Starship Catan - Starship Catan Light

Starship Catan Light

A simpler, one-player version of Starship Catan can be played online after registration (which is free) on Playcatan. In this version, the game lasts for 18 turns. Like the two-player version, the player starts with 25 Astro, but unlike it, the player only starts with one booster and no cannons. At the beginning of the first turn, a booster or cannon is chosen, for free. Before the second turn and every three turns after that (fifth, eighth, etc.), a booster or cannon may be bought for three Astro, or a command or logistics module for one Astro. Before the first, second, and seventeenth turns, the modules may not be chosen. The modules cannot be upgraded to level II. If a fourth booster or cannon is bought, two of them become level II boosters/cannons and the third disappears; it is impossible to buy more than five of either.

There is no production. A sector is chosen, and the die is rolled and added to the boosters. The cards are:

• Lost planets, which are the same as in the two player version.
• Trade planets, but only the planets that buy and sell for 1, 2, 3, and 4 Astro exist. There are also no planets that buy/sell trade goods; these are acquired in a different way. The only purpose of these planets is to gain Astro (by buying at a planet with a cheaper price and selling at a planet with a more expensive price), because resources are not used to build anything.
• Kopernicus II, which, like the two-player game, sells science points for 3 Astro. However, they cannot be sold back, and only one may be bought on each visit.
• The same four adventure planets (Pallas, Hades, Picasso, and Poseidon), which are much less complex. They give trade goods for science points, but it is only possible to do it once on each adventure planet.
• Pirates. These work similarly to the two-player game, with these minor changes:
  • There are only three pirates with two cannons, three with three cannons, and one with four cannons.
  • The player knows when he has encountered the pirate with four cannons, who is named "Theo the Terrible."
  • If the player is defeated, he does not necessarily end his turn; instead he loses two actions. This can be good if he has a command module and has not yet used any actions; but it can be bad if he only has one action left, in which case he starts with one less on the next turn. Also, no boosters, cannons, or modules are lost.
  • If the pirate is defeated, it is replaced by a lost planet. Pirates are the only cards ever removed, and lost planets are the only reserve cards. The player earns a medal, not a resource, except in the case of Theo the Terrible, whose defeat earns the player three medals.

After 18 turns, the game ends. There are no victory points; only fame points are used, calculated in a completely different way than in the two-player game. They are equivalent to victory points in other Settlers of Catan games. Each medal is worth 5 points, with a 20 point bonus for defeating all 7 pirates. Each trade good is worth 15 points, and each Astro is worth 1.

On Playcatan, after the player has "flown" through a stack, a list of cards in it that the player has seen is available, so if it is played with the regular Starship Catan cards, the player would be allowed to write this down. (Of course, like in the two-player version, the stack through which the player has flown is mixed after each turn).