STARFARERS OF CATAN
Ranking: Four stars
Review
We disliked this spin-off of Settlers of Catan until we decided to place the number tokens rightside up instead of with the numbers concealed; it wasn't fun to expend time and effort traveling to a planet only to discover that it has crummy resource production. Once we started placing the numbers rightside up, we had fun because we could strategize more effectively. We like to name our ships (Red Dwarf, Yellow Submarine). There are a number of different strategies in the game, which are entertaining to explore, but we all tend to race for the two-for-one production.
Warning: the booster-holding clips on the plastic ships are weak; they're breaking off in our set, which we've had only a few years.
VARIANT
We place the number tokens face up rather than upside down, because that allows us to know what the numbers are and strategize accordingly.