Product Description
In the Catan Card Game, you control a group of settlers taming the lands of medieval Catan. Use the unique card mix to create a map of your own principality, then explore and settle new lands, acquiring resources through card play and the luck of the dice. Make use of gold and resource combinations to develop your domain. Expand your settlements and cities, recruit knights, and defend your territory through politics, tournaments and intrigue. Cunning and a dash of luck decides who will be the undisputed master of Catan!
Editorial Review
With a beautifully designed deck of cards, playing pieces, dice, and instruction book, it's no wonder this card game was nominated in Germany for Game of the Year in 1997. The game pits two players against each other as rival clans vying for Catan, a territory in medieval Europe. By using cunning, the resources of their domains, and the lucky roll of dice, the players compete to see who will be the ruler. There are attacks by brigands, knightly tournaments, merchants, spies, and civil wars. Events in the game are presented through event cards, which can bring plague or prosperity to the clans. Strategy and foresight will win the day, but even the loser will enjoy learning about the life and culture of medieval times. Young players will need patience to learn and play. --Lee Strucker
From the Manufacturer
Two Rival Domains! In the Catan Card Game¿ you control a group of settlers taming the lands of medieval Catan. Use the unique card mix to create a map of your own principality, then explore and settle new lands, acquiring resources through card play and the luck of the dice. Make use of gold and resource combinations to develop your domain. Expand your settlements and cities, recruit knights, and defend your territory through politics, tournaments, and intrigue! Cunning and a dash of luck decides who will be the undisputed master of Catan!
Customer Reviews
Catan Card Game. Not as fun as board game.
I bought this game at a local game store. Amazon doesn't seem to carry it anymore.
I am a big fan of the board game and have bought all the expansions. I was hoping this game would be a travel version of the board game, in card form. It is not.
First off all it requires a LOT of table space. Even more then the board game! You need to lay out your cards to build your principality. On top of that there are 10 other piles of cards. You get the idea.
Second, the rules are not as clear as the board game. It doesn't play as easy or clean. It helps to have played the board game. That way you have a basic understanding of what is going on in the game. The rules are somewhat confusing in their terminology and leave questions that occur during gameplay.
It requires a lot more thinking then normal SoC and has an unusual twist; Memorization. Part of the game involves digging through the piles of cards to get the ones you want. If you can remember what cards are in what piles, and additionally where the card you want is, you have an advantage.
Overall it is difficult to play at first, but you soon begin to get the hang of it. It is not quite up to the level of the other Catan games, but then again, what is?
One of the best card games
This is a wonderfully balanced card game. Too often games these days seem to encourage finding that one strategy or that one "card" or "position" that wins every time; this seems to be particularly true of video games. The Settlers of Catan card game seems to be relatively free of this. It is true that if you can "memorize" what cards are in what piles you can gain a kind of advantage. But there isn't a single card, or even set of cards, that gaurantee victory each and every time.
My friends and I played the Settlers of Catan and the Starfarers board games, and the associated expansions, for a couple of years before I decided to try the card game. I'm a gamer and I could never get my wife to play video games. But she took to this game immediately and we've expanded our collection to include the expansion and several other similar card games.
There are similarities to the Settlers of Catan board game, but there are alot of differences as well. The rules are relatively simple and easy to learn. If you've played any Mayfair game chances are you'll understand the rules pretty well after one game. If you are new to this type of game it might take a couple of trys to learn the rules.
The basic premise of the game is to build a principality and in the process be the first to reach 12 victory points. You can either chose to expand your principality by building more villages or by improving it with cities and associated buildings. Buildings and improvements are built by gathering the necessary resources of brick, wood, wool, and grain; gold serves a kind of commodity that you can trade for other resources. Various improvements e.g. fleets make trading for other resources more efficient or can even double your land production. Each games takes an hour or two to complete and *alot* of table space.
A Wonderful, Deep Two-Player Game
This is a great game for two players (and two players only). The first one or two times I played, it was very, very slowgoing because there is a lot to take in. However, once you adapt to the numerous cards and they become familiar to you, games tend to take about an hour. It's a fairly involved game, so you have to be in the mood for that. There's a lot of strategy and many ways to win. I greatly recommend it for those who already enjoy playing games. It might be daunting for a really casual gamer, though. If you like it, there are now expansion sets available that add lots of spice and variety to the original.
