Rating: 8.5/10
I played the Game of Thrones (GoT) Catan this week with a group of seven people. Since Catan is typically an up-to-four player game, we opted to pair up with Kyle as the odd man out (odd numbered groups can be tough sometimes ð ). The set-up process for Catan was long and kind of intimidating, especially given that we were all pretty new to the game. There were so many components laying on the board and reading through the instruction pamphlet ate through a good chunk of our time.
The Game of Thrones Catan follows the same basic rules as Catan. For instance, the game was arranged in the infamous hexagonal board and the objective of the game is to earn ten victory points, which is obtained through building settlements, gaining control of key areas of the board, and completing objectives. The main key differences between Game of Thrones Catan and the original version are the addition of a wall and Wildlings, which spawns as the game progresses. We were also able to play as characters in the Game of Thrones franchise, which gave us additional perks that proved to be useful especially when the wildlings attacked. While I am not too familiar with Game of Thrones, the added wildlings gave a sense of urgency in the game that I think the original Catan lacks late game.
Catan has a âmagic circleâ effect it has on its players. As Thrum describes it, we were invited to interact with it and channel your inner diplomat and bargainers. I really saw this applied to our game. We built allyships with other teams especially when our shared resources were being challenged or when the Wildlings were approaching, and we needed to guard the walls. We would shout out our trade offers and get excited over landing on high yielding rolls (shout out to the number nine). Forming these relationships and trading around really helped break the ice in our group which was really nice because most of us had just formally met.
Another aspect that really sold GoT Catan for me was something that was also discussed in this weekâs reading: Catan is what you make of it. There is enough to Catan so that you could zone in on your strategies. As you see from our board, we were all working on different goals. Ngoc and I prioritized building the longest road and establishing settlements while the red team focused heavily on guards. The choose your own adventure nature of Catan topped with how surprisingly easy it is to pick up the game makes the game addicting.
While I thoroughly enjoyed the game, I thought that ten victory points felt kind of unreachable in a reasonable play time. Our group ended up playing for nearly two hours. Instead of winning the traditional way, we relied on Wildling breaches to end the game. I also felt that the map was a little too congested. Ngoc and I expanded through the middle, and we had to cut off a few of our neighbors from resources along the way and it was noticeably difficult for them to recover.
To conclude, I really enjoyed playing GoT Catan and would recommend to others. I could definitely see myself playing this game casually on a weekend! Although be warned… if you choose to play, be prepared to sometimes settle for second place.
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Thurm, Eric. Avidly Reads Board Games. NYU Press, 2019. pp. 1-26 https://mechanicsofmagic.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/AvidlyReadsBoardgames_1-MagicCircle-Catan.pdf
Really good breakdown! I enjoy the rating as well… future game critic?
i really like the idea behind how theming games can change the base mechanics of the game and the feel of the game itself. I think when we talk about Catan and how the game’s time develops, it’s known for being a rather long game. So to add even a smaller mechanic like the Wildlings can alleviate some of the slowness in the game and add a certain element of pressure that affords to increase the player’s cooperation during the game and create a larger sense of fellowship and challenge. Strategy games are really about playing the long game, but I’ve been personally curious whether there is a way to condense the player feedback loop to its minimum viable elements to speed the game along.