debated between including putting this game or Starship Catan - both games I love - on the list, but Starship is very similar to Anno 1503 (which appeared farther down the line), so I went with Settlers Card Game. My pull quote: "I like the way the game develops, even if it takes a bit too long."

Five years later, I've made the same decision for similar reasons - as much as I like Starship, I think Anno 1503 is more fun (and it's even been outdone by Anno 1701: Das Brettspiel). But for the full-on sprawling "build your kingdom" experience, nothing performs like the Settlers of Catan Card Game. I've been playing this since the original German release - I bought my copy in 1997. (yep - my first 10-15 plays were with a German deck & a cheat sheet to translate the cards into English.)

The game went through a revision back in 2003... primarily (I think) to better integrate the expansion cards into the game without making for some game-breaking combinations (and to correct some printing errors.)

It's about to go through a major reboot later this year as The Princes of Catan... evidently Teuber has worked to simplify learning the game & shorten game time a bit, but I haven't actually seen a copy yet.