Starship Catan

About this board game

Starship Catan is a two-player card game with an approximate play time of 60 minutes, set among exploration, trading, colonies, and pirate encounters.

Players explore randomly shuffled decks of cards in search of potential colonies, favorable trading deals, and opportunities to help planets. They must also decide how to deal with pirates, either avoiding them or confronting them in combat.

Upgrading the ship is central to the journey. Players can improve several ship systems, developing new capabilities that help them explore, gather information, or respond to threats.

• Weapons help combat pirates.
• Thrusters allow players to explore farther each turn.
• Scanners reveal cards that are coming up, helping players see and avoid unwanted encounters.

Victory points come from multiple achievements rather than a single path to success. Establishing colonies, building upgraded ship systems, earning the most friendship points, and earning the most hero points can all contribute to a player’s score.

The race ends when one player reaches 10 victory points. With randomly shuffled decks and several ways to improve a ship and earn points, each game presents a fresh challenge for its two participants.

Released in 2001, Starship Catan is part of the Kosmos two-player series and the Catan series. Although it is thematically similar to Starfarers of Catan, it features different gameplay focused on card-driven exploration, ship development, and competing paths to victory.