Settlers of Catan Rebranded for Fifth Edition

The popular Settlers of Catan board game has been rebranded and repackaged for its fifth edition. Nevertheless, controlling the board is still as addictive as it ever was.

Polygon has revealed the makeover The Settlers of Catan has gotten for its fifth edition, including its new name. The game has officially been rebranded, with its named shorted to simply Catan. As you would expect, some new rules have been implemented in order to help facilitate new players' transitions into Catan. In Catan, you must farm, build and trade for the sake of controlling as many colonies throughout the island of Catan as you can. Buildings cost resources (ore, grain, wool, lumber, brick). You've got to explore, developer and expand your stake in the land as your opponents try to do the same thing. Obviously, this will lend to trading, resource and border disputes.

The fifth edition now has new art for its boxes and game pieces, all done by the same artist. All those expansion sets that have visibly different card designs from the core set (and meant to intertwine with the original game) now blend in to one another, which helps eliminate distractions. The Catan box itself is now a portrait-format box, which should look much better once everything is all together.

"The material used in the [new] tiles is the same as the fourth edition, printed after July 2013," Robert T. Carty, Jr., vice president of sales and marketing for Mayfair Games said. "The tile size and cut all remain the same as the fourth edition, and wood components remain the same colors and come from the same supplier."