Catan Dice Game

Last updated

Catan Dice Game is a German-style board game, developed by Klaus Teuber and published in 2007 by Catan GmbH and its licensors, Kosmos in Germany and Catan Studio in English-speaking countries. It is a dice game re-imagining of Teuber's most notable title, Settlers of Catan . Catan Dice Game can be played by any number of players, but is ideally suited for up to four. A variation, known as Catan Dice Game Plus, is freely available from the Catan website, whose gameplay is closer to its Settlers origins. A user generated game known as Catan Dice Extra is available with a PDF printable board which more closely resembles the original game with a larger map.

Contents

Gameplay

Gameplay is similar to that of Yahtzee , where six specially-marked dice representing resources can be rolled up to three times, with the player being able to choose which dice to keep between rolls. After the player stops rolling, they may invest their resources to build roads, knights, settlements, and cities; each of these having differing resource requirements. Roads must extend from a starting point, which the cities and settlements (which must be built in increasing order of point value) must connect. Knights may be used to unlock "resource jokers", which allow the outcome of one die to be set to a specific resource after the dice have been rolled.

For each road, settlement, knight, or city completed, points are awarded - however points are deducted if a player is unable to build anything on a turn. The player with the most points after 15 turns is declared the winner.

Reception

Rafał Cholewa reviewing this for Rebel Times in 2010 was disappointed with the game, noted that the game is too dependent on luck, is not very attractive, effectively consisting of just six poorly made dice and a sheet of paper. He concluded that the game is hard to recommend, unless one needs a cheap, small game that can be played while travelling. [1]

Further reading


Related Research Articles

Catan: Cities & Knights, formerly The Cities and Knights of Catan is an expansion to the board game The Settlers of Catan for three to four players. It contains features taken from The Settlers of Catan, with emphasis on city development and the use of knights, which are used as a method of attacking other players as well as helping opponents defend Catan against a common foe. Cities & Knights can also be combined with the Catan: Seafarers expansion or with Catan: Traders & Barbarians scenarios.

<i>Catan: Seafarers</i>

Catan: Seafarers, or Seafarers of Catan in older editions, is an expansion of the board game Catan for three to four players. The main feature of this expansion is the addition of ships, gold rivers, and the pirate to the game, allowing play between multiple islands. The expansion also provides numerous scenarios, some of which have custom rules. The Seafarers rules and scenarios are also, for the most part, compatible with Catan: Cities & Knights and Catan: Traders & Barbarians.

<i>Catan</i> (2007 video game) 2007 video game

Catan was the Xbox Live Arcade version of Klaus Teuber's The Settlers of Catan, developed by Big Huge Games in collaboration with Teuber. It was released on May 2, 2007. It is the first German-style board game to be released on Xbox Live Arcade, which was followed by Carcassonne.

<i>Elasund</i>

Elasund: The First City is a German-style board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It is the second game in the Catan Adventures series, a series of spinoff games based on the theme from Teuber's hit game The Settlers of Catan as well as its German-language novelization by Rebecca Gablé. As a game in the Catan series, it is published by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games in English. Despite the thematic connection between Elasund and Settlers, the two games have completely different mechanics.

<i>The Settlers of Canaan</i>

Settlers of Canaan is a licensed adaptation of Catan that incorporates Hebrew Bible themes into its multiplayer board game play. It was published in 2002 by Cactus Game Design, based in North Carolina.

<i>Starship Catan</i> Two-player card game

Starship Catan is a two-player card game, loosely based on the Starfarers of Catan board game. As a member of the Catan family of games, it is designed by Klaus Teuber, and distributed by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games in English.

<i>Starfarers of Catan</i>

Starfarers of Catan is a multiplayer board game loosely based on the Settlers of Catan series of games. It was created by Klaus Teuber as an official spin-off and is distributed by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games in English.

The Settlers of Zarahemla is a licensed adaptation of the German board game The Settlers of Catan by Klaus Teuber, based on the Book of Mormon. Gameplay in Zarahemla is nearly identical to the original, with several major differences - most notably, the game has been modified to suit two-player play as part of its official rules.

Candamir: The First Settlers is a German board game. It is the first game of the Catan Adventure series of games, which share a common theme with the Settlers of Catan games. As such, it was created by Klaus Teuber, and distributed by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games in English. The name "Candamir" comes from the Settlers of Catan novel by Rebecca Gablé, where Candamir is the name of the main character. The same character is prominently featured in this game.

The Kids of Catan is a German board game designed for children using the theme from The Settlers of Catan. Like other Catan titles, the game is created by Klaus Teuber and published by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games in English.

The Catan Card Game, originally named The Settlers of Catan: The Card Game, is a card-game adaptation of The Settlers of Catan board game. It is a member of the Catan series of games developed by Klaus Teuber and published by Kosmos in German, and by Mayfair Games in English. The Catan Card Game is a two-player game, although the rules can be accommodated as to allow players to share a set or for each player to have their own, as is intended for tournament play. Seven expansions of the Catan Card Game have also been released.

Catan Histories: Struggle for Rome is a 2006 German-style board game based on the game mechanics of Settlers of Catan, depicting the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The game is created by Klaus Teuber, the creator of Settlers, and is published under license from Catan GmbH by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games in English. It is the second game in the Catan Histories series of board games. Often games produced in different languages by different publishers have slight rule differences between the versions. Catan Histories: Struggle for Rome is no exception.

Catan: Traders & Barbarians is the third expansion to the Settlers of Catan games, developed by Klaus Teuber. It contains a series of new scenarios and small variations, which are meant for two, three, or four players, with limited compatibility between the other two expansions, Catan: Seafarers and Catan: Cities & Knights. Three of the modules had been previously offered as "mini-expansions", though two have new rules in Traders. The expansion itself is named for one of the scenarios therein.

Catan Historical Scenarios II: Troy and Great Wall was the second Historical Scenario expansion to the Settlers of Catan game, released in 2001 by Kosmos, though other distributors have redistributed this with a rules translation. Both scenarios are designed for four or six players; six-player play requires the Settlers 5-6 player extension.

Catan Historical Scenarios I: Alexander and Cheops is the first of two Historical Scenario expansions to the Settlers of Catan board game, distributed by Kosmos in Germany and redistributed with rules translations in various other territories. The Historical Scenarios put the players in historical settings, while maintaining the Settlers game mechanics. The Historical Scenarios are generally considered to be the forerunners to the later Catan Histories series of board games, though the latter are fully independent games with their own game parts.

Sid Meier's Civilization: The Boardgame is a 2002 board game created by Glenn Drover based on the Civilization series of video games, in particular, Civilization III. Drover himself was a sales manager at Microprose during the original development of Civilization, though he was not directly involved in the creation of the video game.

Settlers of America: Trails to Rails is a 2010 German style board game created by Klaus Teuber and distributed by Mayfair Games. It is the first Settlers of Catan-series game to be distributed exclusively in the English language, and the third game in the Catan Histories line of games, which adapts the Settlers of Catan game mechanics to various historical contexts.

The Rivals for Catan is an updated revision of the Catan Card Game, a card game adaptation of The Settlers of Catan. The game was released in 2010. It is a member of the Catan series of games, and is published by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games in English. Like its predecessor, The Rivals for Catan is a two-player game. As with the Catan Adventures series of games, the theme is based on the Rebecca Gablé novel The Settlers of Catan, a novel based on the original board game.

<i>Catan</i> Multi-player competitive-cooperative board game

Catan, previously known as The Settlers of Catan or simply Settlers, is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as Die Siedler von Catan. Players take on the roles of settlers, each attempting to build and develop holdings while trading and acquiring resources. Players gain victory points as their settlements grow; the first to reach a set number of victory points, typically 10, wins. The game and its many expansions are also published by Catan Studio, Filosofia, GP, Inc., 999 Games, Κάισσα (Káissa), and Devir. Upon its release, The Settlers of Catan became one of the first Eurogames to achieve popularity outside Europe. As of 2020, more than 32 million copies in 40 languages had been sold.

References

  1. Cholewa, Rafał (September 2010). "Alea iasta est!". Rebel Times (in Polish) (36): 31–32.
  2. "Pyramid: Pyramid Review: Catan Dice Game".