This is probably the one expansion that Catan didn’t need and yet – it’s happening. Catan: Soccer Fever is coming to the game in what is sensational if somewhat frowned upon instalment in the series. The expansion will be suitable for players aged 10+ who play in 75 minutes and apparently require the same number of players – 3-4 people kicking a ball and trying to score into each other’s net. Well, kind of.
Catan Goes Wild with a Soccer Expansion
The objective of the game with the new expansion will be pretty straightforward. Players will compete in a series of soccer matches and try to score. Expect not much finesse though, because the beautiful game has had to be adapted to the Catan ingenuine but somewhat ill-fitting design.
In fact, Catan’s newest expansion seeks to add a bit of a dexterity element to the game whereby players will be flicking a spherical multi-sided token. If you end up landing the token on the goal side, well – you have scored! The game ends with the player “scoring” the most goals winning – talk about randomness!
Catan: Soccer Fever will be played in a league style with players competing in the format over a series of games. Players will need to keep track of who has scored and how many points so that a winner can be determined at the end. The new expansion is a drastic break away from the base game’s theme and purpose of play.
In Settlers of Catan – now only referred to as Catan, people compete to colonize land, secure their military and economic dominance, and ultimately score the most points. They use development cards to advance work on their structures and generally build a prospering settlement that sprawls.
Forget Colonization, It’s All About Penalty Shots
To move the gameplay forward, players roll a pair of dice and activate sectors that have the resources on them and then pour those resources into settlements, cities and roads, plus buy the coveted development cards that open up more goodies. Trade is also a viable option if a player ends up securing too many resources of one type but lacks another.
Well, all of this is now replaced by the tokens which will be a-flicking across the new board game design. The new expansion was co-designed with Klaus Teuber, though, who is the original creator of the game, so there is some reason for optimism – maybe.