aka pastor guy: #60: Catan: Starfarers (Mark's Top 100 2024)

Catan: Starfarers

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Why It's On The List

As a long-time fan of the original Starfarers of Catan, I was nervous about the redevelopment of the game. I shouldn't have worried - it left everything I liked about the game while streamlining play and shortening playing time.

Tips & Tricks:

Pushing to be far ahead on any spaceship piece (guns, engines, cargo pods) not only helps you to accomplish certain goals, it also can hinder the success of other players when they have to face an event card.
Building a spaceport mid-board can drastically speed up your progress (and the game!).
Like all Catan games, initial placement is key.

Extras

The map - using six puzzle cut boards with gaps for planet clusters and trading posts gives the game a LOT more variation than the original design - maps can be laid out specifically or randomly. And while the map is the same size (15 hexes long by 9 hexes wide), moving the trading posts into the map and rearranging the other openings makes the game develop faster.
The components - gone are the rickety/fragile starships from the original game (that were so breakable that they required a retrofit from the company)... in their place are smaller but sturdier ships. In addition, the nice Catan folks provided extra plastic "marbles" for the shaker portion of the ships, so you can change the mix in each one for a faster or slower game.

It's important to note that the suggested mix makes encounters slightly less likely.

The starting planets - it doesn't sound like much, but there are no pure 2 or 12 planets in the starting mix. Instead, there is a 3/12 chip and a 2/11 chip.
The rules - a number of rules tweaks were added that make the gamer run faster:

after a roll of 7 (and the subsequent stealing), each player besides the thief draws a card from the reserve pile
the first contact with any planet cluster flips over all of the number chips
the resolution of trade post is now simply "longest road" style
the largest pirate lair is slightly easier to defeat

All of the noted changes make for a much faster game - we are knocking out three player games in approximately 75-80 minutes.
My sons gave me the New Encounters expansion for Christmas - so far, we've only played the Amoeba scenario... but it's a nice twist and only added about 10 minutes to the playing time.
I still have my resin alien figures from the original edition... love those little guys!
This is Klaus Teuber's third of five game designs on my top 100 for 2024.

aka pastor guy