Wouter & Ymke 
In Catan: New Energies, the well-known island of Catan has stepped into the modern world. The days of early settlers and simple farming are long behind. Now, Catan is a developed society, and with that progress come new challenges. Alongside traditional resources like wood and brick, there’s a growing need for something else: energy.
You take on the role of a community leader, working to grow your towns and cities while balancing development with environmental impact. Fossil fuels offer a cheap and powerful boost, but they come with pollution. Renewable energy is cleaner, but more expensive to set up. Every choice you make influences the island’s direction, and by the end of the game, it becomes clear how those choices have shaped the future.
👥 3-4 players, ages 12+
⌛ Playing time: 90 minutes
📝 Designers: Klaus Teuber & Benjamin Teuber
🎨 Artwork: Ian O’Toole
🏢 Publisher: 999 Games (Dutch version, review copy provided)
Gameplay Overview
The goal in Catan: New Energies is to reach 10 victory points during your turn. If no one gets there before the event disc bag runs out, the winner is the player who has built more renewable power plants than fossil ones and has the best difference between the two. If no one qualifies, the island fails and everyone loses.
Each turn follows four phases.
It starts with the event phase. Players draw discs from a bag to see what happens. These might bring floods, pollution, or other environmental shifts. But not all are bad. Some reward players with low environmental footprints or strong investments in renewables. At the start of the game, the bag is full of harmful brown discs. As players build renewable power plants, they add green discs from their player boards to the bag, slowly changing the balance of events.
Next is the production phase. Dice are rolled, and hexes with matching numbers produce resources: lumber, brick, food, fibre, and steel. Towns on those hexes produce one resource, while cities produce one resource and one science card. Power plants attached to those settlements also generate energy, as long as there is no hazard or other block. Hazards placed by earlier events stop production, but they can be removed over time. A roll of seven triggers the environmental inspector, who blocks production and steals a card from a player on the chosen hex.
Then comes the action phase, where players make the big decisions. You can trade with other players or the supply, and use your resources and energy to build roads, towns, cities, and power plants. Towns and cities earn points and increase your income, but they also raise your environmental footprint. Fossil fuel power plants are cheap and easy to build, but add to the footprint. Renewable power plants cost more, but reduce it, and building one lets you add a green disc to the event bag. You can spend energy to trade, remove hazards, or even demolish fossil fuel plants to clean up your act. Only one power plant can be built per turn unless an event allows an extra.
The turn ends with the usual pass of the dice and the bag to the next player. The game continues this way until someone hits 10 points or the bag runs out. If it is the latter, only players with more renewable plants than fossil ones are even eligible to win. The one with the biggest difference between them takes the victory. And if nobody meets the minimum, then the whole island loses together.
From 1995 to Today
When The Settlers of Catan came out in 1995, it marked a pretty big shift in the board game world. Klaus Teuber’s design brought together trading, modular boards, and resource management in a way that just worked. It helped shape what we now think of as Eurogames and introduced a lot of people to modern board gaming for the first time. Since then, it’s sold over 40 million copies, been translated into more languages than most of us speak, and branched off into all sorts of directions. You’ve got Seafarers, Cities & Knights, Starfarers, Catan: Junior, and even Game of Thrones Catan, if you really want drama with your sheep.
With Catan: New Energies, the island we know is pulled into the 21st century. You’re still collecting resources and expanding your settlements, but now energy plays a central role. And not just in terms of gameplay, but in the decisions you make along the way. It’s about how you power your cities, and whether those choices end up helping or hurting the island as a whole.
This version was designed by Klaus Teuber and his son Benjamin, and published by Catan Studio together with KOSMOS. The version we played was the Dutch release by 999 Games. It plays with three or four players, is recommended from age twelve and up, and takes roughly 90 minutes once everyone knows what they’re doing. At its core, it’s still recognisably Catan, but with a few new elements that make it feel like a natural next step rather than a full reboot.
It’s also worth mentioning that this was one of the last projects Klaus Teuber worked on before he passed away in 2023. That gives it a certain emotional weight for longtime fans. But even if you’ve never played the original, it still stands on its own.
Updated Look and Feel
Visually, this edition keeps the spirit of Catan intact, but there’s a noticeable refresh. The modular terrain tiles still form the familiar island setup, but the art is sharper and more grounded. It’s cleaner, a bit more modern, and easier on the eyes.
The new resource cards are well designed. Each one is distinct and easy to spot across the table. Steel and fibre have replaced ore and wheat, which fits the more industrial vibe of this version. Science cards are a new addition and they look like something sketched out during a late-night brainstorming session. Diagrams, lightbulbs, that sort of thing. It suits the tone without feeling out of place.
Every player has their own board where they track their energy mix and environmental footprint. One side is full of smokestacks and industrial buildings. The other side is green fields and windmills. Your board changes visually depending on what you build, which actually adds something to the experience. It’s not just aesthetic. It reinforces what’s happening in the game.
The wooden pieces are typical Catan quality, so nothing to complain about there. You’ve got new tokens for energy, hazard markers, and separate wooden power plants for fossil and renewable sources. The settlements and cities have different shapes compared to the original game, but they still feel familiar. The inspector is a small grey figure who doesn’t look like much, but you quickly learn to keep an eye on where he’s standing.
Storage is handled well. Player components fit into colourful boxes, which makes setup and cleanup easier, especially if you play often.
Rulebook and Accessibility
For a game that introduces a few new systems, the rulebook does a good job keeping things understandable. It starts with a simplified first-game setup, which is helpful if you’re playing with people who are new to Catan or just haven’t played in a while.
The rules are laid out step by step, and there are enough examples and diagrams to make sure nothing feels too vague. Even when it comes to the more abstract mechanics, like the difference between your local and global footprint, the explanations are clear and the tone stays approachable.
You still need to pay attention, of course. There are more things to track than in the original game. But it doesn’t feel overwhelming, and after a round or two, most players will get the hang of it. You’re not stuck flipping back through the rulebook every five minutes, which is always a good sign.
Familiar Flow, New Challenges
The structure of the game is still the same. You roll the dice, gather resources, trade, and build. That is part of what made Catan so accessible in the first place. But New Energies introduces enough new elements to change how you think about your turns.
Now, you’re not just building for the sake of points. You also have to consider how your choices affect the island over time. Fossil fuel plants are cheap and give you quick access to energy, but they raise your pollution level and add more negative events into the mix. Renewable plants are slower to build but help clean things up and make positive events more likely.
The event disc bag plays a big role here. Depending on the global footprint, you draw a number of discs at the start of each turn. Some of them trigger floods, pollution, or climate-related rewards. Others give bonuses for keeping your footprint low or investing in clean energy. What ends up in that bag depends entirely on what players build, which means you’re constantly shaping the risk and reward as a group.
Then there’s the game-ending twist. If the event disc bag runs out before someone reaches ten points, only players who invested in renewable energy can win. And if no one qualifies, the island fails and everyone loses. That’s not something you see often in competitive games, and it changes the way you approach strategy.
Strategic Choices with Real Weight
One of the best things about this version is how it makes each decision feel more connected. In the original game, the focus is mostly on short-term efficiency. Here, you’re still trying to win, but you’re also trying not to tip the island into disaster.
There are moments where you’ll ask yourself if it’s worth building another fossil plant just to stay ahead. Or if it’s better to hold back and invest in a more sustainable option that might pay off later. These aren’t always easy decisions, and that’s what makes it interesting.
There’s also a kind of passive interaction going on. You’re not attacking each other directly, but if one player keeps polluting, it affects everyone. Suddenly, you care about what others are doing, not just because you want to win, but because their choices might derail the game for the whole table. That creates a tension that feels different from the usual Catan experience.
More Than Just a Race to 10
You can still win by reaching ten points the traditional way, but that’s no longer the only path. If the bag runs out, the old rush-for-points strategy won’t be enough unless you’ve kept your energy mix in check. That balancing act between efficiency and responsibility actually works better than you’d expect. The theme isn’t just painted on. It’s baked into the rules, and it shows in how you play.
Science cards might not be the flashiest part of the game, but they offer useful flexibility. And the global footprint system ensures that you’re never fully playing in a bubble. What you do matters. What others do matters too.
It all adds up to a version of Catan that feels more reflective and less predictable.
Final Thoughts
So where does that leave us?
Catan: New Energies is a thoughtful update that gives you decisions that matter more than in the original. It doesn’t reinvent the game, and to be honest, it doesn’t need to. It adds just enough to make things feel fresh without making you relearn everything from scratch.
That said, it’s not without its trade-offs. There’s more to explain, more to manage, and more to track. If your group is looking for something light and breezy, this version might feel like a bit of a stretch. The new elements make the game more engaging for some, but they might slow things down for others.
Also, the theme won’t land equally at every table. For some, it’ll spark interesting conversations and shift the way they play. For others, it might just feel like extra steps between turns. And let’s not forget that luck still plays a part. No matter how well you plan, the dice and event draws can still throw everything off.
But if you enjoy games where your choices have longer-term consequences, and you like the idea of competing while also navigating a shared system, then this is probably one of the most interesting Catan versions out there.
Just don’t expect it to be a completely new experience. At its heart, it’s still very much Catan, but with a bit more to think about, and a little more weight behind your choices.
📝 We received a review copy from 999 Games.
