Players: 3-4
Playing Time: 60-90 minutes
Synopsis of the Components
If you're already familiar with The Settlers of Catan, the main changes in this new edition are in the components. This Catan comes with: plastic settlements, roads, and cities; half-size development and resource cards; cardboard cards that show building costs and a few victory point awards; and a variable jigsaw gameboard that's made up of six pieces.
Quality: The quality of the components is typical to good for an American family release. The plastic bits are all hard, undetailed plastic, while the board and cards are all gloss finish. The cardboard is all very thick and sturdy, rising above the average quality level for the game. The cards on the other hand are a bit on the thin side. 3.5 out of 5.
Beauty: Some of the beauty of The Settlers of Catan has been sacrificed to produce a version of the game that's extremely easy to use. Thus the hexes on the board and the resources that they produce are all almost entirely monotone. The development cards include some attractive art. 3.5 out of 5.
Usability: The Settlers of Catan has always been a game that's very easy to play, and the Family Edition just improves on that. As noted, the resources and hexes are all pretty monotone — which makes it very easy to see what's what. That goes hand in hand with the typical "building cost" cards you find in Catan, which show you what can be used to build what. Finally, there's been some effort made to make the development cards even easier to use by color-coding the three main sorts of cards (knights, victory points, and special powers). The result is terrific. My only complaint is that the ports on the board are a bit hard to read. 5 out of 5.
Theming: Catan has always been pretty light on theming with its abstract roads, settlements, and cities, but you do get somewhat of a feel for agrarian resources and civilizations. 3.5 out of 5.
I should take a moment to really explain how the board works here. You get six jigsaw pieces, which together form a hexagonal island. Some of the pieces are strips of land and some are clumps. The way that the pieces are jigsawed, you always interweave strips and clumps, which keeps the island circular. The tiles are also double-sided, with the hexes arranged slightly differently on either side, which adds a bit more variety. The result is a lot easier to set up than the original Settlers, which required you to lay every individual hex out. It also allows for less total variety, since the jigsaw pieces keep individual types of terrain from grouping too much. You may see that as good or bad, depending on your preferences in the game. However, there's no doubt that the result is simpler without giving up too much.
Overall, the Catan Family Edition makes some sacrifices in its quality and beauty, but the result is still at least what you'd expect when picking up typical family game. It then improves on that with an even easier to play game and a nice price point at $30, which seems like exactly what's desired for the family market. I've given the Style overall a "4" out of "5".
Very Brief Summary of Gameplay
For a very extensive explanation of the gameplay of Catan, I invite you to read my review of the original game (as the gameplay is identical here).
What follows is the tightly summarized "family edition" of that explanation:
Basically, your goal in Catan is to build settlements and cities and to collect development cards. All of these can give you victory points; when you have enough, you win.
You build things in Catan by combining together resources. For example, a settlements requires a brick, a wood, a stone, and a sheep, while a road (which helps you get to the next place to build a city or a settlement) requires just a brick and a wood.
You get those resources that you need from a production dice roll that occurs at the start of each player's turn. It reveals which hexes on the board produce their resources, then players with adjacent cities and settlements get to take those resources from the pool.
You don't just depend on your own resources to build, however. You can also trade with other players or else turn in sets to get individual resources that you need.
On a typical turn, you roll for production, then trade resources, then build.
First person to build enough good stuff wins.
Relationships to Other Games
Catan Family Edition is exactly the same game as The Settlers of Catan. The components are generally cheaper and simpler. The board is also a little smaller. The only major mechanical difference from the original game is how the board is put together.
Do note that the original Settlers of Catan has many supplements. Most or all of those won't work with the Family Edition because of the different board size. I suspect the reasoning was that families won't usually look for supplements — and that's probably a fair assumption.
The Game Design
Again, I'll point you to my Settlers review for my extended thoughts on the game's design. Generally, Catan is a good game because: it helps keep people involved through trade, it has interesting gameplay, and it supports multiple paths to victory.
When talking about the game design of the Family edition, I think it's more relevant to talk about how well the game supports the family demographic.
My best guess is that it'll do well. A lot of work has been put into simplifying the components (with the strongly color-matched resources and the easier-to-construct gameboard), and I think that'll go a long ways to making it a viable pastime for American families. Beyond that, the game has always been simple to play, with its small number of choices about what to build and where. I think it'll work well as a next step up from Monopoly or something similar.
With a strong game design that seems well suited to the Family demographic, I've given this version of Catan a "4" out of "5" for Substance.
Conclusion
Catan Family Edition probably isn't the game that you'll buy for your own play with other game-players. However, it might be the game that you buy for your family or friends who aren't as serious of gamers. And, I think it works quite well for that category of potential players. At its heart, Catan is a pretty simple game, and some good effort has been put into the components of this version to make it even simpler to lay out and play.
