Catan Universe

by tbleong Jan 24, 2022 | 1 Votes | 98 Played | 0 Reviews

10 rate

Genres:

Strategy , Board

Graphics:

Labels:

City Building , Fantasy Setting

Platforms:

Catan Universe is the digital version of the beloved strategy board game, The Settlers of Catan. Gather resources, and trade surplus with other settlers. Build roads and magnificent cities, train knights to protect them against the Robber, and settle in the universe of Catan! Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Community Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

Catan Universe is the digital version of the beloved strategy board game, The Settlers of Catan. It is one of the most popular strategy board games out there since the early 21st century. In Catan Universe, it compiles all versions of the physical board game into a single webapp, including the expansion packs such as Seafarers, Cities & Knights, Rise of the Inkas, and so on! However, the concept still remains the same throughout the versions – you gather resources, trade resources, build magnificent cities and settle in the universe of Catan!

Plotline

Catan does not have an elaborate plotline. In the game, players are settlers who are establishing new settlements on the land of Catan. Then, they have to compete with each other for scarce resources to build up their cities, and become the most powerful nation in Catan!

Gameplay

Catan Universe is a free-to-play game, but with some limitations. It includes the original Settlers of Catan base game, and also the expansion games Seafarers, Cities & Knights, Rise of the Inkas, and Rivals for Catan. The first four games have almost the same concept and gameplay mechanism, with some additional features in the expansion games, while Rivals for Catan is a two-player card game. Only the base game is free, but players have to spend a ‘Sun’ coin to play a game for free. This coin will only replenish itself every 12 hours. The games can be bought with Catan Gold, which in turn can be obtained from purchasing with real money. For those who are new to Catan, or those who played the physical board game before but unsure how it works in the digital version, they can try out the well-crafted tutorial provided for each game version.

The world of Catan, depending on the version you pick, is divided into hex tiles, not unlike a typical computer 4X strategy game like Civilization. Each hex tile contains a resource that the player can harvest if they have a settlement or city at the corner of the hex tile, while settlements or cities must be connected by at least 2 stretches of road, which will lie on the border between two adjacent hex tiles. Hence, one hex tile can have a maximum of 3 settlement or city, and the distance between two settlements or cities, regardless which player they belong to, must be at least two roads apart.

The resources available in the Catan universe are wool, grain, lumber, brick and ore. These resources are critical in order to progress and win the game. Building your nation in Catan require a lot of resources. For example, building a road requires one brick and one lumber, while building a settlement needs one brick, one lumber, one wool and one grain. Players can upgrade a settlement to a city with three ores and two grains, but it replaces the settlement. However, the advantage of upgrading a settlement to city is that it allows the player to harvest two resources per adjacent hex tile instead of one. If players lack a certain resource, they can either trade with other players, whereby they can decide their own ratio of trade, or they can opt to trade with the bank at a 4:1 ratio. If the player owns a harbor, by building a settlement or city at specific locations on the map (usually at the coast), they can get more favorable trade ratios with the bank.

The game goes by rounds, and each round starts with a pair of dice roll. Each hex tile on the map is labelled with a number, from 2 to 12, which represents the result of the dice roll. Players gather resources from the hex tiles if they have a settlement or city on the tile that has the number of the rolled dice. In a way, Catan is a game of probability, and the probability of two dice getting the number 7 is the highest, followed by 6 and 8, then 5 and 9, and so forth. Hence, it is best to build your settlements adjacent to tiles with these numbers. However, there are no tile with the number 7, as rolling 7 will activate the Robber. This Robber starts on the desert tile in the beginning of the game. When a player first rolled 7, any player must discard half of their resource cards on hand if they have more than 7 cards, and the player who rolled the dice must move the robber to another tile of choice, which subsequently blocks the tile from producing any resources until the Robber is moved again. Then that player is able to steal from another player who has a settlement or city adjacent to the robber's new location.

Other than buildings, resources card can also be used for buying Development cards, which cost one grain, one wool and one ore each. These Development cards are not to be underestimated, as they can easily turn the tables if played appropriately. There are five types of development cards in Catan, namely Knight, Road Building, Year of Plenty, Monopoly and Victory Point card. Players that play the Knight card will allow them to move the robber, gaining the abilities as explained above but without the rule of discarding cards if one has more than 7 on hand. Road Building cards allow the player to build 2 roads for free instantly. Playing the Year of Plenty card awards the player two resources of choice, while the Monopoly card allows the player to take all resource cards of a single resource of choice from all the players in the game. To win the game in Catan, players have to accumulate certain amount of Victory Points (VP), and the Victory Point development cards can contribute to that. Other than that, one settlement provides one VP, while one city provides two VPs. The first player who plays more than three knights will be awarded the Largest Army card with 2 VPs. The first player who builds five or more continuous road segments will be awarded the Longest Road card with 2 VPs. However, other players can claim these two special cards from the current holder if they have more knights or longer roads.

Community

Catan Universe offers single player experience as well as multiplayer modes. If you have friends, you can also host games via custom matches, but do note that you have to own the game first, by purchasing them with Catan Gold. You can even create or join a guild to share experiences, or just looking for a dedicated group to play with. If you are looking for more competitive gaming, you can join the tournaments, where winning and losing matter to your player’s rank. The ranking system in Catan Universe is governed by the Elo rating system, similar to chess.

Graphics/ Sound

Catan Universe boasts amazing 3D graphics although it is just a browser game, which will certainly make a Catan fan swoon. The interface is well organized and the animations are quite smooth. The background music and sound effects are also very smoothing, making the game more immersive.

Conclusion

In summary, Catan Universe is the complete suite for Catan games, which allows fans to play the classic Catan game and its expansions all on one platform. It is free to play but with very limited freedom to do so. Nonetheless, Catan fans will definitely enjoy it, as Catan Universe stays true to the game, whereby all gameplay mechanisms are the same as the original, with the added advantage of playing it with friends remotely from all over the world. Wait no longer Catan fans, let’s trade, build and settle in Catan Universe!