#12: Catan (Mark's Top 100 2024)

Catan

BoardGameGeek

• rank: 552
• rating: 7.1
• published: 1995
• designer: Klaus Teuber

Print Status

• in print

Why It's On The List

• The game that launched the European "game" invasion... the first true "franchise" game for Kosmos & Mayfair... a game so simple & yet so innovative that it could inspire devoted play with almost any crowd. This infinitely variable game of trading & building is still a personal favorite, even when way too many gamers have left it behind.

Tips & Tricks:

• There are lots of strategy guides out there - the best I've ever seen was compiled by Scott MacPherson - and I republished it so you could find it:
• Overall Strategies
• Initial Setup
• Early Game
• End Game & Ports
• Largest Army, Longest Road, Development Cards, The Robber & The Pirate
• Trading.

• While your first game may take 90+ minutes, it's not unusual for experienced players to knock out a game in 60 minutes or less. A lot of that depends on how quickly trading goes and how "aware" the people you're playing are - example: it doesn't matter how many times you ask for "brick", if we haven't rolled it in two rounds, it isn't there for trade. Sigh.
• My last game of Catan was 4 player Cities & Knights... and it was over in 90 minutes! (And I won!)
• Our local group prefers playing 5 player with the slightly larger board and the "build around" rule.

Extras

• The picture above is my well-worn but well-loved original German Die Siedler von Catan collection - which includes (pictured) the base game, Seafarers, Cities & Knights, the first two historical boxes, "The Book", and "The Chocolate Market"... and the 5/6 player expansions for all of the big boxes. Not pictured are Settlers of the Stone Age, Struggle for Rome, Rise of the Inkas, Candamir, and the original Starfarers (with the resin figures!). And let's not forget the numerous official country and state maps, a plethora of official variants, and even some oddball scenario maps created nearly 20 years ago and released at Essen by various folks. I've loved Catan for a very long time.
• I wrote my Unofficial Guide to Catan back in 2007 - but the basic information is still pretty helpful, if not complete due to age. (Part 2 focuses on Catan spinoffs; Part 3 is a 2010 update of Part 1.)
• I also wrote about my visit to the very first CatanCon.
• Most recently, I wrote a review of Klaus Teuber's memoir, My Journey to Catan.
• Here's what I wrote about the game for The One Hundred... and here's what I wrote for my personal One Hundred.
• This is the fifth of five games on my top 100 list designed by Klaus Teuber.