A Game of Thrones CATAN

A fun game for the novice and strategist alike.A Game of Thrones (GOT) Catan has taken all of the elements of the beloved Settelers of Catan and added an interesting twist that Game of Thrones fans will appreciate.Ease of Play:Whether you are new to Catan, or consider yourself a veteran gamer, you will be satisfied with this games ease of play. While GOT Catan maintains many similar elements to that of regular Catan, it introduces new concepts like the Wall of the North, and the Wildlings which add new elements of strategy to the game.While maintaining the customization that players loved with regular Catan this game still maintains an easy set up and assembly phase. With helpful pictures and diagrams in the rulebook, setup takes about 5 minutes.Very easy to follow rulebook with helpful hints and visual depictions.Expect your adventure to take approximately sixty minutes as your strategies play out, the Wildings advance, and you all work together to survive.Added Elements:GOT Catan ably adds a new dimension to the traditional Settlers of Catan games. Some of the new items include:- Character cards from the Game of Thrones series with unique abilities add additional options to play.- Wildlings which prove to be a devastating force that can end the game for all players if they do not work collectively to a certain degree to maintain defenses on the wall.- Wall piece that separates the board into the player half and Wilding half.- Unique three and four player setups.Construction:GOT Catan keeps the versatility of regular Catan without having dozens of tiles and board pieces. You can play a customized game every time without spending 20 minutes feeling like you are setting up a puzzle.GOT Catan pieces are also made of a durable plastic and come in a variety of colors to help players differentiate between teams and the wildlings.Artistically crafted cards depict your favorite Game of Thrones Characters.Conclusion:Although this game may lack some of the scenario versatility that regular Catan and its expansions have to offer, it does a great job of creating a different game experience every time you play. With so many ways to win or lose, you will have a lot of fun strategizing how to defend the north, hold back the Wildlings, and become the Defender of Catan.

The new game play is a really fun twist on classic Catan. It has some similarities to Cities and Knights, but in my opinion Game of Thrones is a better, faster game. It requires zero knowledge of the books or the show to play, but fans of the franchise will have a little better understanding of the context behind the gameplay. There a few little tweaks I'd like to see in future iterations, but overall it's an awesome game. It's definitely replaced regular Catan in our house.Pros: The new board and pieces look amazing (you can use the board to play regular Catan too, which I love). Also, the full-size resource and development cards are a huge improvement over the smaller cards of regular Catan. The addition of character cards also adds a fun new angle, and there are many more strategies to win as a result.Things to tweak: There's a typo on the cards each player uses to organize pieces (it says "Keep" twice, in two places, where one should say "Guard"). Not a dealbreaker, I hope they issue replacements or something. I also hope they add more character cards or change the rules around a few of them. We've played more than a dozen games, and several characters are just too low-value to ever use / some are a little too powerful and get snatched up a little too quickly. Also, the blue and the black pieces are just a little too close; it would help if the blue was lighter or some other color altogether. Last, if the Wall were clear plastic instead of grey, it would help all players be able to see the Wildlings adding up on the other side. None of these are major issues, though--just things that I hope get improved over time.Final verdict: SO MUCH FUN! A must-have for any fan of Catan.

We play Catan often. It's kind of our family thing. We have regular Catan, the expansion pack, and Seafarers. We even have a gorgeous handcrafted set made by Thinking Monk. Yes, we are serious players. It gets pretty fierce, bringing out the sibling rivalries and old family vendettas. So, adding the GoT version seemed natural since we are like the Starks and Targaryens anyway. GoT Catan is absolutely worth it and a great addition to our stack of Catan boxes. It is not a retread with new graphics. It is a whole new game.While you are collecting resource cards and development cards, wheeling & dealing to build your roads and settlements, and racking up those victory points, you now need to add guards to the wall and keep the wildlings out. This is a collective effort that you need to undertake to protect the Gift from wildlings. You have help from hero cards as well as development cards. If the wildlings make it over the Wall, they will block your resources. Too many wildlings over the Wall will end the game and your settlements will be worth nothing - the guards will save (and rule) the day. These additions add cooperation to the game and give you more ways to win. You still have hidden victory points on development cards and the longest road to add to your tally, but now guards are another way to rack up those VPs and claim your rightful title as Lord Commander of the Watch.If you enjoy Catan, you'll likely have fun with this more complicated version. If you are new to Catan, play the regular game first. A few of the hero cards seemed a bit difficult to understand so we referred to the instruction booklet often. We still have a question about one card and need to do a bit of online research about that and another rule. We watched a few YouTube videos on setup and game play before embarking on our journey to build and defend. Yes, it's an investment of time. But, next time we play, we'll be ready to go. Those wildings won't know what hit 'em. Now, who has some ore they can trade me for a sheep?