Catan is one of the greatest tabletop games of all time. I’m not going to beat around the bush on that statement, as it is true as climate change (don’t argue – we don’t have a comment section – lol). Anyway, the original game has gone through various iterations. There have been sea expansions, two-player versions, and gigantic-expensive-still-cool editions. It has grown and survived the test of time. It’s here for the long haul.
Now, I’m a huge fan of the original game. And the Xbox 360 online game. And the PlayStation 3 online game. And the two-player game – you know what? I just really do enjoy the experience. Gathering material, unleashing thieves/pirates, and absolutely decimating other players make for such a priceless tabletop time. When people speak of the viciousness of Monopoly, I know they have never experienced a vicious game of Catan.
Anyway, when the opportunity arrived for us to review Catan: Dawn of Humankind there wasn’t a single brain cell in my nogging that was going to say no. Knowing that there was something new and possibly exciting (and different) in the Catan world was something I couldn’t pass up. Now, I knew that the creators of the original game couldn’t have strayed too far from the original blueprint. Why would you want to take a chance to ruin that perfection? Sometimes you need to take chances. This time, instead of aristocratic explorers that have knightly, sometimes evil intentions, Catan: Dawn of Humankind is all about the early earth, early explorers, and exploring and building. Oh, it also has a heavy amount of complication to the process.
Let’s get right into it.
Clear your mind, relax
You will need to do just that to survive the initial setup and understanding of how Catan: Dawn of Humankind works. It’s not like its parent, where you can just flop down numbers on lands, lay down roads and starter settlements, and just go. Nope, not this one. The initial gameplay setup of this game requires you to pay attention to what is going on, as there are far more variables to juggle this time out.
The first move you’ll make in Catan: Dawn of Humankind is laying out the board. This includes a massive game board that will take a good medium-sized table to comfortably enjoy. On one side of the board, it is a three-player game. On the other side, it’s a four-player game. You are tipped off by which is which through adorable polar bears chilling in the upper corner. The number of bears corresponds with the number of players. Once the board is laid down, you start laying down the numbers, the corner pieces represented by animals (find their shaped clouds), small ports at the end of the board with numbers and symbols on them, and fruit symbols and such laid out on specific points. Oh, you have a giant neanderthal and giant cat as your thieves – of your lives. All of this before the cards get handed out and the game is explained to its fullest. There is a lot going on here and to be honest, it was overwhelming during our first initial match, but it does smooth out.
The numbers you lay out are the tokens you’re used to seeing from the original game. Some of the tokens are actual tokens you put on the board, while others are built into the board so that you don’t have to move them around. Their function, as I’m sure some of you have guessed, relates to the die-cast and corresponds with the elements they are laying upon. If you have a settlement on the hexagon of one of those numbers rolled, then you get the element that represents the symbol you’re on. This time around, you have bones, hides, meat, and stone. Each element combines to help you move characters across the board (yes, you must pay for that to happen – it’s weird at first, but it works), purchase new explorers (that are finite), convert explorers to settlements, and to help you level up learned traits (hunting, construction, clothing, and food). There are a lot of purposes for the elements and the tokens, as expected, and they work directly with the gameplay design on how you acquire them. Rolling the right dice combo means you are either successful or falling behind. Not necessarily ever dead in the water. Staying on that, this game feels a bit more balanced and controlled than the original. By the first or third round of the original, you could pretty much guess who was going to be the top dog. With Catan: Dawn of Humankind that isn’t so clear, even when you get into the 5-10 round range. All of that could be credited to how you collect and use those elements you acquire from rolling the dice. It’s complicated, yet it makes sense.
Now, going back to those traits, you must level up your early humans to perfect survival traits. The four categories again are food, construction, hunting, and clothing. Each one of the traits can be upgraded through elemental cards you collect. There are four levels of traits, each one requiring more and more cards as you go up. By the time you get to level three on a trait, you get something in return from round to round. For example, my son leveled up one of the traits to three and was able to move the neanderthal (what you know as a thief or pirate) back and forth instantly on the board. This meant that he could make my life unhappy throughout the rest of the game should he have chosen to do so. Yes, he chose to do so. He is a vicious player, but a nice kid.
Outside of gathering cards and leveling up traits, the movement of the game is unique and interesting when compared to what Catan players might be used to seeing. Paying for movements was an interesting twist. I guess it existed in the original game through purchasing roads and adding structures, but this version involves moving explorers 1-3 spaces at a time for a cost. Those explorers can go through structures and points that aren’t theirs and make it to the coast of wherever they are exploring to turn over small animal tabs that allow them to do several things. Before we discuss that aspect of the game, please do note that you can build settlements for a cost when your explorers go, well, exploring. The same type of rules and such. That makes this part of the game familiar, which makes it comfortable in the sea of new Catan aspects.
Anyway, before you can take advantage of these small animal tabs, you must meet a few requirements. Each port/coast location with animal tabs on them costs a certain trait level to acquire and flip over said tabs. In Africa, these port/coast locations cost one level of building and clothing. If I didn’t have those, I could land on that spot, but I couldn’t acquire the animal tab on it. The tabs are fun and important because they will give you points (usually) and also allow you to take the numbered tokens from your favorite villager’s element spots. That’s a vicious move because once that number is gone, it’s no longer in the game and that player can no longer gather that material. It’s brutal, hurtful, and at the same time delightful. It’s a good addition to the Catan family set of moves. I hope they keep that aspect in future games.
Getting back to explorers, once you get to a spot where you want to set up a settlement, and do so by paying the price asked, you now have created a new spawn point for your explorers. Any settlement in the game allows you to spawn explorers adjacent to it. This is essentially a nice little warp zone that doesn’t require a long trip to make. It’s a good strategic part of the game and it allows you to stretch your grasp on the board at a quicker pace. You’ll need that because the board is so darn huge. You do have a finite number of explorers, so do this wisely.
Other elements of this game are small in scale, but nonetheless important, much like the original Catan. You will occasionally happen upon small fruit/food tabs on the hexagons as you explore. If you land on enough of them and build settlements on them, then you acquire them. If you acquire a majority of them, you get points. This is akin to the biggest army or longest road cards. It’s a side quest, but can be an important one depending on how the game is going.
How is the game going?
As you can tell by my rambling, Catan: Dawn of Humankind is a complicated upgrade from the original. You have more strategic points to juggle and more to think about, especially when you’re trying to figure out your opponent. The strategy with this edition is far thicker than the original. There are a variety of ways to screw people over, which makes this game far more vicious than the first. With so much to think about and so many different ways you can strategize when you’re playing, Catan: Dawn of Humankind is a welcomed upgrade to the typical Catan blueprint. It’s going to take you some extra time to dig in and get used to the process, but it’s worth the journey.
Overall, this experience is worth the toughness required to get into its details. You can tell that the makers of Catan wanted to take the usual structure in a different direction and they accomplished it. Does it work? I think so. I think the steep learning curve might catch people off guard, but the payoff at the end is worth it.
