Family fun with Catan

As you know we love to play board games, we have a huge selection of board games that keeps growing. We bought the boys lots of games for Christmas and we spent some of the time during the holidays playing. One of our favourite games is Catan, it's a classic and a good family game that even LP, at 8 years old, can play.




About Catan



Picture yourself in the era of discoveries: after a long voyage of great deprivation, your ships have finally reached the coast of an uncharted island. Its name shall be Catan!

But you re not the only discoverer. Other fearless seafarers have also landed on the shores of Catan: the race to settle the island has begun!

The men and women of your expedition build the settlements using the land's natural resources. Some are available in abundance, other resources are scarce. Ore for wool, brick for lumber, you must barter and trade according to the needs of your evolving cities. 

Proceed strategically! If you build your settlements in the right places and skilfully trade your resources, then the odds will be in your favour... But your opponents are smart too!

Will you succeed in gaining supremacy on Catan?


The board game Catan sits in the middle of the frame with 3 cards either side of it. The cards each have a different picture; wood, hay,  rock, sheep, brick, and a "monopoly" card. There's a pink background.



After setting up the game to your specifications you get to choose where to place your first settlement. Take time to decide because this decision could determine whether you win or lose the game! 

Once everyone has placed their first settlements, and a road, you get to place one more. After that the game begins. 




Playing the game


At the start of the game, after placing your first 2 settlements, you are given the resources (cards) that you placed your settlements on to get you started. Your aim is to build as many settlements or cities as you can, each settlement gets you 1 point. The first person to get 10 points wins the game. 





We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time.

Vince Lambardi





The numbers on the board determine what number is required to earn a resource, if the dice is rolled and that number comes up and you have a settlement that covers that number then you earn a resource of that kind. It sounds complicated but it is very easy once you get started.



Setting up the board game Catan. The board pieces have been put together on a wooden table, each resource board piece has an oval number card on it.



The resource cards are what you use to be able to build new settlements, roads, and cities, but you can only collect these cards when your number comes up on the dice. This is where your decision at the start of the game comes in, because if you chose to place your settlement near a rare number it is less likely you'll get the right resources and so won't be able to build your settlements. 



Small houses have been put onto the Catan board, they are in colours, red, blue, white, and orange. There's a grey figure in the centre of the board, this is the "robber".





Do you know what my favourite part of the game is? The opportunity to play.

Mike Singletary





We each have a different coloured settlement; Hubby is blue, BP is red, LP is orange, and I am white.




This game is all about the tactics, where you place your settlements, and how to stop your opponents from building their settlements.







What we thought


Catan is one of our favourite games. The game rules are simple (once you've read and played through) and the game is easy to play. LP likes this game because despite his age he can still win this one, it's all about the right resources coming up and if you choose right you can win. 



The Hubby won by miles!



I'd say it takes roughly 30 minutes to an hour to play - depending on the resources coming up of course! Sometimes you can have a short game, other times it can take a while for someone to win. 

We had lots of fun trading resources, sending the robber to pinch resources from other players, and building our own settlements. 

I'd definitely recommend Catan.

You can buy Catan for £44.99.


We were sent the board game Catan for purpose of review. All opinions are my own.


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