Catan On The Road is an innovative and streamlined variant of the classic Catan, concentrated down to a deck of 120 cards.
Something Old, Something New
There have been a few ways older games have been given a new lease of life.
There’s the reprint/special edition, where the old game is consolidated with their expansions and given a lick of paint to bring it out of the world of beige that was the fashion at the time. This is often very much appreciated (looking at you, Castles of Burgundy - Deluxe Edition) but generally comes at a premium.
Slightly more recent has been the Duel variants, the base game rebuilt to focus on the best two-player experience. This opens the game to this smaller gaming experience, although the sheer number of these released in such a short period has made it hard to stand out.
There seems to be a new method starting to appear, and that’s the “pocket” version. Rather than just chopping up a large game and making a new game out of the fragments, the idea is to concentrate the core gameplay into a much smaller footprint and less components. This is far less prevalent, as it generally requires a complete rewrite of the game mechanics, but it allows streamlining of some mechanisms that may not have aged well. It is a useful variation for people looking for the same game but in a quicker and smaller experience. Wingspan Pocket was a remarkably faithful adaptation of the original, and Catan On The Road is following in its (smaller) footprints.
Small Island, Big Changes
While not exactly a table hog, there is still a fair bit of setup required in Catan. Not so with Catan On The Road.
Shuffle the Building deck and flip over 5 cards from it in a row. Add the small stack of Metropolis cards beside them.
Shuffle the Resource cards and place this with the other cards laid out so far. Do the same with the Events cards.
Place the Longest Road and Largest Army cards within reach of all players.
Starting player is elegantly chosen without any need for a novelty “Person who most recently saw a sheep” shenanigan. There are 4 Starting Settlement cards, one of which is marked as the first player. Shuffle this with enough others for the number of players, and deal one to each player.
Each player finally takes a Starting Road card and draws 2 Resource cards.
All done! The whole game board has been replaced by a row of cards in the middle.
It’s always appreciated when setup is pretty much just a quick shuffle
It’s all in the Cards
While the Resource cards are the same as in the original, the Building and Metropolis cards are immediately recognisable but work differently. The Development cards and the Robber have been replaced by an Event deck.
Road – These now take over the role of ports from Catan. Once per turn when building, you can trade resources of the same type to the mainland at a ratio of 4:1 to help pay for the building. Each new road you build reduces the ratio to 3:1, 2:1, and finally 1:1.
Knight – Each Knight increases the number of cards you can have in hand without needing to discard if a Robber is drawn from the Event deck.
Settlement – Settlements are worth 1 VP and are required as a foundation for building Cities. Each time you build a Settlement, you draw and play an Event card.
City – These must be built on a Settlement. They are worth 2 VPs and cause to you draw an extra Resource card on your turn.
Metropolis - These must be built on a City. They are worth 3 VPs and are double-sided. One side causes you to draw two extra Resource cards on your turn, the other draws just one Resource card but has an extra special ability that varies by card.
The cards are nostalgic while still being very pretty
The Event deck contains a number of immediate effects, including the Robber (although this now just forces you to discard half your cards if you have 7 or more). The Robber being handled this way does a good job of keeping you on your toes regarding hoarding cards.
These cards do a great job of keeping players involved
Let’s Play
Each turn starts with the Harvest phase. Instead of rolling dice, there are two steps to follow.
Firstly, every player draws a Resource card. This is a small change but removes any risk that a user gets nothing, and it really improves overall fairness.
Secondly, the current player draws 1 extra Resource for each City they have, and 1 or 2 more for each Metropolis (the number depends on which side of the card you use and is shown on the card’s face).
Now we move on to the Action phase.
Trading is still a key factor in Catan On The Road, but has been improved in a small but significant way. Once per turn, the current player can make one trade. In Catan this was often difficult to do, as there needed to be a really good reason to help out the other player by giving them what they need. Here, whoever agrees to trade with you also draws a Resource card. The reward for trading makes it much easier to get players involved.
Now we come to building. The current player can build any of the 5 face-up Building cards. Discard the required Resources (costs are the same as in Catan), and place the card in front of you. Immediately flip over another card from the Resource deck to replace it. You can continue to build as many times as you want.
The Longest Road and Largest Army cards work exactly the same as in Catan. Each is worth 2 VPs. The first player to get 2 Knights or 3 Roads takes the relevant card. Anyone that later beats that number takes it from them.
The current player rotates clockwise, and a new turn begins. Play continues until a player reaches 7 VPs and they immediately win. You can only gain VP as the current player so there are no issues with ties or simultaneous wins.
This is how the game can play out
Efficiency over Compromise
Catan is a classic for a very good reason, but sometimes the frayed edges of the gameplay begin to show. A poor starting placement and/or an improbable trend on dice rolls can leave you watching the game skip over you for a frustrating number of turns.
Catan On The Road has taken this opportunity to streamline the gameplay while also fixing some of the unfairness inherent in Catan’s reliance on probability. It also makes a small but significant bonus to agreeing to trade that improves on the trading between players. It takes a bit to get used to only being able to build from the current selection of 5 cards, but it means there is still a reason to hold onto resources and worry about the Robber.
If there’s one downside to this rebuild, the game has had to sacrifice player interaction by removing the shared board. The interaction from trading has been improved, but the only other interaction is the shared Building supply and the occasional Event Card.
That said, this is not as big a downside as I originally expected. The reward for trading, the random Resource cards, and the Building deck restricting what you can build means that trading is useful and often vital. This means there is a lot more of this positive interaction to replace the negative interaction of constantly getting in each other’s way or robbing someone’s best tile.
Sacrificing the game board does allow Catan On The Road to become a much smoother and faster game compared to the original Catan. Average play time is estimated at 15-30 minutes, with very quick turns and every player constantly getting new cards. This compares to the original’s estimate of 60-120 minutes, an unfortunate amount of that time spent doing nothing but waiting for the Robber to be moved or for one of your numbers to turn up.
I wouldn’t say that this is a direct replacement for the original. The shared board is an iconic and integral part of the original Catan’s experience, and this is much more of a trading game now instead of an area control game. That said, the speed, convenience, and nostalgic similarity to the original make Catan On The Road a great alternative when you don’t have the time, the space, or the patience for unlucky dice rolls to play the large box version.
Pros
- Small box and table space
- Quick gameplay with minimal downtime
- Easy rules
- An iconic setting and components
- A much more positive gaming experience compared to the original
Cons
- Little player interaction beyond trading
- Less table presence
- Lower strategy due to random Resources and the small number of Building cards available at any time
Final Score: 80/100
- Artwork 4/5
- Complexity 2/5
- Replayability 4/5
- Interaction 2/5
- Components 2/5
