Catan

Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game invented by Klaus Teuber. Kosmos published the game in Germany in 1995 under the name Die Siedler von Catan. It won the Spiel des Jahres 1995 and Deutscher SpielePreis 1st place 1995 and the Origins Award for 1996.

Settlers is perhaps the first German-style board game to reach any degree of popularity outside of Europe. It has been marketed as "The Settlers of Catan" in the United States by Mayfair Games. It has been said that the original Siedler actually consisted of the game we know as Siedler today and the first expansion set, Seefahrer. Whatever the case, both the original game and the expansion are available (at a bare minimum) in both Europe and the United States -- where Seefahrer is marketed as "The Seafarers of Catan". It has been translated into English, French, Italian, Japanese and Hungarian from the original German.

Overview

Settlers of Catan may be played on 23 different official, playtested boards:

• Dynamic Boards
  • Standard (III-IV)/(V-VI): 10-point game
  • New Shores (III-IV): 13-point game
  • Oceans (III)/(IV)/(V)/(VI): 12-point game
  • A New World (III)/(IV)/(V)/(VI): 12-point game
  • Greater Catan (IV)/(VI): 18-point game
• Static Boards
  • Four Islands (III)/(IV)/(V)/(VI): 12-point game
  • Into the Desert (III)/(IV)/(V)/(VI): 12-point game
  • The Great Crossing (IV)/(VI): 13-point game

The game presumes that the players are settlers on the uninhabited island of Catan. On all boards other than the two standard maps, the island of Catan is also surrounded by one to three smaller, secondary islands, to which the colonists may sail and settle upon. Each settler taps the abundant natural resources of the island to build roads, settlements, and cities, as well as to purchase development cards that represent further progress towards civilization. The production of resources is controlled by two six-sided dice; each dice roll produces resources for every settler who owns buildings on a vertex of any hexagonal tile that shows that number. The winner is the first to accumulate the requisite number of victory points (as listed above).

Standard (III/IV)

Settlers of Catan Standard 3-4 Player Board - US Edition
Standard (III/IV) Board - US Edition

The Standard (III/IV) board consists of 37 hexagonal terrain tiles:

Tile Name	Resource Production	# on Board
forest	wood/timber	4
pasture	sheep/wool	4
plain	wheat/grain	4
hill	clay/brick	3
mountain	rock/ore	3
desert	none	1
ocean	none	9
2:1 harbour	2-for-1 conversion	5
3:1 harbour	3-for-1 conversion	4

To assemble this board:

• Separate the land, ocean, and harbour hexes from each other.
• Shuffle the land hexes face down,and starting with the topmost one, lay the tiles in the following matter:
  1. Place five land hexes next to each other in the centre of the table.
  2. place a row of four hexes to the right and to the left of the centre row.
  3. Place a row of three tiles to the right and to the left of the previous rows.
  4. Place the 9 harbor tiles at every other available spot around the border, always leaving space for one tile between each harbour. The harbours do not have to be place in any particular order. (Note: Harbour tiles must be placed so that the half circles touch land. They should face directly towards the longest possible line of land tiles.)
  5. Fill in the gaps with the 9 ocean tiles that remain to be placed.
  6. Place the number markers on the board in alphabetical order, starting on an outside corner and continuing counterclockwise. (Note: The desert does not get a number marker.)

Each land hex, apart from the desert, produces a specific natural resource for players who build settlements or cities on one of its vertices. When two six-sided dice are rolled on each turn, all terrain hexes marked with the resulting number yield 1 resource per adjacent settlement, and 2 resources per adjacent city. Each 2:1 harbour hex allows its owner to execute a conversion from 2 resources of the harbour's specified type, into 1 of any the five resources. Each 3:1 harbour hex allows its owner to execute a conversion from 3 resources of any type, into 1 of any type. The probabilities that govern the rolling of two six-sided dice dictate that hexes marked with six or eight are expected to be most productive, while those marked with two or twelve are expected to be least productive.

Building Costs

Settlers of Catan Building Costs
Building Costs

To build various properties on the island of Catan, a settler must pay the right combination of resources to the bank (as shown at right).

Roads, Settlements, and Cities

Roads are placed along the edges of the hexes, while settlements and cities are placed on the corner intersections between three hexes. At the beginning of the game each player places two settlements anywhere on the island and a road extending from each (as shown above). Additional roads may be built only as extensions of a player's existing roads, and additional settlements may be placed only on a player's own roads. No settlement (friendly or otherwise) may be built within one intersection of another, pre-existing settlement. Cities may replace only a player's existing settlements, like hotels replacing houses in Monopoly.

Development Cards

Because settlements and cities can't be built adjacent to each other, the board often becomes crowded, and it is difficult to find room to expand. Furthermore, each player is limited to four cities and five settlements, so it is difficult to win without finding another source of victory points. Players therefore use their resources to buy development cards.

Development cards occasionally represent direct contributions to civilization, such as a library or church, and as such directly add one victory point to the total of the purchasing player. More often, however, they are soldier cards. A soldier card allows the purchasing player to relocate the robber and steal from another player. Also, whichever player has played the most soldier cards, with a minimum of three, is awarded two victory points for having the largest army.

There are also a few development cards which don't contribute directly to victory points, but are useful in other ways, such as Road Building (build two roads), Year of Plenty (get two resources of your choice), and Monopoly (steal all resource of one type from everyone).

The final source of victory points is building the longest road on the island, with a minimum of five segments. The player with the longest road is awarded two victory points.
However, the victory points for longest road and largest army are only temporary; another player who builds a longer road or larger army takes over those victory points as well.

The Robber

There is also a robber token which begins the game in the desert. Whenever a seven is rolled, the rolling player relocates the robber to any other hex, and steals a commodity from some player with an adjacent settlement or city. Furthermore, the hex on which the robber stands becomes unproductive for as long as the robber remains; even if the production number for that hex is rolled, adjacent players get nothing.

Trading

Raw materials are represented by commodity cards, which the players can save, trade, or use to build roads, settlements, cities, and development cards. Only the player whose turn it is may trade or build.

Also there is maritime trade, or trading "off the island" so to speak. A player with four identical commodity cards may trade them in for one other commodity of any type. A player with a settlement or city adjacent to a port may trade in commodities at a more favorable ratio, but never one-for-one, so it is usually desirable to trade with other players if possible.

Its Popularity

Settlers has become popular in part because the game mechanics are relatively simple. New players don't suffer for long, as they do with more complex board games, the dreaded, "Oh, and here's another rule we forgot to tell you." Furthermore, players who are behind can still set short-term goals such as building a city in a certain space, and happily trade towards that end without worrying about victory. No one gets eliminated, and no one loses settlements and cities which have already been built. These features make the game very suitable for family play.

A more subtle contribution to Settlers popularity is that gamers (typically women) who have an inclination to cooperate more than to compete aren't shouldered aside as in more bloodthirsty board games. Hyper-competitive players may get caught in cycles of embargo and robbing revenge with each other, while a cooperative player angers no one, trades freely with everyone, and quietly wins.

At the same time, there is considerable depth to competitive strategy. In serious games everyone needs to pay attention during all players' turns. The production and trading of commodities is public, but the commodity cards are held face down, which means that an alert player with a perfect memory can know everyone's exact holding, whereas the inattentive player will often be wondering (or asking out loud), "Does anyone have grain?". Commodities have an intrinsic value based on what they can be used to purchase, but their trading value changes from moment to moment based on shortages and surpluses. A sharp trader will know the distinct value of each commodity to each player at each turn, and use this information profitably.

Expert games tend to come down to close finishes, because everyone is aware of who is leading, and the leader is most likely to be hurt with the robber. Furthermore, the rest of the players will usually absolutely refuse to trade with someone on the verge of victory, knowing that they could unwittingly provide the commodity necessary for the tenth victory point. Seldom does any one player produce all commodoties necessary to win, and being forced to use maritime trade can be a severe brake on one's progress.

Expansions

Because of its popularity, there has been a new expansion every year for the game to add new possibilities and generally to make the game larger and more fun to play.
An exhaustive list follows:

1. 5-6 player expansion (1996)
2. Seafarers/Seefahrer (1997)
3. Seafarers/Seefahrer 5-6 player
4. Cities and Knights/Städte und Ritter (1998)
5. Cities and Knights/Städte und Ritter 5-6 player
6. Alexander der Große und Cheops (1998)
7. Das Buch (2000)
8. Troja und Die Große Mauer (2001)
9. Travel Box

Other versions

There are also other Catan games which aren't technically expansions because they're standalone:

1. The Card Game/Das Kartenspiel (1996)
2. The Card Game/Das Kartenspiel Expansions
3. The Starfarers of Catan/Die Sternenfahrer von Catan (1999)
4. The Starfarers of Catan/Die Sternenfahrer von Catan 5-6 player
5. Starfarers Figurines/Die Fürsten der Völker
6. Starship Catan/Sternenschiff Catan (2001)
7. Abenteuer Menschheit/The Settlers of the Stone Age (2002)
8. Die Siedler von Nürnberg (1999)
9. The Settlers of Canaan (2002)
10. Die Kinder von Catan (2003)