Struggle For Catan Review

Love ‘CATAN’, but fed up with waiting for pals to come over so that you can reach that golden 3-4 player count? Don’t always have the time or space to play the original board game? Can’t be bothered to carry the box around with you? If your answer is ‘yes’ to any of the above, then this is the game for you! Klaus Teuber is back with the compact, stand-alone 2-4 player card game ‘Struggle for CATAN’. Your challenge: to strategically manage resources and opportunely trade them in for roads, settlements, and cities. Building cards earn you victory points (VPs) and the first to 10 VPs is crowned the winner. Sound familiar?

Tell Me More

‘Struggle for CATAN’ is a fast-paced, competitive card game that takes approximately 30 minutes to play. Packed into a compact little box with an easy-to-understand rule book, this is the perfect game to pop in your pocket before heading out and about. The objective of the game is simple: TRADE, BUILD, AND BUILD SOME MORE to gain those oh-so-valuable VPs and thrash your opponents in the fight for dominance over Catan. The faster your civilisation grows, the stronger your position… at least for now.

Those familiar with ‘CATAN’ will recognise the iconic resources on offer in ‘Struggle for CATAN’: brick, lumber, wool, grain, and ore. These resources form the currency of the game and can be exchanged for building cards (roads, knights, settlements, cities, and city expansions), the source of those precious VPs. Each player gets a handy ‘building costs’ card, outlining the resources required to acquire different building cards. The more building cards you possess, the closer you are to winning.

Is It Really That Simple

Yes and no. Judicious trading of resources and purchasing building cards is an easy and direct means of getting VPs, but conquest is rarely so simple! After all, you are not the only one competing for dominance over Catan…

Not all building cards are available in abundance in this game. Roads and knights are limited commodities and, if the general supply is depleted, be prepared to have your precious cards pillaged by your opponents. Yep, ‘Struggle for CATAN’ can be a MEAN, MEAN game! Predicting this constant flux of knights and roads between players and timing your attacks to capitalise on this is a crucial element of the game.

Strategy Or Luck

‘Struggle for CATAN’ strikes a nice balance between strategy and luck. As already mentioned, timing is key in this game and the order in which actions are performed makes up much of the strategy. However, things do not always go to plan. ‘City’ and ‘City Expansion’ cards vary and can suddenly change the order of play. ‘City expansion’ cards can also give the player who purchased the card additional abilities, creating asymmetrical play. These variable elements of the game add to its appeal and replayability.

2, 3 & 4 Player Games

The beauty of ‘Struggle for CATAN’ is that it can be played as a 2-player game, unlike the original base game of ‘CATAN’. Admittedly, there are a couple of differences in a 2-player game; the ‘Destiny card’, which alters order of play, is redundant and, by virtue of fewer players, you are less likely to have a spanner thrown in the works by an avenging or angry opponent. However, it is still a fast and ferocious fight for victory, and a head-to-head battle has its own appeal for the more competitive among us!

3- and 4-player games certainly make for a more chaotic game experience. With more cards in play, be prepared to have your empire of knights and roads collapse at any given moment. You need to keep a firm eye on your neighbours on either side, as you never know when the ‘Destiny card’ will flip, reversing the order of play.

Should I Get ‘Struggle For CATAN’ If I Already Have Catan

Absolutely! Whilst the artwork, resources and building cards may be familiar, this is a completely different game. ‘Struggle for CATAN’ is the perfect pocket game for trips to the café/pub and takes only 30 minutes to play. The rules and mechanics of ‘Struggle for CATAN’ are very easy to pick up and teach to others, and you can now challenge your rival to a head-to-head! What isn’t there to like?!

That concludes our thoughts on Struggle for Catan. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy Struggle for Catan today click here!