Carcassonne vs. Catan
Comparing 2 standards across 19 specifications. 19 key differences identified.
Carcassonne is a tile-placement modern board game designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede. Players draw and place 72 square land tiles depicting roads, cities, monasteries, and fields, deploying 'Meeples' as highwaymen, knights, monks, or farmers to score points as features are completed, concluding with end-game field agricultural scoring (3 points per completed city).
Catan (The Settlers of Catan) is an economic resource management board game designed by Klaus Teuber. Players roll two dice to harvest resources across 19 terrain hexes, building roads, settlements, and cities to reach 10 Victory Points. Rolling a 7 activates the Robber, forcing any player holding more than 7 resource cards to discard half (rounded down).
Specification Comparison Table
19 Parameters| Parameter / Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Governing Publisher
|
Hans im Glück / Z-Man Games | Catan Studio / KOSMOS |
|
Total Tiles in Base Game
|
72 tiles (including 1 starter tile with dark back) | — |
|
Meeples Per Player
|
8 wooden meeples (7 active + 1 score tracker) | — |
|
Tile Dimensions
|
45 × 45 mm (1.77 × 1.77 inches) | — |
|
Completed Road Score
|
1 point per tile scored during game | — |
|
Completed City Score
|
2 points per tile + 2 per coat of arms scored during game | — |
|
Completed Monastery Score
|
9 points monastery tile + 8 surrounding tiles | — |
|
End-Game Farmer Score
|
3 points per completed city touching the continuous farm field | — |
|
Incomplete City Score
|
1 point per tile + 1 per pennant end-game scoring | — |
|
Base Game Player Count
|
— | 3 to 4 players |
|
Victory Target
|
— | 10 Victory Points (VP) |
|
Total Terrain Hexes
|
— | 19 hexes (4 Forest, 4 Pasture, 4 Field, 3 Hill, 3 Mountain, 1 Desert) |
|
Settlements Per Player
|
— | 5 wooden settlements (1 VP each) |
|
Cities Per Player
|
— | 4 wooden cities (2 VP each) |
|
Roads Per Player
|
— | 15 wooden roads |
|
Robber Discard Threshold
|
— | More than 7 cards (8+) lose half, rounded down |
|
Longest Road Threshold
|
— | 5 continuous roads minimum awards 2 VP |
|
Largest Army Threshold
|
— | 3 Knight cards minimum awards 2 VP |
|
Base Bank Trade Ratio
|
— | 4:1 four identical resources for any one |