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I picked this pack up on a bit of a whim, because it was so cheap. This was some years ago now. Never did I imagine it would seamlessly slot into the core game of Catan to create a very different gaming landscape to what we traditionally know. It’s incredible. Catan, originally released in 1995 was created 16 years before this expansion pack and I just cannot believed how seamlessly and effectively it works. The creators have completed some amazing work here. Oil Springs sees the island of Catan pushed into the industrial revolution and far beyond by adding the oil resource in to the gameplay.
We can now build at a much more unprecedented rate with the readily available oil. The pack includes:
- 21 oil resource tokens. Only 15 required for 3-4 players games.
- 6 metropolis tokens (ultra-cities if you will and drawing 3 resources at these locations). Only 4 required for 3-4 player games.
- 4 oil well hexes. These replacing some of our traditional resources. Only 3 required in a 3-4 player game.
- 1 Champion of the environment token.
- 7 victory point tokens.
- 1 disaster track with disaster track counter.
The classic rules of Catan still apply to this game with regards to production, trading and building. Not forgetting your development cards also. So, what does the oil mean. It is a resource first and foremost like your standard brick, pasture, wheat, ore and wood and the oil tokens are produced in the same way after rolling dice. However, they do not go into your hand, they are laid in front of you for all to see how much of this resource you have, no secrets here. Who will be the oil baron? It can be traded with like any other resource. Or it can be burned! Burning it means you can either burn one oil resource for 2 of the same other resource. Example, burn 1 oil and take 2 wood resources. Or the second option for oil is to burn 2 oil resources and combine with 1 brick, 1 ore and 1 wheat to turn one of your cities into a metropolis. An additional victory point is gained as a metropolis is worth 3 VP. You can also draw even more resource at your metropolis sites.
Disaster!
There is an issue in this game with burning the oil. This is where the disaster tracker comes into play. Every time an oil resource is burned you push the disaster counter along 1 point on the track. On every fifth resource burnt there is a disaster incident. Roll the 2 dice. If a 7 is rolled there is a coastal incident and all settlements adjoined to the coast are destroyed, all cities on the coast are reduced to settlements. Climate damage is very real in this game. If any other number is rolled then industrial pollution has struck a hex on the board with this number and that resource is no longer, take the number token off the board and no more production from this resource. If there are 2 or more of the same number, find a way to randomly determine which of the numbers lost. Burning oil destroys Catan! It does so quickly.
If you burn 25 oil resources Catan is lost to flooding and the game finishes there and then. No one has truly won here, however the holder of the environment champion token takes the victory.
Save Catan
There is another way to use oil in this game. You can sequester the oil token and become an environment champion. Sequestering oil permanently removes this oil resource token from the game, flip it over in front of you and keep it there for reference. You can do this once a turn and not burn any other oil in that turn. For every 3 tokens sequestered gain 1 VP token. First player to sequester 3 also gains the environment champion token worth another 1 VP and this can be fought over in a similar way to the largest army or longest road. Should players choose to preserve the environment.
So, the big question and choice in your strategy within this game is are you going to be the player that saves the environment and prevents natural disaster, or are you going to be the player or burns as much oil as possible and expand across the landscape at a ferocious speed? You will see your gaming friends in a different frame of light in this game from how they approach their strategy.
One final note, you need 12 VP’s for victory in this game over the classic 10 VP.
21st Century Catan
I would wager most players that have been critical of the value of Catan as a modern board game have not played the game with this expansion. The integration of all these additional rules into that core game is truly remarkable and it plays unbelievably well. The depth added to the game is truly outstanding and the creators deserve high praise for it. The fact that it is developed for 5-6 players as well as Seafarers and Cities and Knights also, take a bow.
The part that amazed me the most is how this game really aligns with the damage we as a human species are doing to our planet through the continued burning of fossil fuels is actually quite harrowing. When you see a disaster phase occur on the board and either settlements get destroyed from coastal flooding or your cities can no longer produce on a resource because supply stopped (exhausted) I could not help but reflect for a moment on similar REAL situations occurring on our planet and wonder why more drastic changes are not occurring at the national and international leadership levels to prevent real disaster occurring. At time of writing in August 2023 we have seen unprecedented heat waves across USA, Southern Europe and Asia. Oil Springs in just 1 hour of play paints an amazingly honest picture of the problems we as a planet are walking in to if we do not find a more environmental and sustainable way to go about our lives, and it is never too late to try and change.
Final Thoughts
This (very cheap) expansion, Oil Springs, is truly remarkable for breathing new life and game dynamics into an already awesome game. I just cannot get over how smoothly this set slots in to the existing game mechanics. The depth of play added is also exceptional. No one should write off Catan until they have tried it with this expansion set as I believe you will have a significantly improved and more positive view of the legendary board game.
