The Settlers of Catan (Die Siedler von Catan) is a turn-based strategy board game developed by Klaus
Teuber. Three or four players (up to six with the six-player expansion) develop
settlements, cities, and roads on a hex-based board.
Settlers won the 1995 "Spiel des Jahres" (Game of the Year) award, and the
1996 Origins Award for best board game.
Board layout
The Settlers board consists of a number of terrain hexes surrounded by water.
There are seven types of terrain:
Each terrain hex other than desert has a numbered marker on it, which determines
when it produces resources. The desert, in addition to providing a hex more or less
useless to the players, marks the starting location of the robber (see below).
Around the outside of the terrain are a number of port hexes. These hexes are
water hexes with the notation '2:1' and a resource icon, or '3:1' and a question
mark. Ports allow more efficient maritime trade; see below.
Starting the game
Players begin the game by placing two settlements and two roads. The first player
places a settlement at a hex corner (intersection), and a road at an edge
adjacent to the settlement. Other players do the same in clockwise order, until
reaching the last player. This player places two settlements and a road adjacent to
each; then the other players proceed counterclockwise, placing one more settlement
and road. In the initial placement as well as the later games, settlements must have
at least one intersection between them.
When a player places eir second settlement, e receives one resource for each
hex that settlement borders. For example, if e places eir second settlement
at the corner of a hill hex, a forest hex, and another hill hex, e will
receive two brick cards and one lumber card.
Turn sequence
Each player's turn consists of three steps: resource production, trading, and
building.
Resource production
In the resource production step, the current player rolls two six-sided dice. If
the total rolled is not seven, each hex on the board marked with the number rolled
produces resources. If a player owns a settlement located
on a corner of that hex e receives one resource card of the type produced by
that hex. If a player has a city there instead, e gets two of that resource.
If two players both have settlements around a producing hex, each gets one of the
resource produced; if a player has two settlements around the hex, e gets two of
the resource.
If a player rolls a seven, the robber attacks. Each player with more than seven
cards in eir hand discards half of those cards, rounded down. Then the current
player moves the robber to a hex of eir choice. If the robber is on a hex, that
hex will not produce resources until the robber is moved again. If there are any
settlements bordering the robber's new hex, the current player takes a single
resource card from the owner of one of those settlements.
Trading
Now the current player can trade resources. E can trade with other players, in
which case it is up to the players involved to determine the conditions of the
trade; or e can perform ``maritime trade'' with the bank. Without a port,
maritime trade is very inefficient: the player trades four of any single
resource, and in exchange receives one resource of eir choice.
If the player has a settlement or city bordering a port hex, the situation is
slightly better. With a 3:1 port, the player can trade three of any single
resource for one resource of eir choice. 2:1 ports are marked with a resource
icon; with a 2:1 port, the player can trade two of the pictured resource for one
of any resource.
Note that a player can trade only if it is eir turn, or if e is trading with
the current player.
Building
Players can expend resources to build things:
A road is placed on the edge between two hexes. Roads can only be built adjacent to a
settlement, city, or another road.
Settlements can only be build adjacent to a road; furthermore, settlements must have
at least one intersection (vertex) between them.
Cities are upgrades for settlements. By paying the city development cost,
the player upgrades a single settlement of eir choice to a city. Cities are
just like settlements, except they receive double resource production, and they
are worth an extra victory point.
Development cards do various things. Some are worth victory points, some allow
the player extra resources, and the Soldier allows the player to move the robber.
Development cards can be used only by the current player. Other than the victory
point cards, a player can play only one development card a turn. However, they can
be played at any point in the turn---even before dice are rolled. In most cases,
development cards are returned to the deck when used. The exception is the
Soldier, which the player keeps in an attempt to win Largest Army.
Winning the game
A player's "score" in Settlers is measured by victory points. The first
player to reach a certain number of victory points (usually 10) wins the
game. Each settlement a player owns is worth one victory point, and each city is
worth two. In addition, there are two special sources of victory points: Longest
Road and Largest Army.
The first player to have a chain of five roads (not including forks) receives
the Longest Road card, which is worth two victory points. Other players may
capture Longest Road by having a road longer than the current owner's longest
road. Largest Army, also worth two victory points, is awarded to the first player
to have three Soldiers (Knights in the original German); other players may
capture this card by having more soldiers.
Expansions and such
Klaus Teuber has developed a number of expansions for Settlers, as well as
similar games:
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Seafarers of Catan (Seefahrer) is an expansion which allows the board
layout to go beyond a simple island surrounded by ocean. Players can build
ships to allow settlements on distant islands.
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The Cities and Knights (Städte und Ritter) expansion adds
Knights which can travel around the board, larger cities, and new resources.
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I have, unfortunately, not played the Wizards and Dragons (Zeuberer und
Drachen) expansion.
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There are expansions for Settlers, as well as for the above expansions, which
allow up to six players.
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The Starfarers of Catan (Die Sternenfahrer von Catan) is not an
expansion, but a separate game similar in spirit.
Computer versions
TenMinJoe tells me of an official version of Settlers available for download for the Xbox 360.
I do not know of an official PC release; however, a number of fans have developed their own:
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NetSet is a networked Settlers game for Windows.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mgardner0/
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There is a Java version of Settlers playable in a web browser:
http://settlers.cs.northwestern.edu/
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Pioneers, formerly known as gnocatan, is a networked Gnome version
of Settlers:
http://pio.sourceforge.net/
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Settlers is a networked X version of Settlers:
http://settlers.seul.org/
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TallRoo tells me of Sea3D, available at
http://www.s3dconnector.net/. I've not played it, but e says
it's ``amazing''.