Thanks, Industrialism! ‘Catan’ Suffers the Effects of Pollution In ‘New Energies’
In Catan: New Energies, suffer the horrible modern realities of balancing a growing industry with wreaking environmental devastation. Fun!
Credit where it’s due, I don’t think anyone expected an expansion to Catan that would require intervention from Captain Planet.
In Catan: New Energies, a new standalone game, Catanians are moving into the 21st Century and are at a crossroads. Should they invest in clean energy or opt for cheaper fossil fuels, even with the resulting environmental effects?
Catan: New Energies maintains the classic mechanics of harvesting, trading, and building but with new options as well. Players will be able to build power plants, generate energy tokens, and have to deal with the resulting environmental effects on their decisions. This breaks the mould of the goto strategies hardcore Catan players have been running for years.
The game is designed by Benjamin Teuber, the son of Klaus Teuber, who passed this time last year. Based on what we’ve seen so far, we can expect a lot of the same core systems, but with a new layer of gameplay on top. For example, in addition to Longest Trade Route, there’s now also the inclusion of Cleanest Environment.
Considering the discourse going on right now around these topics globally, I think this is a great way to get the idea into the minds of more people without being overly pushy. At the same time, it can highlight the unfortunate truths of the costs and benefits on fossil fuels when compared to cleaner alternatives.
Still, it’s a daunting task that I can only assume went through very rigorous testing to get just right.
