CATAN: Starfarers Review with Sam Healey

[@joethomas1775]

I also like the fact that if you don't have a lot of victory points, you'll get a extra resource or two.

[@thediceodyssey4690]

Dangit Sam, I am with you on Catan kinda losing it's luster over the years, now you got me wanting to play this. Stop it....spending hurts!

[@spaztekwarrior]

I have the original with the 5/6 expansion, the plastic alien figures expansion, and the plastic rings Mayfair sent out to address ship parts snapping. There are a few small rules differences. I keep the extra planet system stickers used for 5/6 players on permanently... and just block them off for 3/4 players. I did have to modify one of them to allow for the board to fold up afterwards. I bought this ages ago, long before my 12 year old twin daughters were born... we just played our first game last weekend. They enjoyed it. :)

[@emmlim7]

Standees are color printed and could bring out the flavor from the art. They could use Skinny Minis.

[@sjdlkadjklafkjldkjfd]

Looking at the board I see significant changes. On the good side: - Stations are now like systems making them easier to get to. - There are more planets so the number of moves to get to each of them is reduced Reducing the number of moves to get to planets and resources should speed things up considerably. One of the downsides of the game was its "2 hour" time to play rating was entirely fictional. On the bad side - No big move/build summary cards. Those were really great. They are now a card - space ships are not quite as cool (But much more durable) - fame rings are now tokens (minor and removes the main thing that broke before so... okay I guess). - Not liking the flip everything over on contact with the first planet. Not liking that it isn't hidden. might be okay but.. ermm.. that is a pretty critical game play rule. Are you SURE you read the rule on this correctly? (Is there an advanced and a basic rule book still or just one rulebook?) Over all it looks like it isn't quite the "quality" product of the original release, but that is one of the things that sank the original release as it was really expensive for the time. The ships were FAR more complex with many different parts and bits for each ship. Manufacturing it even now would be a nightmare. Other changes: - The trade pod freight rule is new. That is a good idea! Makes "Freight Rings" (original term) or freight pods more useful. They were pretty useless before. - The new "roll a 7 and take a resource" thing is new - I don't see a "poverty pile" for you to take resources from while you are under 9 (I believe) VP I am very interested to actually play the game.

[@Archangel-cw7mq]

I was just about to mention the "reveal all three planets" thing just as you have, and yes he does indeed get that rule wrong. He is mixing up two different rules here, once concerning the way planet number tokens are revealed (which is what he is actually doing in the video) and another, separate rule concerning the way **sectors** are revealed (sectors are the three-pronged pieces that consist of the 3-planet systems, the trade stations, and the empty sectors.) The actual rules for these two are such: 1. When moving onto an intersection adjacent to a planet with an un-revealed number token, reveal that token. 2. When moving onto an intersection adjacent to an unrevealed sector, reveal the entire sector. The confusion comes because in the base game rules, using the preset board, **there are no unrevealed sectors.** All of the sectors start face up and all players can see the distribution of where the planets are, the empty sectors, and the trade stations, but not the number tokens. Therefore the base rules only handle how the number tokens are revealed. However, the advanced rules, for once you start shuffling the board and having randomized games where the sectors can be in different configurations, you typically start with these whole sector tiles **upside down** in their slots, and therefore players don't know where the trade stations are, or the empty sectors, or the planets, and thus you have to uncover the whole big cardboard tile first, before you even pass out the upside down tokens for that sector, if it happens to be a planetary sector.

[@MrJenssen]

Now PLEASE do a reprint Starship Catan! And get some expansions going!

[@DJF1984]

Were there any rules changes? I thought it was a decent game but it overstayed its welcome. Any rules make the game quicker? Any more encounter cards than the first? Cuz that was lacking as well.

[@nashvillan4lif]

Minor changes. 1. When seven is rolled, all other players draw one card from random deck. 2. Setup! There are a variety of ways the board can be initially set up! I could explain them all, but it's more fun to see for yourself. 3. Initial setup. In a traditional snake like pattern, all players starting with the start player begin placing their colony bases (not spaceports... yet!). Once the last player has placed their third colony base, they then choose first which base they wish to upgrade to a spaceport first. They also get first pick of a free expansion to their ship. 4. Ships are no longer numbered. The player now gets to pick which ships move first, which get damaged, space jump, etc. 5. The balls inside the mothership can now be customized. For example, little Timmy wants to play, but hates losing. You can handicap his ship by placing an extra red ball inside his ship before game starts to give him an advantage.

[@wolflarson71]

Hated the original one with the big caveat that I played with 6 players that dragged over 3 hours.

[@literallyamelon9776]

wolflarson71 6 players is the problem there haha. Pro games with 4 players don’t take nearly that long, but for some reason when I play with my family they have the need to overthink EVERYTHING.

[@carymgc]

Please help. Im trying to get in touch with a catan tournament official on the phone so i will get an answer on 2 really hard catan rules where in my family each one caused an argument. I want a catan official please or possibly the guy in this video if he is an expert. One situation was in catan knights and cities 6 player and the other situation was in catan starfarers 6 player (Wild Space variation where all planets abd aliens are flipped over and unknown.) Who can i talk to please on the phone?

[@alcovitch]

LMAO you must be joking

[@carymgc]

SUPER URGENT! HELP MEEE!!!

[@nomascontrol]

Just going to put this here so people cant say first.

[@Vascariz]

Yet you still said "first"... Also FIRST REPLY!

[@Vadjong]

seconded!

[@nonpatriot8863]

turded

[@seanmasterson1448]

Furted

[@andrewscholl6428]

Love the shirt/band!! Er..now to watch the review lol.

[@nickhayes1626]

Thanks for the review, Sam. Just got my copy in the mail and I can’t wait to get it to the table!

[@dr.masque2903]

Digging the Theocracy shirt, Sam.

[@tjmcmanamey]

Theocracy rules!

[@charlesrowan1978]

I'm impressed Sam GMT "Tank Duel" when will you review?

[@chrismusix5669]

Nostalgia of Catan.

[@sluggo562]

As much as a long overdo reprint excites me I don't think I need this and Eclipse and Twilight Imperium. I'm more of a horror game fan anyway.

[@acpudman]

I am not a fan of Catan. But this game was awesome, things that I hated about Catan, this game took it out and then it added a few neat things in the game. I will only play regular Catan again if I have more then 4 players that want to play Catan...(expansion). But not without a fight to play other games first.

[@marfin4325]

So Catan has a solid (albeit too simple) mechanic throughout the game, but does a game like this improve upon Catan or muddy it? I know Catan had some earlier space games, so is this suppose to be more like a offshoot game?

[@aliasisudonomo]

It is, it always felt more like a sort of even-more-micro version of Eclipse or a similar space 4x game. I don't know what changes this edition has but I have a treasured copy I picked up used for surprisingly cheap many years ago, and it handily beats Catan proper. It only shares the basic resource/use resource to make things mechanic, really, but the nature of the premade starting positions means you don't have the "game is won right after setup, it just takes two hours to get there" problem.

[@MichaelJones-ti9fx]

Happy to hear that the new version was done well.

[@MichaelJones-ti9fx]

I’ve already purchased the old version from eBay. Glad others can enjoy it now.