Introduction

The Settlers of Catan is probably the most successful chain of euro-style board games in history. The prolific series includes the original Settlers of Catan, a highly-rated 2-player card game, a whole host of expansions (Seafarers, Cities and Knights) and 5-6 player expansions for those expansions, and many variants on the original game(Settlers of Canaan), or standalone games with the same theme (Candamir, the First Settlers) or similar mechanics (Starfarers of Catan, Starship Catan.)

The newest entry into this arena is the Catan Dice Game, designed by Klaus Teuber and published by Mayfair. Following the recent surge of dice games that have come out recently, the Catan Dice game struck me as a game that might be very interesting. I’d had a good experience with a dice-based euro recently with Airships, and I’m a fan of Settlers of Catan itself, so when I saw it at the game shop, I snagged it.

Bits

Catan Dice Game comes in a smallish red-colored box resembling the box for the new edition of The Settlers of Catan. Inside the box, is a pad of paper and 6 dice, and a set of rules.

That’s it. No, really. There is nothing else. Not even a pencil! (Not in the Mayfair release...apparently the german Kosmos version has a pencil!) Anyway, the box is fairly sturdy and nicely made. The dice are very nice, with resources on each side, in color, including metallic gold. The pad contains a thousand million copies (okay, sixty copies) of the player sheet for Catan Dice Game. All in all, sparse, but well done.



Resource Dice, by samoan_jo



Mayfair box components, by pezpimp. As you can see...not much to it.



Player pad, by samoan_jo. As you can see, nicely language independent. This is the German version, but US versions are identical.

Gameplay

Unfortunately, things are a bit downhill from here. Each player takes a player sheet, someone finds a pencil or pen or something somewhere, and the youngest player begins.

Did you know that Catan is not one island? It is in fact, 1-4 separate, smaller islands, or so the sheets would have you believe.

On your turn, you try to build a network on your private island. You have a starting road, and you work out from there. As in the original game, different resources buy differen’t things. Cities cost wheat and ore, Settlements cost wheat/sheep/brick/lumber, roads cost road/lumber and so on. You can also spend sheep/ore/grain and buy a Knight, which will give you one specific resource later in the game when you really need it.

There is a series of roads that can be built, connected to settlements and cities. Each turn (there are 15 turns) you roll the dice up to 3 times. You can save or re-roll any of the 6 dice each time. After your last roll (usually third, but you can stop at one or two) you add up any resources you rolled to make things, and you note them on your sheet; any Gold rolled can be used 2:1 as any resource.

Each thing (road, city, settlement) has points noted on it on your sheet, and you cross that thing off, note the points in the score box for that turn on your score sheet and pass the dice. You may only build things you are connected to, and each successive city or settlement around the board is worth more points. When building settlements or cities, you build the smallest point value first before you are allowed to build the next one, even if you’re connected by road to it.

After 15 rounds you total your score. High score wins.



"The Rolling Stones", by samoan_jo. This is basically all you do all game. Note pencil, not included in Mayfair edition.


My Thoughts

If it isn’t already obvious, I’m a bit disappointed by this game. You basically roll and roll, building what you can with what you got. Yes, you can go for something and roll the dice trying for something specific, but if it doesn’t pan out you can end up wasting a turn. It’s a very opportunistic building system.

It wouldn’t be quite as bad if you could build out of order….circumnavigate the Island trying to get the big points before grabbing after the smaller stuff again. Really…there is almost no strategy to it at all. Even with Knights, you have to build those in a specific order, so you can’t even choose which one to make if you roll for one.

As I said, I’m a fan of the original Settlers of Catan. Player interaction. Trading. Positioning. These are but a few elements in the Settlers of Catan that the Catan Dice Game does not have. It’s basically four solitaire games. You cannot trade resources (except for the Gold and Knights), you don’t move a robber or steal anything, you don’t even play on the same board. Each player is completely isolated.

What I loved about the original Settlers was that it has high player interaction. The only thing the Catan Dice Game borrows from the board game is the theme. In practically every other way, it couldn’t be more different.



You have got to be friggin' kidding me.

Oh Sh...eep! Image by Hagakurrre


Pros and Cons

Nice components, especially the dice
Compact and portable
Easy to learn

Are pencils seriously that expensive?
NO, and I mean NO interaction or trading at all.
Very little strategy
No sheep grinder!

Conclusions

Really, the Catan Dice Game is disappointing. It retains none of the good elements of the Settlers of Catan, and is not even a very good game in its own right, like Starship Catan, Candamir, or even the Catan Card Game. The Catan Dice Game is proof to me that Catan has jumped the shark; it’s no longer about a group of games that share common attributes, it’s about branding anything you can find with the Catan logo to get it to sell.

How does it compare to Yahtzee, another zero-interaction dice game? Well, honestly, I think Yahtzee offers more tense, compelling decisions than Catan Dice Game does. In Yahtzee, each roll has to be counted, but can be counted for whatever you like. It’s a system where you have to figure out where to take your losses and where to count your wins. Catan Dice doesn’t even really offer that. If the dice don’t give you what you need, there’s no saving it or fussing with alternatives, or even the fun of trying to limit the damage it does. You’re just stuck. I prefer Yahtzee, in all honesty.

Catan Dice Game, for me, is a disappointment; not painful or awful, just a disappointment. I was expecting something truly clever here, and got yahtzee with sheep. That said, if you have a hankering for a catan-themed dice game to play alone on the train, or if you’re a Catan completist, you may find something here you like. I can image one or two enterprising game designers can find some way to work the resource dice into the boardgame, as well. But, if you’re looking for a portable, quick version of the boardgame experience, this isn’t it. Not by a mile.

Overall, I'll play it, but not before I play almost anything else. I rate the Catan Dice Game a 5 out of 10.