When Catan Feels Familiar, Go Back to the Stone Age

Spend enough time around board games and you will come across The Settlers of Catan. Since 1995, it has been both a starting point and a reference for other games: dice, resources, trade and the small politics of the table. After playing enough of it, you start asking a question.

“Is there something like Catan that plays a little differently?”

The Settlers of the Stone Age has one answer. It borrows Catan’s structure and goes much farther back in time. Instead of competing on an island, you spread across a map of the world. Everyone begins in Africa, the starting point of the game’s account of human migration.

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Board-Game Night, Week Two

Since February 28, board-game night had been settling into a Thursday routine. Three of us were there for the second meeting: me, a friend preparing for a job in games and a younger student from our department we called the “genius girl.” Warhammer had suited two players the week before. This time we needed something for three that would not take the whole evening to learn.

We went back to Dive Dice in Daehangno and put The Settlers of the Stone Age on the table. The Catan connection made the rules easier to explain, while the differences were clear enough to make us curious.

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Out of Africa and Across the Map

Much of the framework is familiar. You roll for resources, then spend them to move, build and upgrade. What changes is the balance between settling down and moving on. Rather than competing over a single island, you send explorers ahead and build camps as they reach new areas.

Everyone starts in Africa. Which way you go from there is your decision. Head to Europe, turn towards Asia, or press on to another continent. Your route is part of the strategy. Where you go first changes the points, resources and options you find later.

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The Choices That Accumulate

Catan puts a great deal of weight on the dice and the people you trade with. Here, upgrades and earlier decisions shape more of the endgame. Which technology you develop first can change how the rest of your game unfolds.

At our table, the early board looked as though it had already told us who would win. I was blue and had expanded the least. I put my resources into upgrades, aiming for ways to pick up points late in the game.

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Eight All, with Three Players Still in It

Midway through, the game settled into an uneasy balance. The student we called the “genius girl” pulled ahead first. The two of us found ways to slow her down, and at one point the score stood at 8:8:8. For a while, nobody could get clear of the others.

That was where the game came alive. The last few turns were a calculation. If I did this now, could somebody else finish on their next turn? Was it worth moving one more space, or should I settle here? The result came down to a single turn, and I was the one who got there first. The upgrades that had helped me ride out a slow start finally paid off.

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Something Different for a Catan Table

The Settlers of the Stone Age has a place of its own. A wider map, more movement and choices that build on each other make it feel different to anyone who has spent time with Catan. Luck still plays a part, but you can trace the result back to more of the decisions you made along the way.

It was a good game for our second meeting: enough to think about, without weighing down the evening. At some point someone said, “Oh, this really is different from Catan.” Whatever comes to the table next week, I think I will remember this game.

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Game Information

The Settlers of the Stone Age

Players

3–4

Playing time

About 60–90 minutes

Genre

Strategy / Resource management / Expansion and settlement

What to expect

A Catan-style system, a world map and an emphasis on upgrades