Catan 5th Edition Board Game (Highly Ranked for a Reason?)

This box is heavy and full of pieces, though easy to open and of high quality. Inside there are several high quality cardboard pieces that have to be removed from frames in order to set up and play, there are two die, a book of rules and two stacks of playing cards.

The premise behind this game is Catan as an island. Your goal is to use the resources available to build and settle on Catan until you are the most settled and developed person on the board. You do this by settling strategically on the hex’s of the island and earing resources like bricks, ore, grain or lumber. These resources can then be used or traded to build roads or settlement buildings.

The book of instructions is several pages long so it isn’t the type of game you open and get right to playing. There are many numbered tokens, cards to reflect resources and player guide cards that specify how much everything costs. All the hex’s that produce resources fit securely inside a frame you have to put together for each game play.

I like the high quality of all the game pieces and how well made everything is.

I find that the extensive list of rules, regulations…etc is somewhat intimidating and makes learning this game difficult.

The more complex nature of this game means it is better for older players 8 and up.

I think the Catan 5th Edition game can be fun because it a more complex, involved game play. But this is also the same reason it is difficult to learn to play. There are rules for beginners, rules for advance players and different setups for both. There is just a lot going on and it makes this game somewhat intimidating to learn.

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