Catan is usually about wood, sheep, and that one friend who refuses to trade with you because you’re "winning" (even though you’re clearly not). But Catan New Energies flips the script entirely. It isn’t just a reskin of the 1995 classic we all know. It’s a tense, modern reimagining that forces you to choose between cheap, dirty power and expensive, green infrastructure. If you screw it up, the game literally ends for everyone.
Honestly, it's a bit of a panic attack in a box.
Klaus Teuber, the legendary creator of Catan, worked on this with his son Benjamin before he passed away in 2023. It’s his final gift to the board gaming community, and you can feel the weight of that legacy in every mechanic. It’s grounded in the reality of the 21st century. You’re still building settlements and cities on the island of Catan, but now those cities need power to function. Without power, your production stalls.
The Core Conflict of Catan New Energies
The game starts like any other. You place your initial settlements. You hope for good dice rolls. However, once you start upgrading to cities, the "energy" requirement kicks in. You have two choices. You can build fossil fuel power plants—think coal and gas—which are incredibly cheap. They give you the energy you need immediately for a handful of resources.
But there’s a massive catch.
Every time someone builds a "dirty" plant, they add Fossil Fuel tokens to a communal bag. When certain events trigger, you pull tokens from that bag. These represent environmental disasters like floods, air pollution, or resource depletion. If the island gets too polluted, the game ends prematurely. This isn't like the Robber where you just lose a couple of cards. This is "everyone loses if we don't fix this" territory.
Renewable energy, like wind turbines or solar plants, is the alternative. These are brutally expensive. They require more resources and specific placement, but they don't add those nasty tokens to the bag. In fact, they can help remove them. The tension comes from the fact that while you’re trying to be the "green" player, your opponent might be spamming coal plants to build three roads a turn and steal the Longest Road trophy.
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It creates a weird, semi-cooperative vibe that the original game never had. You want to win, but if you push the environment too far to get those last two victory points, you might accidentally trigger a global collapse and hand the win to whoever happens to be leading at that exact moment.
How the Mechanics Actually Work
The board looks familiar but has several key differences. There are no "Development Cards" in the traditional sense. Instead, you have Progress Cards and Event Cards. The event track is what really drives the pressure.
Every time a 7 is rolled, or when certain thresholds are met, players must deal with the consequences of their energy choices. If the bag is full of brown tokens because everyone was being cheap, the events are devastating. Your hexes might stop producing. You might lose victory points.
One of the most interesting additions is the Environmental Inspector.
Think of the Inspector as the "Anti-Robber." Instead of blocking production, the Inspector rewards players who have invested in green energy. If the Inspector lands on your hex and you have a wind turbine there, you get a bonus. It shifts the incentive structure from "how can I hurt my neighbor?" to "how can I benefit from being more sustainable than my neighbor?"
The End Game Scenarios
In standard Catan, you hit 10 points and you win. In Catan New Energies, there are two ways the game finishes:
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- A player reaches 10 Victory Points (the "Happy Ending").
- The Pollution Level hits the maximum threshold (the "Catastrophe Ending").
If the game ends because of pollution, the player who has the most Green Energy tokens—not necessarily the most victory points—wins. This is a massive strategic pivot. You could be at 9 points, about to win, but if your neighbor builds one too many coal plants and tips the scales, the player with 4 points and a bunch of solar panels might actually take the trophy. It forces you to watch the pollution track as closely as you watch the score.
Why This Isn't Just "Catan with a Coat of Paint"
A lot of people think this is just a re-themed version of Catan: Oil Springs, which was a small scenario released years ago. It’s not. Oil Springs felt like an add-on; Catan New Energies is a ground-up redesign.
The resource management is tighter. The pacing is faster. You’ve got to balance your personal engine with the health of the board. It feels more like a "Euro-game" than the original, meaning there’s more strategy and slightly less reliance on just getting lucky with the dice.
One thing that really stands out is the component quality. In a move that mirrors the game's theme, the pieces are made from sustainable wood and recycled materials. There’s no plastic in the box. Even the tray is cardboard. It’s a nice touch that makes the whole experience feel authentic to the message the Teubers were trying to send.
Strategy Tips for Your First Game
If you're sitting down to play this for the first time, don't play it like vanilla Catan. You will lose.
- Early Dirty Power is a Trap: It's tempting to build a coal plant on turn three to get an extra settlement. But if everyone does that, the bag gets diluted with pollution tokens too early, and you’ll spend the rest of the game fighting disasters instead of building.
- Invest in Science: The progress cards in this version are incredibly powerful. Many of them allow you to flip dirty plants to clean ones or mitigate the effects of pollution.
- Watch the Bag: Keep a mental tally of how many brown tokens are in the bag versus blue ones. If the ratio is bad, stop building cities until someone cleans it up.
- The 10-Point Sprint: If you see the pollution track getting high and you aren't the "greenest" player, you need to end the game now. Trade aggressively to get those last points before the island chokes.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Theme
Some critics have called the game "preachy." Honestly? I don't see it. It doesn't tell you that you can't use fossil fuels. In fact, sometimes using fossil fuels is the only way to catch up if you had a bad start.
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The game just presents the trade-off. It’s a simulation of costs. It’s no more preachy than Monopoly is about real estate or Risk is about global conquest. It simply adds a new layer of complexity to the "trading and building" loop. The "New Energy" aspect is a mechanic, not a lecture.
Final Practical Steps
If you’re looking to add this to your collection, here is how to get the most out of it.
First, make sure your playgroup is okay with "player-induced game ends." Some people hate it when a game ends because someone played "badly" and caused a disaster. If your group prefers the slow, traditional race to 10 points, stick to the base game.
Second, check your table space. This board is slightly larger than the standard Catan board because of the additional tracks for pollution and energy. You'll need more room for the shared pools of energy tokens.
Finally, keep an eye on the Catan Studio website for the official FAQ. Since this is a newer release with more moving parts than the original, there are a few edge-case rules regarding the Environmental Inspector that players often misinterpret during their first run.
Next Steps for Players:
- Inventory check: Ensure your copy has the full set of 20 fossil fuel tokens and 20 renewable tokens; missing pieces break the "pollution bag" mechanic entirely.
- First Playthrough: Set the pollution threshold slightly higher (easier) for your first game to learn the energy-to-city conversion rates without the game ending in 20 minutes.
- Strategic Pivot: Practice a "Green Only" run where you refuse to build fossil fuel plants. It’s a difficult challenge that teaches you exactly how much you have to rely on efficient trading.