I was very excited to find out more about the Federation Space Map Set expansion to Star Trek: Catan. The Federation Space Map Set debuted at GenCon 2013 to follow up on the debut of Star Trek: Catan at GenCon 2012.
What makes this expansion different from other versions of Catan is that the focus is less on direct competition and more on exploration. That does not mean that there is no competition but the feel is very different. This expansion includes two separate maps that, when put side by side, show the exploration of known space during the original 5 year mission of Star Trek. Peppered throughout the board are references to episodes, ships, and encounters experienced by the crew of the original starship Enterprise. The rule book includes an Almanac to explain the references to the original 79 episodes.
What makes this map different from Seafarers of Catan is that the planets are more spread out with static resources and probability numbers. With the goal of exploration the players are divided into four factions: Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Vulcan. Each of these four factions mark their victory points on a separate homeworld piece which is a clever implementation. The rules of placement are different than the base game. Setup follows the traditional rules in how players pick their starting outposts and place their first starships. However, placement rules differ in that you can only build outposts/starbases on marked areas on the board. This makes opening placement trickier as it will be harder to get all of the resource allocation as in the typical game. In some cases you can even place outposts within one link of each other in violation of traditional placement rules.
The other major difference in placement comes from the route building. In the base game you can build starships the same as roads or ships in regular Catan. 349
On the Federation Map starships can be placed only up to the spot where you have the option to build an outpost. To build past an outpost spot you have to build the outpost first which is nicely thematic to the source material. Further, there are yellow routes and red routes. When you build a starship on a red route you connect to a trading post and may trade your resources according to the rule of that trading post (i.e. 2:1, 3:1). There is no need to build an outpost to get the benefits of a trading post. Thus, the focus is on building outposts as you expand across the universe rather than concentrating around a core group of spots which is often the strategy that is adopted out of necessity in traditional Catan. Further, the trading posts are not relegated to the borders but are spread throughout the map giving players more options to convert resources.
With plenty of room to expand the rule tweaks result in a very different looking final board with ships spread across many systems in pursuit of the 10 points needed for victory. Another way that the Federation Map encourages exploration is through exploration victory points. Peppered throughout the maps are VP tokens and if you are the first player to build a starship adjacent to a VP token you claim it and can never lose it. Thus, the Federation Map Set presents a new victory path for the player who focuses on exploration over outpost/starbase construction. Lastly, the rules suggest that advanced players extend the game to 13 points for a 3 player game and 12 points for a 4 player game.
I really enjoyed playing with this map and, as a fan of ST:OS I enjoyed seeing the bits of Trek lore in every corner of the Federation Map Set. This expansion really makes me want to play Catan more where I had relegated it to the less accessible parts of my game shelves over the last several years. This expansion is a must for fans of Star Trek and it gives seasoned players a new way to play Catan.
In other news, I was thrilled to meet the navigator of the original starship Enterprise, <PERSON> (<PERSON>), who was a special guest at GenCon 2013 for the release of the new Star Trek Catan expansion. 349