Catan: Starfarers Review - Just 90's Nostalgia?

[@Shelfside]

Written review: www.shelfside.co/reviews-2023/catanstarfarers-review

[@CraZ_thank]

You are so much better than a lot of other board game reviewers, thank you so much🙏 and keep up the great videos!!!

[@Shelfside]

Cheers man! So much more on the way :D -Ashton

[@brent272]

I actually enjoyed this one and my 9-year-old daughter loves it. I liked the original Catan well enough but replaced it with this one. : )

[@nashvillan4lif]

Since you were talking about house rules, here's one I came up with regarding space jumps. "When the ship performs the space jump, they may not end up on a spot where they can immediately settle/outpost. It must be a completely open intersection. Also, the space jump is the entire movement for that ship that turn." In the 5-6 player expansion to this game, the Travelers get their own outpost and rule breaking cards.

[@TotallyBoard]

Absolutely love your reviews and production. Y'all are incredible

[@NoeAnton]

Yeah, another video I disagree with. Loving the structure of the content but I seem to disagree with almost every single review on this channel.

[@Quincy_Morris]

The original starfarers was also $100 iirc. Those spaceships add a lot to price even after all this time.

[@NatanelApfel]

I WAS at work and that was so raunchy that ive been fired. Thanks a bunch ;)

[@sun_patrol8610]

This was very helpful mam! Thank you.

[@Shelfside]

No problem! Hope this helped inform you what Catan to get! -Ashton

[@Maravillante]

16:34 There's a ghost in the background D:

[@dougsundseth6904]

I actively dislike base Catan and won't play it without an expansion to prevent (or at least reduce) having your expansion cut off early in the game (which happens in most 4-player games). That's like player elimination, but without being able to wander off and find a better game to play. Starfarers is significantly better for me, though I'd prefer to play the 2-player Starship Catan rather than either. I'd happily play a game of Starfarers if other people wanted to, and I might even recommend it if we're playing at my house. I wouldn't bring it with me because the box is big and I don't like it _that_ much. So probably somewhere in the 6.5 - 7 range for me.

[@vahidmustafazade4783]

No Daniel's score again? -_-

[@KMReviews]

I’d love for you to try Catan in VR to see what you think! Personally I think n it’s awesome

[@Shelfside]

oh that sounds like a really cool experience! I'll have to hit up my friends who have the VR headsets -Ashton

[@Meckload]

I like how 5/10 here is not a barely passing (and horrible) score but average. 4/10 for the game seems justified.

[@Maspital]

I played Catan a TON back in my childhood but man, I'm very content to never play it again. It truly was a pioneer in board gaming, but nowadays I just feel there are so many other games that do what Catan does, but better and without the frustration. Doesn't seem like Starfarers fixes any of these problems (which is not that surprising, given that it's also pretty old, duh)

[@Quincy_Morris]

The free resources help a lot with dice randomness. And the open ended nature of space travel helps a lot with first player advantage in core catan where you can win by just pick the best locations. Plus development cards are also way less random and more of a ‘draft specific cards everyone has access to’ sort of thing. More control is better.

[@arnuxasLTU]

Second

[@Warrior_Whitten]

Yeah, definitely a 4/10 at best

[@Vitinho__95]

One of the best channels about board game. Keep going guys 👏🏻☝🏼

[@EfrainRiveraJunior]

I'm the 0.001% who never played Catan. It's on my To-Do list.

[@lastburning]

Me neither but I'm not planning to either.

[@peterstedman6140]

If you've sampled modern board games (beyond Monopoly and it's ilk) but still haven't played Catan, I see little reason to check it out

[@EfrainRiveraJunior]

@@peterstedman6140 - That's what holds me back. Maybe someday on TTS.

[@francopdx]

I haven't played Catan in several years (5+), but it came up last night while playing Everdell because one of the players hadn't played Catan. She is curious to try it. I think it can be interesting to play classic games both to experience them and to get some perspective on how much games have progressed this century. I still have a copy of Catan, and I don't see myself ever suggesting it as a game to play, but I would play it if someone else was curious to try it.

[@jlam323]

Well said. I too thought many times "why aren't we playing regular catan" because of the low conflict and random resource gathering

[@Quincy_Morris]

Starfarers really feels like a superior version of Catan with the exploration and trade ship cards allowing for more control. Plus the random encounter cards are some of the best designed encounter cards in gaming.

[@earwig1000]

Those original gold ships were soooooooo fragile. I'd never played a copy of the game where they weren't broken. We'd just place the upgrades in piles, but still need the ships for the balls. I rare instance of bad components turning me off of a not bad game

[@PhoenixRiseinFlame]

Yeah the booster clips are some of the most brittle components I’ve ever seen

[@MrGaiakid]

Small correction: the black ball is 20% chance, there is only one black ball and 2 yellow balls

[@st0ox]

I had it since release and I doesn't like it at all, but I enjoyed the first time I played it, but every replay had extremely diminishing returns.

[@seanarmstrong9474]

ill buy it off you

[@DeyaViews]

16:34 thought I saw a ghost in the background for a moment lol

[@Shelfside]

oh jeez, didn't even see that while editing haha -Ashton

[@chasusafa]

I played Settlers twice and I so did not enjoy it.

[@mike9139]

YOU ARE AWESOME! ❤❤❤

[@mike9139]

YOU ARE AWESOME! ❤❤❤

[@thelunatick1993]

Comparison between this and Star Trek version of catan should have been considered. First time hearing of this version.

[@Shelfside]

oh interesting! Yeah I'd have to check that out too! -Ashton

[@thelunatick1993]

@@Shelfside I have only seen this played on “table top” but loved the added character theme it includes. Which is something you had noted the Space version laked. Yet the board is static like the traditional cat an board. Yet using the space pieces. Best watch an episode or two of the original Star Trek tv episodes.

[@leadbones]

That "ore" complaint is 1000% objectively, not a con, and just some weird personal hang-up you have.

[@Shelfside]

It's not gonna be a problem for some groups for sure! The confusion between it being called "ore" and "or" was the tipping point to get it to cons instead of nitpicks -Ashton

[@leadbones]

@Shelfside I mean a lot of games have ore as a resource. Honestly, I would love to see someone place some workers or whatever on a space that directs them to collect or produce some ore in some game, and the table flips as we all lose our minds asking, "OR WHAT!?"