Starfarers of Catan

by MayFair Games

Product Features

• Compete for the prestigious post of Ambassador to the Galactic Council.
• Players must leave Terra and the known planets to explore and colonize the galaxy, while working to establish trade with alien cultures, encounter aliens and defeat pirate
• Playing Time: 2 hours
• Players: 3-4
• Ages: 12+

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 11.5 x 4.5 inches ; 4.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005NCIA
• Item model number: 4098903
• Manufacturer recommended age: 12 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,479 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Compete for the prestigious post of Ambassador to the Galactic Council. To attain this lofty position, players must leave Terra and the known planets to explore and colonize the galaxy, while working to establish trade with alien cultures, encounter aliens and defeat pirates. Victory to the brave and astute explorer who luck smiles upon.

Product Description

The foray into space, sometime near the year 2700 A.D. Compete for the prestigious post of Ambassador to the Galactic Council. To attain this lofty position, players must leave Terra and the known planets to explore and colonize the galaxy, while working to establish trade with alien cultures, encounter aliens and defeat pirates. Glory and victory go to the brave and astute explorer who luck smiles upon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Settlers of Catan Meets Flash Gordon, January 28, 2004

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Starfarers of Catan (Toy)

I have loved Settlers of Catan since I first played it. I was thrilled when I first saw Starfarers (I loved the retro Flash Gordon look).

Unlike the other Settler games, this one actually uses plastic and not wood for many of the pieces/parts. My friends can be quite rowdy late at night but in the years I have had the game, no piece has ever broken.

Play is a little different than in other sets. Its sort of like Seafarers with lots of little islands. Development cards are there (although there are some new resources) and they have been joined by encounter cards where you deal with alien races, traders and pirates. Play lasts a little longer than the original but is comparable to Cities & Knights.

The board is beautiful and rather large (no small contained hex this time). Players ability to move and fight are modified by upgrades to their central ship/die roller/neat thing. There is currently an expansion set for adding up to two more players which I just picked up (so I don't know how it affects play yet).

All in all, this is a really fun addition to the Settlers world of games (I have eight of them so far). If you liked the original and wanted a bit more of a challenge, this is a great addition to your game closet.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! But with flaws..., February 19, 2005

By 

Skye Khamashta (Los Gatos, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Starfarers of Catan (Toy)

Our family of four, parents plus 10yr old girl and 12yr old boy had a blast with this game. Lucky for us we were able to spend a couple of hours to figure out how this game works before we actually played a "real" game where the winner meant something. Our major complaint was one of the plastic motherships broke upon our first application of the booster pieces. The motherships are too brittle and I suggest a different design because it set a negative note until we remedied the problem by placing a rubber band around the mother ship and applying the boosters under the rubber band so we wouldn't break any more ships. With that resolved, the game was enjoyed by all.

Also, we found it better for all the players to set up the colonies and spaceports before the numbers (resource chips) were turned over. Fairer all around. The rules and instructions were well written and we found ourselves always referring to them to get the best rules possible. My son thinks that 15 victory points should be higher because after about 3 hours of game, you still didn't hit the farthest corners of space so maybe it should last longer. Geez - if that doesn't speak enough about how much fun it was, I don't know what else would.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complicated and Involved, December 2, 2002

By 

Christopher Bennage (Tallahassee, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:2.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Starfarers of Catan (Toy)

I bought this game because I liked Settlers of Catan and I'm a sci-fi fan. However, this game is not much like Settlers.
The game might be compared to a combination of Risk and Monopoly. It takes about three hours to play and longer if you are teaching a beginner. There are a lot of small pieces to break or lose. Also, you really need three, and not more than four, people to play a game.
All that aside, we really enjoy the game and I would highly recommend it for teenagers to adults.