Catan Geographies (Mayfair Games, 2008)
With the release of Catan: Geographies (Germany), Klaus Teuber and Mayfair Games prove once again that you can’t have enough of a good thing. At last count, there were over 70 iterations of the basic game – Settlers of Catan – released in 1995. This number includes separate games (Seafarers of Catan, Starfarers of Catan, et al) and a proverbial boatload of expansions/add-ons. The durability of the franchise seems secure. It’s well on its way to becoming a classic and has been voted into GAMES Magazine’s Hall of Fame. It has a ways to go before it can match the gazillion variations on the Monopoly theme and I hope I never live to see the day when Betty Boop of Catan makes it to store shelves.
If you’re unfamiliar with the game and interested in what the hullabaloo is really all about, start with Catan: Geographies (Germany). I have no idea whether the colon and parenthesis are utilized correctly here. I just know that all three words are on the box cover. I presume that it leaves the door open for Catan: Geographies (USA) and any number of other releases focused on a particular country. The name, Catan, according to an interview I had with Teuber and his son, Guido, on the 10th anniversary of the original game’s release, is totally fictitious. No such place exists.
“We had this game that involved settlement and development and ‘Settlers’ alone just didn’t ring right,” recalled Guido. “The name ‘Catan’ was just made up. It sounded exotic. Simple.”
“The inspiration was Iceland,” he added. “The Vikings who settled there had a relatively peaceful society, but we wanted to move (the game’s actual environment) a little to the south.”
Catan: Geographies (Germany) is a good place to start your journey into the world(s) of Catan because while it retains the essential flavor of the original, it adds geographic specificity, one new, though integrated mechanism (landmarks) and entails a serious component upgrade. The original was designed with tiny wooden pieces representing roads, villages and cities. This latest incarnation is rendered in colored plastic with buildings that look like buildings, roads that look like roads and a ‘thief’ (allowing you to steal an opponents’ resource) who looks like a Buddha, but is actually Gotz von Berlichingen, a 15th/16th century German knight and mercenary, made famous by Goethe in a play that bears his name. 
That’s another thing about this version. While you’re participating in the game, you’re learning German geography and history by osmosis. There’s a 20-page almanac included with the game, that in addition to apologizing for some ‘tweaking of the landscape’ which altered the actual position of a few of the cities on the game’s board, offers a map of the actual locations and a short history of each of the represented cities, including its current population. They’ve also specified individuals in the Victory Point cards, like Albrecht Durer, a German Renaissance artist and mathematician. Heads up to educators here. It’s a great learning tool, not only for its historic and geographic design, but for its game mechanics, as well, which can teach lessons about planning and utilization of resources. And it has dice, which makes it something of a natural for kids raised on their use.
The components are durable, the board and its golden landmarks are visually appealing. The resource cards, instead of just being placed on the table, as they were in the original, come with their own display tray that keeps everything neat and orderly. It's a worthy addition to the Catan legacy and as noted, a good place to start if you're considering it as a game purchase. I'm hoping that they cross the Atlantic for their next Geographies release and provide us with an equally interesting display of cities and their related histories for those of us here in the US.
For more info: www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38749
www.mayfairgames.com
www.mayfairgames.com
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