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:

  • 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.
  • The Cities and Knights (Städte und Ritter) expansion adds Knights which can travel around the board, larger cities, and new resources.
  • I have, unfortunately, not played the Wizards and Dragons (Zeuberer und Drachen) expansion.
  • There are expansions for Settlers, as well as for the above expansions, which allow up to six players.
  • 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:

  • NetSet is a networked Settlers game for Windows. http://home.earthlink.net/~mgardner0/
  • There is a Java version of Settlers playable in a web browser: http://settlers.cs.northwestern.edu/
  • Pioneers, formerly known as gnocatan, is a networked Gnome version of Settlers: http://pio.sourceforge.net/
  • Settlers is a networked X version of Settlers: http://settlers.seul.org/
  • TallRoo tells me of Sea3D, available at http://www.s3dconnector.net/. I've not played it, but e says it's ``amazing''.