Catan: The Helpers DLC – Review

xboxoldies.com:

It’s been six months since we sailed to the island of Catan for our review back in February, but it’s time to return with a helping hand from a few friendly faces in the new DLC. The helpers, adds 12 new cards to the deck, giving assistance from the inhabitants of the island to make life a little easier.

Stina provides a trade frenzy which allows any resource to be exchanged at a 2:1 ratio, while Asla forces another player to trade their resources with you and Digur can free up your tiles by chasing the robber back to the desert.

The Helpers adds two options to the game creation menu, the first allows you to turn on or off the extension, which will randomly add one card per player, so a 4-player match would see 4 helper cards added to the deck. The second option enables “All 12 Helpers variants” which puts all 12 cards in play meaning you have to be a little more cautious about what cards other people might have, adding a deeper more tactical layer to the gameplay.

It’s a little confusing when the Helper cards are also characters you can use as your avatar, and I would have loved to see certain cards left out dependent on which characters are playing, but they have remained true to the Baird game and the rules imposed with the official expansion. Either way it’s an interesting addition to the game that matches its real-world counterpart, and provides new strategies and depth.

The cards are well detailed, and it’s always pretty clear what each helper does and how it will affect your game, but it’s going to be more beneficial to learn how each card will benefit the user, so you know exactly what you’re up against, take for instance that Asla card mentioned earlier, forcing resource trades could be crucial if you have