Catan, once known as Settlers of Catan, hasn’t been around as long as classic games like Monopoly, but feels almost as ubiquitous. Decades after its release, it’s still a mainstay of board game cafes and family tables.
You can play it endlessly, but maybe you’ve got a solid board game group and have already learned each other’s strategies inside and out. Maybe it’s time for a change. If that’s how you feel, but you still want the strategy and politics of Catan, here are some suggestions on where to go.
Ticket to Ride
It’s possible to view Ticket to Ride as Catan in a much shorter timeframe. Actually, there are plenty more differences beyond that. For one thing, Ticket to Ride doesn’t really have any direct competition or interaction. You won’t be making trades like you do in Catan. Instead, you build train routes and simply attempt to outdo the competition.
Ticket to Ride is also much, much simpler. It’s been described as a gateway game, which, if you’ve already played Catan, you may not need. However, if you’re trying to get some friends into playing board games, then this might be a great way to convince them to try something more complicated.
The Castles of Burgundy
Castles of Burgundy is visibly evocative of Catan with its hexagonal tiles. Its gameplay is also focused around building settlements, which makes it appear like it, in some ways, used Catan as a springboard. However, it has a much different feel and flow.
As an important note, there’s less need for player interaction than Catan. Each person has their own board, and a lot of the strategy comes from how they fill it. Some have said, however, that Castles of Burgundy feels more complex with less reliance on luck and charisma. It’s a great choice if you want the same sort of experience with a distinct approach.
Risk
Hear me out. Risk is a classic game that has been around since boards became a thing. There’s also very little building in Risk, as it’s all about a global war. However, if you stop focusing on the differences, you’ll find a lot of the facets of the experience to be similar.
Risk is about managing your resources. You may amass your armies in one place for an attack while trying to guard another from another player. You might find yourself shifting your armies to full-on defense so you can build up your forces for a more even approach.
More importantly, however, is that Risk’s most overlooked and uncelebrated feature is its diplomacy. While there aren’t many hard rules about it, much of your success will be how you can manipulate other players. Forge alliances, hand over countries, threaten into complacency; It’s not just about where you stick your armies, but also in how you shake them.
Concordia
I’ve actually heard Concordia referred to as a Catan-killer, while also hearing that it’s too complex. It shares the same settlement and resource planning that makes Catan so beloved, but on top of that, it adds a bit more personality with, er, personality cards which help affect your role. There are also Roman Gods to score points from.
It takes a bit longer to learn and play than Catan, but if you’re ready to move on to something more complex, Concordia might be the right place for you.
Suburbia
Suburbia almost feels like a distant sequel to Catan. You create a settlement, but this one exists in the modern world. You and other players try to build up the economic power of the eponymous suburban area. Over time, your income, population, and reputation increases, allowing you to build up more impressive contributors to your economy.
There also a decent amount of player interaction as you try to form beneficial agreements with others. Even though it may sound sort of complex, it actually isn’t, perhaps even being slightly simpler than Catan while featuring a bit more strategy.
Terra Mystica
Another step up in complexity, Terra Mystica is a game to move onto if you find that Catan just isn’t as intellectually stimulating as it once was. It’s board-based with lots of player cards. However, this is all in service of making the game more about strategy and less about luck.
Terra Mystica isn’t card-based, and there are no dice. It’s for 2-5 players, and it can take upwards of 2 hours to complete. Don’t be intimidated, however. While it’s certainly more complicated than Catan, neither is it the most difficult game out there to learn.
Carcassonne
If you’re looking for something similar to Catan that is a bit more laid-back, Carcassonne might be where you want to land. Like Catan, it’s a tile placing game, but it’s more focused on building than resource management. It also utilizes the ubiquitous meeples, so that’s always a plus in my books.
While it’s shorter and the rules are seemingly less complex than Catan, it arguably offers a bit more strategy as you constantly consider whether your resources are best used to try and boost your end score or frustrate another player.
Lords of Waterdeep
Based on Dungeons and Dragons, I tend to describe Lords of Waterdeep as putting you in the shoes of a quest giver. You pick a character from a selection with strengths and weaknesses, and then it’s a matter of acquiring power and allocating your resources. The goal is to hire adventurers, use them to gain treasures and rewards, and construct new infrastructure to better facilitate recruitment and support your units.
Being more board-based, Lords of Waterdeep is a pretty big divergence from the Catan formula. There isn’t nearly as much player engagement as you’re more focused on your own enterprises. However, it features the same satisfaction of building an empire.
Viticulture
I’m a teetotaller, but I can appreciate a game like Viticulture, which is all about winemaking. It’s a bit closer to Lords of Waterdeep than Catan, with most of your focus being on unit placement. You deal with the changing seasons and constantly tweak your strategy to ensure that you’re working at maximum efficiency.
It’s also a game about building your empire as you work to fulfill as many orders as possible. You’re constantly kept on your toes to modify your strategy, which makes Viticulture very replayable.
Terraforming Mars
Moving the settlement far, far away, Terraforming Mars has you doing what it says on the box: terraforming Mars. You take the reins of a corporation tasked with turning the red planet into one that can support human life.
Like Catan, Terraforming Mars is a tile-placing game where you compete with other players to maximize your efficiency. Truly, Terraforming Mars is more about resource management than tile placement, but if you wanted a game that was exactly like Catan, you’d probably just play Catan.
Published: Jul 16, 2024 09:00 am