Rivals for Catan
$37.99
Rivals for Catan at a Glance
| Game Type Medieval Theme, Dice Rolling, Negotiating Card Game, Hexagon Grid, Building Settlements | Play Time 30 mins + | Skill/Complexity (2.5 - 5) Light - Medium |
| Age 10+ | Publisher(s) Kosmos, Catan Studio and others | Published 2010 |
| Categories Strategy 2 Players | Players 2 | Cost $20 - $37.99 approx |
| Our Rating 8.8/10 |
Fun and engaging right from the start, The Rivals For Catan is a 2 person card game not to be missed. A little more challenging without being overly complex, once you get going you’ll be totally hooked.
About – Description
Rivals For Catan was launched in both English and German in late 2010. It was a follow-on from the original card game Settlers Of Catan which was released 15 years earlier in 1995. The game’s designer, Klaus Teuber, said at the time that he had completely reworked the mechanics of this strategy based game to make it easier for newcomers.
It is played by 2 people only, taking anywhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours to complete.
The game is relatively easy to learn and simple to teach, with an attractive fantasy/medieval Catan theme. It’s aimed at adults and children over 10 years.
Who’s it best suited For?
As The Rivals For Catan is played in a pair it’s ideal for friends, siblings or a parent and child to play together.
The game requires managing and growing a territory, bringing with it a need to plan and strategize, so could be considered educational.
Skill – Complexity
The Rivals For Catan is best suited to older children and adults as it does require some forward planning skills to play the game effectively. With this in mind, it could be considered averagely complex.
Mainly consisting of cards and a pair of dice (a production die and an event die), it requires players to collect points in order to progress through the game.
Set Up – Playing Rules & Instructions
Each player has control of a principality of Catan, beginning with two settlements, six regions and a road running through, all represented by cards. To play the game, players must expand their principality, and score victory points for a range of features.
When taking a turn, players will roll two dice: a production die, determining which regions produce resources for the player, and an event die, the outcome of which can mean a resource is gained or lost for both players. Alternatively, a card may be drawn from a deck of special “Event Cards”. Players then play cards from their hand until they reach their hand limit which ends their turn.
The cards themselves are divided into two categories: action cards and improvements. Action cards are free to play, but they might have other requirements to take into account before they can be played and then discarded. Most improvements do cost resources to play, but have a greater effect on the game. Resources are stored in the six regions, and each region can contain up to three, with any excess being lost. Resources may be spent from within any regions containing them.
Improvements are further divided into City Expansions and Settlement Expansions, and need to be placed above or below a city or settlement in order to upgrade it. These are then sub-divided into Buildings and Units, with units again being divided into Ships and Heroes. Each of these offers victory points in addition to skill points, strength points, commerce points and progress points, all of which offer various benefits.
The winner of the game is the player who has the required number of points at the end of their turn. For the introductory game this is 7 points, whilst for the Theme game it’s 12 points. The Duel of the Princes game requires 13 points with the Tournament game needing 15 points to win.
Versions – Editions
A sizeable number of expansions have been unveiled for this game over recent years including more Marker cards, Extraordinary Sites, Road Complements, Region Expansions and a new center card. You can even now get cards which can be placed in a principality of your opponent.
The most recent expansion was in 2012 with the “Age of Enlightenment”. It contains 125 cards in three theme sets: “The Era of Sages”, “The Era of Prosperity” and “The Era of Explorers”
Likes & Dislikes
It’s a fantastic game, but does require a lot of space to spread out so may need to be played on the floor. It can also be tricky to get to grips with initially, but great fun when you get the hang of it.
- Great theme and card artwork.
- Takes skill and commitment to get good at the game.
- Good replay value, especially when adding expansions.
- Nice with the dice.
- Engaging for the right players.
- Some may not like the luck element involved and have a dice allergy.
- It’s a table hog!.
Final Thoughts
At first, The Rivals For Catan can appear daunting if you haven’t come across this genre of board game before, but it’s cleverly designed to guide you through which really helps. Once you are familiar with the rules and feel comfortable with the theme and mechanics, it really comes into its own and its true brilliance is revealed.
Well thought out and with a real multi-layered depth, Rivals For Catan is well worth getting and setting up on a LARGE table.
