Another nice touch is the educational information on the animals and edibles at the back of the instruction booklet. The cards even come in a nice cardholder so you can just pick them up right out of the box. Otherwise, the miniatures look great, and it’s nice that the neanderthal and sabertooth (robbers) cover the resource number on the hex. Except for the gold and brown token colors that was a poor design choice because they are easily mistaken for each other. The Neanderthal and Saber Tooth make for a more imposing robber. This mechanic provides a fun take-that feature, and it also forces players out of the starting region, which has an interesting migration feel to it (quite thematic for the source content). Exploration tokens act as the new longest road (whoever has the most gets 1 VP), and they often grant bonuses like moving the robbers or gaining an additional VP.Īnother interesting nuance is that some exploration tokens force you to remove a number from the starting area of the board, which means players with campsites there will no longer collect that resource. Explorers are also used to explore, provided you have the appropriate clothing and campsite level for whatever you’re exploring. It means you can more quickly get to the campsites you want, and it means you won’t be blocking other people. Swapping out the roads for explorers is interesting. Having more control over exactly which development card you get (progress board) is a nice strategic nuance as well. The larger board means more space for everyone, even in a 4-player game. Having 4 resource cards ironically opens up more trading opportunities because everyone wants the same 4 resources, and the resource balancing is really well done (for example, wood and brick are often useless in Catan’s endgame unless you’re trying for longest road that’s not an issue here). Most of these changes enhance the gameplay. The smaller Neanderthals are for tracking your progress along the 4 progress tracks. You can always trade 3 of any resource for 1 of whatever you want (no ports).Much bigger board, and double-sided (1 for 3 players, 1 for 4 players).First to 10 wins, like Catan, but you don’t start with any VPs. When you place a campsite, you pick up the token you placed it on, which serves as a victory point.Most of the numbers on the board are fixed.Moving around the board and settling in many different locations is necessary for number and resource diversity.Each progress track does something different: move the robber, increase your explorers’ movement, increase clothing level, and increase campsite level (the latter 2 are used for gaining exploration tokens). 4 progress tracks replace the development cards.You can move explorers around the map, pick up explorer tokens, and convert your explorers to campsites (settlements). Players begin the game with 3 campsites, which replace settlements (there are no cities).Here are some of the differences between Catan and Dawn of Humankind: It’s Catan, but it’s the beginning of human history, where explorers discover new animals, where saber tooth tigers steal your resources, and where having the most technologically advanced pottery means something. ReviewĪnyone who’s played the original Catan will be able to pick up Dawn of Humankind pretty quickly. However, do we really need another version? The 6th in Catan Studio’s Catan Histories series, Catan: Dawn of Humankind, says we do. Rightly so, for Catan has been the gateway game for tabletop gamers for decades now. Depending on how you count them, there are over 75 official varieties of the Catan board game.
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