LEGO CATAN board game scores 10,000 victory points on LEGO Ideas

The latest LEGO Ideas project to rack up 10,000 victory points – sorry, votes – is a brick-built recreation of CATAN, one of the most iconic board games of all time.

Designed by Klaus Teuber and published in Germany in 1995, CATAN – originally known as The Settlers of Catan – is often regarded as a gateway title for board game enthusiasts, bridging the gap between Monopoly and deeper tabletop experiences. LEGO Ideas user Christoph Ruge is now hoping it might prove to be a similar gateway model for the LEGO Group, which will decide whether to produce it as an official set in the first 2023 review.

The rules of CATAN are simple: roll two dice to generate resources (each number is linked to a specific hex – and resource – on the board), trade with other players for resources you’re missing, then use those resources to build roads, settlements and cities, growing your civilisation. Ruge’s colourful build recreates every component of the game, from the hex-based board to each player’s colour-coded pieces.

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CATAN has sold more than 32 million copies in over 40 different languages worldwide, so it’s easy to see the appeal of a LEGO version. Ruge’s design is even modular, in the same way as the real game, allowing for versatile board layouts to increase replayability. Whether it gets the green light is ultimately up to the LEGO Ideas review board, but Ruge has precedent here: he’s also the fan designer behind 21321 International Space Station.

Check out all 27 LEGO Ideas projects in the first 2023 review below. The qualifying window for this review will close in early May, and the results will likely be announced in October.

Every LEGO Ideas project in the first 2023 review

Number	LEGO Ideas project	LEGO Ideas user	Date qualified
1	Dr. Seuss and LEGO	LegoFan_506	January 2, 2023
2	Sweet Honey	RobertVII	January 4, 2023
3	The Botanical Garden	Goannas	January 9, 2023
4	The Crown – A Piece of History	Piraten	January 12, 2023
5	Stargate SG1: Embarkation Room	Starbrick_SG1	January 12, 2023
6	Roscosmos Soyuz MS Spacecraft	Tom_Brick	January 15, 2023
7	Motorized Howl’s Moving Castle	ericlego321	January 16, 2023
8	The Stargate	Captain Mutant	January 16, 2023
9	Medieval Seaside Market	bricks_fan_uy	January 17, 2023
10	Brick Boulevard	Bricky_Brick	January 19, 2023
11	Retro Comic Store	LEGOverwatch	January 22, 2023
12	Shrek’s Swamp – 20th Anniversary	The Real Ashnflash	January 22, 2023
13	Baby Green Sea Turtle – Kinetic	QuaintWolf082	January 23, 2023
14	Humpback Whale	Les Briques de Loïc	January 25, 2023
15	Shrek’s Swamp	danielbradleyy	January 26, 2023
16	Brooklyn Nine-Nine: 99th Precinct	Ben Fankhauser	January 27, 2023
17	LED Lamp	Castor-Troy and Max Brich	January 28, 2023
18	Bricks Coffee	UTAMARU_BRICK8	January 28, 2023
19	Ogel Creek Saw Mill	Krackenator4	January 31, 2023
20	Hollow Knight: Forgotten Crossroad	Ben Osborne	February 1, 2023
21	LEGO Godzilla	Matthew Esposito	February 2, 2023
22	Claus Toys	Pablo Sánchez Jiménez	February 2, 2023
23	Twilight: Cullen House	LobsterThermidor	February 4, 2023
24	Where’s Wally/Waldo?	Iyan Ha	February 4, 2023
25	V.&T.R.R. #12, GENOA	SgJess	February 9, 2023
26	River Side Lodge	terauma	February 14, 2023
27	CATAN – The Game	Christoph Ruge	February 15, 2023

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