Picture yourself in the era of discoveries: after a long voyage of great deprivation, your ships have finally reached the coast of an uncharted island. Its name shall be Catan! But you are not the only discoverer. Other fearless seafarers have also landed on the shores of Catan: the race to settle the island has begun!
Welcome to The Settlers of Catan! This is a classic European board game for 4 players about developing settlements on a small island in spite of bad luck with the dice, an annoying robber and lousy puns about wood and sheep.
The game is played on a hexagonal island made of 19 hexagonal tiles, that can either be forests, hills, fields, pastures, mountains, or a desert. Each of those has a token with a number between 2 and 12 on it, except for the desert which starts with the robber. 9 shores of the island will also have a harbor, that can either be a general harbor, or be specialized in one resource. The players each own settlements and cities, which can be placed on the intersections between three tiles, and roads, put on the paths between intersections.
At the start of the game, the players take turns placing one settlement each on an intersection of their choice along with a road connected to it; then, the same process is done in reverse order, with the fourth player getting to place his two settlements consecutively, and the first player going last. Once this is done, each players receives as their starting hand the resource cards associated with the tiles around their second settlement. The game then starts with the first player's turn. Here's an example of how the board should look:
Spoiler: Picture inside
Each turn consists of 2 main phases: the production phase and the trade/construction phase.
On the contruction phase, the player rolls 2d6. If the result was not a 7, each player with a settlement or a city on a tile with the result of the die as its token receives the resource card associated with that tile: lumber for the forests, brick for the hills, grain for the fields, wool for the pastures, and ore for the mountains. A city gives two resources instead of one.
If the result was a 7, which isn't on any token, any player with over 7 resource cards in their hands has to select half of their hand to discard. Then, the player takes the robber away from its current position and sends him to a tile of their choice, and steals a random card from a player who owns a settlement or a city on that tile. Any production from this tile will be stopped until the robber is moved away from it.
During the trade/construction phase, the player may freely trade resources with other players, as long as he is involved in the trading, and the other players involved agree on the deal. They may also trade resources with the bank: the default option is to trade four identical resources for one of their choice; however, it can be changed if the player owns a settlement or a city on a shore with a harbor: if it's a general harbor, this rate is upgraded to three identical resources for one, and it it's a specialized harbor, it becomes two of the harbor's resource for one.
They may also build at any time during this phase. There are 4 different buildings:
- Settlements, costing one lumber, one brick, one grain and one wool: these can be placed on intersections to receive resources from the adjacent tiles, and are each worth 1 VP (victory point). A settlement can never be placed within a distance of one path of any other settlement or city, including at the start of the game, and must be connected to one of the player's road. A player can't own over 5 basic settlements at once.
- Roads, costing one lumber and one brick: these can be placed on the paths between intersections, and are used to connect settlements and cities. There can't be more than one road on the same path, and they have to be connected to one of the player's other buildings. A player can't build more than 15 roads in a game.
- Cities, costing two grain and three ore: paying for a city allows the player to replace one of their own settlements with a town, which doubles its income, and makes it worth 2 VP instead of one. A player can't build more than 4 cities in a game.
- Development cards, costing one grain, one wool and one ore: draw one development card from the 31-card deck. These can be used at any time during your turn. Once the deck is emptied, they can't be bought anymore.
A player ends their turn when they see fit after trading and building, and lets the following player take their turn.
There are three types of development cards: knight cards (20 copies), VP cards (5 copies) and progress cards (6 in total).
- Knight cards can be played to move the robber as if a 7 was rolled, without causing players to discard half their hand. Knights are then kept in front of the player.
- VP cards are kept hidden for the entire game; they are worth 1 VP each.
- Progress cards (2 of each sub-type) each have a special effect :
- Road Building cards are used to instantly build 2 roads.
- Monopoly cards are used to take all of a given resource from the other players.
- Year of Plenty cards are used to draw two resources of the player's choice.
- Road Building cards are used to instantly build 2 roads.
There are two bonus cards that give 2 VP each to their owner: the Longest Road, which is given to the first player to build a 5-piece road, and the Largest Army, which is given to the first player to have 3 knights in front of them. The Longest Road can be interrupted by an opponent's Settlement, and any time a player has a longer road or larger army than the owner of the corresponding card, they take it for themselves.
The winner is the first player to reach 10 VP.
Players:
Snakes
ika
lilith2013
Aronis
Current status in post 44.
