Customer Reviews

Starship Catan

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My son and I really enjoyed playing Starfarers of Catan and were excited to find this 2-player version of the game. The game itself is similar to Starfarers and is not too long to play (around an hour). The rules are fairly easy to pick up, although we were glad to have the sample game to play through the first time. We were at a bit of a loss as to what to do with the Trade Goods, since we always seemed to have too many of them and decided to resurrect a rule from the original Starfarers game that allows players to trade in 2 Trade Goods for 1 of any other resource. Starfarers is still the better game but if you only have 2 players, Starship is a good substitute.

This is a lot of fun for two players. Generally most games I've found require at least 3-5 players, and have stripped-down, not-quite-as-fun rules for two players. This game is designed well for two players. There is no combat between the players, only cooperative and competitive play. The individual boards and various pieces make it quite easy to keep track of the various resources in the game. The game has a tutorial that seems confusing at first, but quickly gets you up to speed on how to play the game.

A word of warning: The game says it's around 1-2 hours, but I honestly think that unless you're extremely competitive to get the victory points, the game will take much longer than that. That would be my only complaint: you need seriously competitive players to make the game go by quicker.

Overall, a fun and involved game. I can see my wife and I playing this game a lot.

This game is a great two player adaptation of a Catan style game. Way better than the card game. Comes with a really easy start-up guide. Can't say enough about it.

Starship Catan has some of the features of all the Catans- resources, upgrades, trading, but it is very different from the other Catan games. The game board and sequence are interesting and unlike the other Catans and the absolute need to buy resources cheap and sell them high is unique among Catan games. Unfortunately, it is easy to run out of things to build and very slow to get victory points. The game says it takes 60 minutes, but the three times we played it were each easily two hours. I'm not sure how I would fix it, but if you are looking for a two player Catan game I recommend the Settlers of Catan Card Game and it's terrific expansion set or the two player directions included with the Traders and Barbarians Expansion of the Classic Catan game.

It takes awhile to set up the game itself, much like all the other Catan games, but this one is pretty neat looking, visually. We've only played it twice so far. I have a 5 month old, so all the little pieces were very noticible to me. It helps to pick up the boosters and lasers straight up, instead of at an angle like a puzzle piece. It seems to be fun! We'll keep playing to really get the rules down. I was thinking this was the other space game from Catan, but it works because this one is only for two players. (They apparently aren't manufacturing the other game currently.)

We are big fans of Settlers, Cities and Knights, and getting into Traders and Barbarians. It's usually just 2 of us playing (2 players each), so we were excited about Starship Catan. But it has so many little pieces and ways to arrange the cards, the setup is kind of a drag. And the premise is not as intuitive or compelling as Settlers. We've only played it twice in the several months we've owned it.
I think on the scale of strategic board games for two, it might rate pretty high. But I'd rather manage 2 players at Settlers than deal with this game.

Game is very well designed. The first time out it was a little long but it has a quick start game so that you can learn the rules as you play the first game. That made for a better night than just reading the rule book for 30 minutes. Setup for each game takes some time, but it is worth it.