Catan New Energies

• Designers: Klaus and Benjamin Teuber
• Publisher: Catan Studio
• Players: 3-4
• Age: 12+
• Time: 90 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

It’s the 21st Century, and Catan is at a crossroads. Long gone is the agrarian society of the island’s Viking ancestors. Today’s Catanians need energy to keep society moving and growing, but pollution is wreaking havoc on the island. You must decide: Invest in clean energy resources, or opt for cheaper fossil fuels, potentially causing disastrous effects for the island?

CATAN: New Energies (C:NE) is a new standalone game rooted in classic CATAN mechanisms of harvesting, trading, and building. New gameplay elements including power plants, energy tokens, and environmental events that add new strategies and stories to a familiar foundation.

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To set up the game, first build the frame for the correct player count.  Around the periphery, you will see the Global Footprint Track, event spaces as well as the Victory Point track.  A cube is placed on the starting spot of the Global Footprint track.   In the middle of the frame, you will then build a familiar looking hexagonal arrangement of 19 hexagonal tiles, one of which is a desert.  Numbered discs are then placed on the non-desert hexes.  There is a recommended setup illustrated in the rules or you can do the hexes randomly. 

The five resource decks (wood, brick, fiber/cotton, steel and food) are each placed near the board.  There is also a deck of Science cards which is shuffled separately.  The Development card deck is also shuffled and placed near the other cards.  The bag is filled with the brown development discs.

Each player takes all the pieces in their color, and a start player is determined.  In snake order (well, really Settlers order), players first place a town on an empty intersection and then place a road coming out of that town.  Then, in reverse order, players each place a city on an intersection and again place a road coming out of that intersection.  All towns and cities must be placed at least 2 paths away from any other town/city.  Players take one resource matching each hex adjacent to their city as well as one Science card.  Each player places their score marker on the 3 space (2 points per city, 1 point per town).

Each player also gets a player board, which is filled with the unused towns, cities and roads. Brown fossil fuel plants are in the lower left, green renewable power plants in the bottom right (each one placed on top of a randomly placed green event disc), and the warehouse tile is placed on the start space in the lower middle.   The player board also serves as the player aid as each of the components found on the player board have their cost listed somewhere near the object.

The game is played until either one player scores 10 points (and the game immediately ends) or when the bag of event tiles is emptied.  Each turn has four phases which are always done in order.

1] Event Phase – draw event discs out of the bag and enact the action seen on it.  The number of event discs drawn is indicated by which level of the global footprint track the marker is found – somewhere between one and three.  Place the disc drawn onto the matching space found around the periphery.  If the final space of any particular area is filled, that triggers the event for that area.  In general, brown events have negative effects and green events has generally positive effects (though the benefit is usually awarded to players who have more use of renewable energy).  There is a helpful chart near the end of the rules that explains what each event does.  Again, if the bag is empty when you need to draw a disc – the game end is triggered.

2] Production Phase – the active player rolls 2d6, and things on hexes with the matching number will produce stuff – that is, as long as they do not have a hazard marker or inspector on them.  If the hex has a hazard, it is not activated, and nothing is made from that hex.  Towns/Cities can also have hazards on them, and if so, they will not make anything.  Any hazard token which prevents production will be removed at the end of this phase.  Towns will make one resource for the activated hex and cities will make one resource of the hex AND one science.  If you have a power plant attached to a town/city that produces, the power plant will generate 1 energy.  

If you roll a 7, the environmental inspector (umm, the robber) will move.  All players with more than 7 resource+Science cards must discard half rounded down.  Then, the inspector moves to any hex that does not have a hazard token.  One card is stolen from any player with a building on that hex.  The inspector also blocks any production in the hex it is in, though unlike a hazard, it is not removed if it prevents production.

3] Action phase – now the active player can trade with other players, can trade with the bank (take 1 resource for any 4 resources, any 3 science cards or and 2 energy tokens) or trade with a port if they have a building built adjacent to one of the port spaces.  The player can also buy things by paying the cost as shown on their player board:

• Roads – must be on an empty path, connected to one of your existing buildings or roads. You may not build thru an opponent’s building.  If you have at least 5 connected roads and have more than anyone else, you take the Longest Trade Route card which is worth 2VPs.  Another player cannot take this until they have more roads than you do.
• Towns – Placed on an empty intersection at least 2 paths away from any other building. Note this increases your LF by 1, and you should adjust the Global Footprint track accordingly.  A town is worth 1 VP and you should mark this immediately.
• Cities – These replace an existing town. They are worth 2 VP and give +2 to your local footprint.  However, as they replace a town, you only gain a net 1VP and +1 to your LF.
• Power plants – you may only build one per turn – attached to one of your buildings, and they must physically sit on a hex with a production number on it.  Towns may have one power plant attached to it, but a city can have up to three.  Depending on the type of power plant built, your LF will change: +1 per brown plant, -1 per green plant.  If you build a green plant, you will reveal a green event tile underneath – add this to the event bag.  Power plants provide energy, and this energy can be used to trade in for resources (2 energy = 1 resource), to remove hazard tokens from the hex/building of your choice, to demolish one of your brown power plants,  and to build your warehouse (that increases your hand limit from 7 to 10 cards).
• Development card – draw the top card from the Development deck. Many of these have special abilities though some simply provide VPs. They are not revealed until you use the action on the card or want to reveal that they score points.  The most prevalent card is the Cleanup card which allows you to move the inspector or remove a hazard token. If you have played at least 3 Cleanup cards and have played more than anyone else, you take the Cleanest Environment scoring card, worth 2VP.

As you build power plants and buildings, you will determine your local environmental footprint (plus and minus icons).  At all times, the current sum of all players’ LF is tracked on the global footprint track on the board.

Again, the game ends immediately on a player’s turn if they have 10VP. That player wins! Alternatively, the game will end when an event tile cannot be drawn from the bag.  In this case, the player with the highest positive difference of green plants built versus brown plants built is the winner; ties in this case broken by the higher VP count.  If no one has built more green plants than brown plants, then everyone loses (just like in real life).

My thoughts on the game

So, this is an interesting addition to the Catan universe.  It is a new take on the game, bringing new ideas into the fold.  It is also a cautionary tale about what could happen if the human race doesn’t pay more attention to its use of the planet’s resources.  Does the game work while trying to both provide entertainment while at the same time trying to teach the participants of a possible dire future?

For the most part, yes, I think it does both.  While I generally like to use boardgames as a way to escape the troubles of the real world; this game presents the realities of environmental change in a way that melds with the game mechanics.  It doesn’t feel preach-y, and I respect that part of C:NE.  The environmental issue are also seen in the components, as there is no plastic shrinkwrap used (just four small stickers), as well as no plastic bags inside – you get fold-up cardboard boxes to use instead.

The game is meant for experienced Catan players, and it even states this on the back of the box.  I agree with this, and I would definitely not use this as an introductory game to the Catan universe – please play generic Vanilla Settlers with the starter setup as printed in the rules for anyone who hasn’t played before.

I will make the assumption that most of the people reading this review are familiar with the base Settlers game, and most of my comments will be in comparison between this version and the original.

C:NE has two extra resources (Science and Energy), and while they both give you extra options and actions, they do not provide VPs, and this can make the game a bit longer.  You generate Science cards from your Cities (which no longer make 2 of their resource, but instead 1 resource + 1 Science); and each Science is essentially worth 1/3 of a resource – though you get the benefit of being able to convert it to any resource instead of it necessarily being one from the hex it is built on.  

Energy gives you lots of options, being worth ½ of a resource or often used to remove hazard tokens.  I also find that the ability to build multiple power plants per city can help people from getting restricted from being boxed in.  While you might get shut out of expanding your network on the hex board, you can at least still build power plants and max out the production numbers that you have access to… and you can convert the excess energy you make into resources of your choice.  

The events are an added level of complexity as well.  First, it adds a bit of time pressure to the game.  You only start with 43 brown event discs in the bag, and with the starting location of the Global Footprint track, you’re drawing 1 event tiles out per turn – which means unless some Green plants are built, there are only ~11 turns per player in the game before the bag is empty!  I would caution you to continually check the group Global Warming count; it’s pretty easy to miss adjusting the scale on the board when someone builds something; and as the game relies on the event tiles as a timer, as you get close to changing levels, I’d definitely have everyone recite their personal LF to ensure that you are drawing the correct number of event tiles from the bag.

 Second, as many of the events are brown, these are mostly negative things which will slow down your progress and again lengthen the game as players have additional things to overcome.  Sure, you have ways to mitigate some of the bad things, but you’ll end up spending the resources that you’ve made in the process.  The game does continually push you to be “greener”.  Some of the events specifically reward the player with the best LF (and/or punish the player with the worst).  And, of course, if the game ends on the timer, the winner is the “greenest” player.

While I’m talking about the events, that brings to mind the one niggle I have with the graphic design – the event system really could have been done slightly better IMHO.  First, the event discs are hard to distinguish from each other, and honestly they blend in pretty well with the images printed on the board… I’d have liked them to be a bit more distinct.  But more importantly, I wish that there were some sort of iconographic reference to the event action on the board itself.  Sure, the events are explained on the back page of the rules, but I still find that players constantly need to refer to the rules to remember what each event does — why not have a reminder on the board itself?  This would make the game flow a bit easier and keep everyone in the loop.

Our early games all ended early with the event bag being emptied.  Once we realized that, strategies have changed to making more green power plants (in order to compete for the win in that case) – though this of course extends the game longer, and brings the 10VP instant victory more into play… 

For me, the game is on the long side, almost to the point that it outstayed its welcome – but I’m the kinda game who expects Vanilla Catan to play in 40ish minutes; so use that as your timing yardstick..  In one sense, it was a really good excuse to get a Catan game back on the table – admittedly, we don’t play any version of Catan much at this point; and the nostalgia of the familiar game system was nice.  It’s a bit longer and more complex than Vanilla Settlers, but that helps set it apart from its predecessors – and honestly, it’s no more complex/long than Starfarers or Cities+Knights.  So it’s just another flavor of Settlers – which will assuredly be right for certain groups/nights, etc.  But, the extra stuff added to the game gives you more things to do (i.e. building power plants, dealing with negative events) that don’t add to your score, and as a result, the game takes a bit longer than the base game. For me, iit feels a bit more frustrating at times – there have been more than a few occasions where all of my cities and towns were blocked – either with hazard markers on the buildings, or nerfed by a hazard on the hex or the environmental inspector.  Our games, though, lose less time in trying to work out trades as people are more self reliant, being able to trade science cards or energy tokens for the resources they really need.

The game itself is pretty easy to pick up if you’re familiar with Catan as there are not that many new things to bolt on to the base game – and as far as I can tell, none of the rules that you’re familiar with from the base are changed.  For times when I’m looking for a bit more in my Catan jam, this is going to be a nice choice, and it has the advantage of being newer than the other complex flavors (and doesn’t have persnickety plastic spaceships that I’m always worried about breaking).  Catan: New Energies gives you a lot to think about – both in the decisions in the gameplay as well as broader thoughts of how humankind’s choices affect the planet we live on.  It’s definitely worth a look, especially if you’re looking for a more complex version of Catan to play.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor