Settlers of Catan 15th Anniversary Edition

by The Beast!

(Boardgame Beast HQ)

Settlers of Catan 15th Anniversary Edition
Board game manufacturer:
Mayfair Games
Number of players:
3-5
Ages:
11yrs+
Time:
75 mins

Quick verdict

The multi-award winning game Settlers of Catan, which is considered by many as one of the best in recent history, celebrates its success with this 15th Anniversary Edition. What makes this edition special is everything but the cards is made of wood (or at least, laminate). Now you can have the ultimate Settlers experience in building up civilizations using the specially-made wood-effect pieces.

The game and gameplay

Game set-up takes a little longer than usual but it is well worth it. The cities, roads and settlements are awesome to play with. The tiles bear beautiful artwork and one thing worth pointing out is they are wide enough to support the Cities & Knights expansion. All the wooden pieces are very solid unlike the cardboard pieces found in the standard edition set. It would have been really perfect if the card holders are sealed to keep the cards from falling over and also made of wood.

The game plays the same but the experience is enhanced. The variety of game board set-up makes the gameplay different every time you play, making for something new to figure out right from the beginning.

A lot of strategy is involved in trading, acquisition and use of resources. Before the very start, a player has to come up with a strategy on how he wants to go about becoming victorious in the game. Doing so will go a long way in determining success.

Catan 10th Anniversary
Treasure Chest Set

There are only five resources to collect yet there are a lot of possibilities on how to play the game.

Pros and cons

Settlers of Catan is a huge phenomenon, with more than 12m copies sold. It’s this successful for a good reason. It’s a fantastic board game.

The level of player interaction is very high, which can range from civil to downright hostile. While the game is primarily competitive in nature, cooperation with opponents is sometimes needed in order to succeed. There’s an exercise of luck with collecting the resources which can be frustrating sometimes but that’s part of the game.

If there’s one drawback about this game, it’s that you can’t just unwrap it on game night and jump right in so easily. A player’s first game is much like a learning experience and it would take a few plays in order to fully understand the ins and outs of the game.

See more Settlers of Catan games

The Verdict

A brilliant concept with excellent components, this limited edition game is definitely one to add to anyone’s board game collection.

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