News – Catan: New Energies Announced

Over the festive period I was casually scrolling through Instagram and something instantly caught my eye. A brand new Catan is coming in the summer of 2024! I’m super excited for this one. As a huge fan of Catan and someone that will forever bang the drum for its importance as a game and how it changed the board game landscape, it is awesome to see the creators endeavour to keep the game current with the times. New Energies appears to be doing just that.

What Can We See?

The classic island of catan still appears to be at the forefront of play. I’m sure the majority of you reading this will know what that looks like with your island built of hexagon tiles. These hexagons representing a resource of brick, wheat, wood, ore and pasture (Sheep!). However, these energies are under threat as they have been over consumed over the years, pollution is wreaking havoc on the island and players must choose if they continue to burn the cheap fossil fuel energy, or take a sustainable approach to develop new greener energy and protect society.

Players also have dashboards for in game play on top of a hand of resource cards. This instantly signals to me there is a good bit more to this set of Catan than the original entry game. Society in general has got more complicated, it only makes sense then that Catan also should. What these additions in play will be though, I cannot see yet.

A Sustainable Future

From reading around what the creators are saying, gameplay starts with the classic need for fossil fuels (resources) to develop. These will most likely be our traditional resources. However, pollution is generated from their use causing issues for all players around the table. What those issues will look like is not yet known. If it is anything like the Oil Springs expansion, none of the impacts will be a good thing for players.

Players are then going to have to make a choice for victory by continuing to use the cheap fossil fuels to develop, or, invest in more expensive green technology for a sustainable future and the betterment of society. The creators refer to power plants, energy tokens and environmental events. I cannot help but feel it will be intense.

21st Century Catan

I feel it is brilliant that Catan is getting this upgrade to align with the present day, and with that the present-day societal challenges that we all face in our day to day lives. I felt the Oil Springs expansion started to highlight these global issues. A standalone game titled “New Energies” will surely take it to another level? From what I can see it looks like the creators also want to send a message that highlights the human impact on the environment and the challenges we face, as well as create a great gaming experience.

I cannot wait to try this new Catan game.