New Game Mode: Recession - Stand Against All Odds

Have you ever thought Catan could be a team game? If that ever happens, what mechanics should be added to the game rules? Hereby we introduce you to our 2v2 mode for Catan named Recession - whose motto is "Stand Against All Odds.". Besides putting people together in a team, another purpose of Recession is to make Catan sets which have their cards or token pieces lots/damaged playable again. Let's find out what we have for you.

As a result of an economic crisis, a lot of things have gone down tremendously. As such, 1/2 of the resources (10 cards for each type), 1/3 of the ports (03 generic 3:1 ports), and 1/5 of the development card deck (05 Knights) will be removed from the game. Particularly, the unused ports will be placed face-down covering three single-hex port locations. In a similar manner, for the players, 1/2 of their cities, 1/3 of their roads, and 1/5 of their settlements will also be taken away. That is everything you need to prepare before starting the game.

Despite all the odds, you are given a partner to push back the crisis side by side. Since a team needs to sit on the same side of the table, to be fair, its members should either go 1st & 4th or 2nd & 3rd. They are allowed to discuss and see each other hands, along with face-down development cards in private; however, the content of their trades must still be revealed to the other team. Like its distant cousins Polarised and Overthrow, all 2-sided game modes created by the Catan club HeXSaiGon require 14 Victory Points to win the game. Nevertheless, Recession will be a little bit different as both members must have at least 07+ VPs for a team to declare victory. Additionally, players in the same team have their scores bonded with each other. The bond will be broken when the gap between them gets greater than 02 VPs. Once that happens, their will be disqualified and lose immediately.

There are 02 final adjustments in rulings to make this game mode stand out from the rest. Firstly, as players' scores are tracked, Victory Point development cards must be activated just like other types. They are inactive the turn they get drawn, and only 01 can be used per turn. Secondly, not only does the number of ports drop significantly from 09 to 06, but they are now also vulnerable to the robber. In Recession, the robber can be placed onto a port to completely nullify it while stealing one resource card from its owner's hand (enemy only).

If you have any questions about Recession, please let us know in the comment section below. Hope you would enjoy standing against all odds. Thank you for reading!