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Review of Catan Histories: Rise of the Inkas
Blurb from the publisher: 'Settle the Andes!
Your settlements and cities are spreading across the South American Highlands. Your markets have become centers for luxury goods such as fish, coca and ornamental feathers.
Your ever-expanding road network and development of combat arts have lead your tribe to new levels of success.
Time takes its toll. Early buildings become overgrown with thickets and vines. They are now prime settlement targets for competing tribes. Can you develop fast enough to resettle them before they fall into your opponent's hands?
Unique game rules capture the story of one of history's most exciting and turbulent struggles.
Explore the rise, fall and rebirth of South America's first empires!
This is a stand-alone game for Catan fans and beginners alike.'
What you get: Your USD 65,00 or equivalent will buy you Catan Histories: Rise of the Inkas, an autonomous game based on the Catan gaming engine set in South America just before the rise of the Inkas. The game can accommodate 3 to 4 players in just over 90 minutes.
In addition to the 8-page English A4-sized rulebook and the 24-page A5-sized Almanac that can be found on the publisher's website free of charge, the game also contains the following: 29 Terrain hexes (4 Forests, 4 Pastures, 4 Farmlands, 3 Quarries, 3 Mountains, 3 Jungles, 3 Jungle Plantations, 3 Fishing Grounds, 2 Oceans), 68 player pieces (per player: 2 Cities, 8 Settlements, 7 Roads), 16 Thicket Pieces, one Robber, 8 Frame parts (4 Jungle, 4 Ocean), 4 Trading and Building Tiles, 4 Culture Boards, 44 Culture markers, one Longest Trade Route, one Mightiest Combat Arts, 27 Number tokens, 136 Resource/Good cards (20 Wood, 20 Wool, 20 Potato, 20 Stone, 20 Ore, 12 Feather, 12 Coca, 12 Fish) 20 Development cards divided into two decks (2 Monopoly, 2 Road Building, 2 Invention, 14 Combat Arts), 2 dice and 3 card trays.
In the interest of full disclosure, and even though this is an autonomous game and a relatively new one at that (it was published in 2018), I have been playing Catan (then called Settlers of Catan) since 1999, along with all its expansions. I have also participated in competitive events years back, achieving top-3 placements at my best. This is not your average playtest.
Gameplay: Forget the island of Catan. You are now transported to western South America (either Peru or Chile fit) and incarnate the pre-Inkan civilizations who dotted the landscape. The game is played on an 29-tile map, only 19 of those however behave like those of vanilla Catan. The map is now elongated, and out of the 29 tiles 27 produce something. Those producing tiles are distinguished by a number from 2 to 12. The tile will produce its resource or good when the number comes up on the two six-sided dice. Like in standard Catan there are five resources even though they are named differently (wood, stone, wool, potato, ore) Nine out of the 27 tiles produce goods (feathers, coca, and fish). The goods are held in one's hand and can be stolen as if they were resources.
Each player starts with two settlements on the map connected to a road each. Each player also gets a number of cards, depending on the tiles one of his starting settlements touches upon. The board can be set up according to the overview's instruction for the most fair of placements, while more advanced players may also try the semi-random placement (the tiles are set up randomly, but the numbers follow a certain pattern).
A turn is comprised of two phases. First comes the resource production. The active player rolls the dice. Each tile on the board that shows the number that came up will produce its materials, irrespective of whether they are resources or goods. Every player touching on that tile with a settlement or a city will benefit, not just the active player. Settlements produce one material each while cities produce two. Number 7 does not exist on the map, thus nothing gets produced when it is rolled. The Robber is moved around instead, allowing the active player to steal a resource from a player bordering the new resource (not goods) tile that the Robber is placed on, as well as blocking the production of that tile as long as the Robber stays there. If at that point a player holds eight or more resources, he discards half of them to the supply.
The second phase is the Trade/Build phase. This phase takes its cue from the 5-6 player extensions and not from the standard game, where one can mix trading and building as he wishes. The active player may trade what he already owns with the other players; the other players may not trade amongst themselves. Anything goes when it comes to the deal itself; this is a game based on supply and demand. Goods cannot purchase anything on the board, they can however be exchanged with the supply for resources at a rate of 2 to 1 if the goods are identical or 3 to 2 if they are all different. The supply also exchanges resources at a 3 to 1 ratio; unlike Catan there are not ports in this game. A player may build within the confines of the resources he holds. He can build roads (wood and brick) to expand his territory, in order to later build settlements (wood, stone, potato, wool) which have to be at least two places away from other settlements. He can also upgrade a settlement to a city (3 ore, 2 potato), in order to increase his raw material production when the right result comes up. Finally, he can also purchase a Development card which may not be used on the turn it was purchased. These one-off events are broken into two identical decks. Players get access to the second deck only after all players have at least 4 victory points. The development deck is smaller than those of standard Catan, and includes only the Monopoly, Road Building, Invention, and Combat Arts cards (the Knight, for those familiar with the basic game).
Sounds like standard Catan, right?
Wrong.
Rise of the Inkas is effectively three mini Catan games in one. The game is played to 11 points, it is not however linear like standard Catan. Each player vies to complete the game's three eras first. The first two eras are worth 4 points, while the last one is worth three. The Longest Trade Route and the Mightiest Combat Arts provide in-game bonuses which are slightly different to those of standard Catan, they do not however provide victory points; these can only be obtained through building settlements (1 point per) and cities (2 points per). As soon as a player reaches 4 points (meaning he has either three settlements and a city, or four settlements on the board, with an additional limit of one city per era), all his settlements and cities are overgrown with thickets, his roads instantly disappear, and he gets to place a new roadless settlement elsewhere, literally anywhere, on the board. His old settlements and city will continue to produce for him, but nothing can expand out of them; they can't be upgraded, and they can't start new roads. Even worse, their sites can be reclaimed by the same player or another, i.e. a player can reach that settlement or city with his own roads and build over them. When this happens the old settlement or city disappears, and a new settlement in the new player's colour ís placed above it. The same happens when the player reaches 8 points, the only difference being that his thicket-covered settlements from the first era which were still not reclaimed disappear entirely from the map.
You didn't expect that, did you?
The strong points: Catan / Catan: 5-6 Player Extension + History of the World = LFE. The best part is that this is not a Frankenstein-like mélange; it is a thoughtful, insightful design that addresses many of Catan's misgivings. It is also a bold design, that is not afraid to depart from the original game, as opposed to inserting a minor alteration here and there like Star Trek Catan did. The game remains ridiculously easy to learn and teach even with the new era concept that players should understand well if they want to have a chance in winning. Catan is broken down into three smaller games. You don't need to win any of the two first ones, yet you'd better win the third; that is the one that determines the victor.
Timing and placement are ultimately important. In other Catan games nobody would bat an eyelid before placing a settlement or a city if he could. In Rise of the Inkas it matters enormously which settlement or city that is. If it is the one that will end you the era, you'd better be prepared to start claiming new land immediately if you want to gain an upper hand. It is not unusual to see players holding their build until they also have an extra road or two to build on the turn immediately after building their era-ending settlement or city. If you are wondering why, that's because real estate is even more expensive in Rise of the Inkas than it was in standard Catan. That hateful city that your opponent used round after round to produce no matter what, can now be replaced by your own settlement (and maybe a city later on), if only you are fast enough. Woah! That is by far the most aggressive Catan ever designed. It did not become a take-that game, yet its lack of permanence leads to a profoundly different tone and a certain hostility in player interaction. Needless to say, this is a strong plus.
I applaud many of the rule changes. They take into account the fact that games are tighter than before and that players are cannibalizing resources in order to build the same settlements and cities again and again. The elimination of ports was an obvious move seeing how small the map is and how settlement elimination works. What wasn't obvious was their substitution by an improved exchange with the supply, along with the creation of the three trade goods. Even though you can't build with them, in reality they are as good as either 0,50 or 0,66 of a resource each if you play them right. I enjoyed how they take space in your hand, on the other hand however there is mitigation for that. Each Combat Arts (see: Knight) card you play increases your hand limit by one. The robber is not only moved via the cards, but also via holding the Mightiest Combat Arts achievement, even though in that latter case the robber can only return to the jungle, and the player gets the resource of the tile the robber left from the supply. The Longest Trade Route is also different to standard Catan. It needs less segments to gain (3 as opposed to 5, and that is rather logical in a game where you can only have seven roads and which will suddenly disappear!), and allows for a single 1 on 1 trade with the supply, irrespective of whether it relates to resources or goods. That's a blatantly clever design, and an overall useful achievement to fight for. It is also a fleeting achievement. You have it, end of era, your roads disappear, oh, you don't have it any longer. Brilliant!
All these alterations in Catan's basic mechanics lead to an exciting, cut-throat game with levels of adrenaline far higher than standard Catan. The game still depends a lot on the roll of the dice, yet it is not a random exercise. Depending on the circumstances inter-player trade might be more free or severely restricted, especially when someone nears the end of his era. One would have expected poorer games, seeing how settlements and cities are bound to disappear, yet in reality they are not. Your thicket-covered settlements still produce for you, and if you are any clever you will not try to substitute them with your own ones... or will you? In Rise of the Inkas that's one of the most serious questions to answer. If you don't, you might enjoy an increased output of resources and goods until they get substituted by your opponents. That can be particularly painful if their locations were high-wielding ones. If you do, you will keep these locations (if you liked them in the first place), at the cost of not increasing your production. One minus one plus one equals one, and that's exactly what happens when you substitute a settlement. It's even worse when you substitute your city with your settlement, and let me not talk about somebody else doing that to you.
Catan Studio includes resealable plastic bags in order to keep your game in top shape and not ruin it by losing a component. So far, so good. Yet would it have been that hard to include one extra bag for all the components to be safely stored?
The weak points: The overgrown settlements/cities rule has a rather weird side effect: once the first and second era pass these cities act as markers. One can only built on those actual spots, not in-between them. I am not certain how I feel about this after only a few games, yet it doesn't sit right. It fits thematically (populations are likely to rebuild where other populations lived before), on the other hand however it doesn't go well with the concept of 3-short-Catan-games-in-1. Maybe I am too demanding.
I am nowhere near happy with the game's production values. Catan is an enormous franchise belonging to one of the two behemoths of our hobby. One expects nothing but the best quality. What we get here however is the rather flimsy cardstock one would usually sees in new publications from uncertain publishers who have no clue whether their game will sell or not. For other games it would have been passable. For a Catan title it is unacceptable.
I am not very happy with the way the rules are written in the rulebook and the almanac. They felt more convoluted than in previous Catan games, even though they are ultimately clear. I am not sure why that is, yet it felt weird. Rules-writing for Catan should be a walk in the park, seeing how many Catan games have been published up to now and how much engineering experience is behind the game.
Those who love wooden pieces might be put off by the plastic pieces in this box. Even though they are not identical to the plastic pieces of the current German edition, their design similarities are obvious. I am not a fan of them, I admit. They cheapen the game, and they are off-putting in more than one ways.
Remember how in Star Trek Catan the plastic tray was not fit for purpose? Well, it isn't here either, at least not if one loves the game enough to sleeve the cards. The publisher couldn't be arsed to make each slot 2 millimeters wider, so that we can enjoy our game for ever. Even the most clueless of publishers take care of this stuff nowadays, yet this is the second time this happens with a main Catan Studio product. Fantastic job. Not.
The game's cards have the same size as the ones in standard Catan. That is not a bad thing in itself, I admit however that I expected a lot better after the much heftier cards in A Game of Thrones Catan: Brotherhood of the Watch.
I seriously doubt that Rise of the Inkas will ever be expanded to accommodate 5 or 6 players. I am not a curmudgeon; were it to happen it would have happened already, just like it did with its Game of Thrones counterpart. On the one hand the design is too tight to expand the number of players on it. From the first moment this feels like a dedicated three to four player affair that will get seriously unbalanced if more players sit around. If the designers pull it off, I will be admittedly surprised.
Is this price even remotely serious? Star Trek Catan costs less than this, and it is a licensed product from one of the most expensive IPs in human history. Under no circumstances can I recommend buying Rise of the Inkas at its MSRP, knowing that in all likelihood it will never be supported by any other Catan product.
Conclusion: I am very positively surprised and happy with the new mechanics behind Catan Histories: Rise of the Inkas. The linearity and permanency of Catan is thrown out of the window for what is probably the most distinct version of Catan ever devised. On the other hand I am very negatively surprised by the mediocre components (plastic pieces, flimsyish cardboard) and the high price tag that accompany this edition. As long as you don't overpay I strongly recommend it, and especially to fans of standard Catan, History of the World, Vinci, or Small World.
For more info on Catan Histories: Rise of the Inkas visit Catan Studio at https://www.catanstudio.com.
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