Sternenschiff Catan (Starship Catan)

Complexity Medium Cost DM 35 (£12) Duration Medium-Long Players 2 Producer Kosmos Size Small-Medium

Premise

Build a trading empire, make friends and get home

Review

I was thwarted by German delivery drivers in getting the English version from Mayfair at Essen so I bought the German version which was launched at Essen. Most of these comments should apply to the Mayfair version however (except that the bits will be in English). I have translated the rules but there may be errors in my version.

The game is a blend of the Settlers Card Game and the Starfarers game, but incorporates several novel features. The most notable is the large spaceship board which each player has. This contains warehouses for resources (Ore, Carbon, etc.) and Knowledge Points. It also houses your various upgrades boosters, cannons and upgrade centres which give you additional abilities (such as more actions per turn, the ability to hold more resources in your warehouses etc.)

The aim of the game is to get 10 victory points. You get this by establishing colonies, getting certain ship upgrades (the level 2 upgrades), completing certain Galactic Council tasks, or by becoming the Hero or Friend of the Peoples (most commendations or friendship points).

Set-up takes a reasonable length of time and involves setting up the spaceships, and creating the decks. There are six decks to create: four of ten cards each are the sectors through which you will fly each turn and contain potential colonies, trading posts and trading opportunities, and of course pirates; another deck is a reserve deck for when cards are removed from the sector decks; finally there is one for the Galatic Council missions. The last two decks are both composed of different level cards (1-4) and each of these are shuffled with their kind before the final deck is created.

Each turn the player rolls the special yellow die and both players get resources if they have colonies that match. Each player starts with a different colony. Next the player picks one of the four sector decks. The other player reveals each card in turn (so that pirate card details can be kept secret). The maximum number of cards revealed is the starship speed, i.e. the yellow die plus boosters.

During this flightphase, the player has the ability to execute two actions (more if they have purchased the relevant upgrades). An action is colonising, trading etc. Once the player has done his actions, the flight phase ends and the build and trade phase begins. Trading is done to/from Astro's (i.e. money) a small stash of which players begin the game with. In this phase, a player may use any trading posts he has to make money or buy resources. He can then buy upgrades, boosters, cannons, colony or trading spacecraft (which are needed to establish permanent colonies or trading posts).

During the flight phase, pirates are dealt with in the usual manner. Each player rolls the blue combat die and adds their boosters (the pirate's are on the card). Also players can complete any missions currently displayed from the Galatic Council deck. In the sector decks are four special mission planets. Visiting these will allow you to complete missions (assuming you meet any other criteria). Most of these missions give you any single resource, but it is also possible to get commendations for bravery (which count towards the Hero of the Peoples victory point), and victory points directly.

The game is very well balanced and should play faster than the Settlers card game. The strategy however revolves around making clever trades for resources and is thus different from the other related games. You also need a good memory to remember which cards are in which deck.

I look foward to laying my hands on the English version. It is possible to play the German version since most of the text is obvious, and many components do not have text on them. There will be a significant cost difference of course, certainly more than the £12 that I paid at Essen (the street price in Germany).

Rating

Back to Home Page