Cactus Game Design
Settlers of Canaan
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| Publisher(s) | Cactus Game Design |
|---|---|
| Players | 2 to 4 |
| Age range | 7 years and up |
| Setup time | approx. 10 minutes |
| Playing time | 45 to 60 minutes |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Skill(s) required | Dice rolling, Trading |
Settlers of Canaan is a licensed adaptation of Catan that incorporates Hebrew Bible themes into its multiplayer board game play. It was published in 2002 by Cactus Game Design, based in North Carolina.
Settlers of Canaan takes place in the ancient land of Canaan, which roughly corresponds to the northern half of present-day Israel.
Players play the roles of various tribes of Israel which settled in this geographical region. The game progresses very similarly to the Catan: as players expand their settlements throughout the land, they trade resources and make strategic choices to outmaneuver their opponents.
The most striking difference in the Settlers of Canaan is its fixed playing board. Like with many Catan variants, both the hexagonal land tiles and the numerical disks are printed directly on the board. Also, one land tile, called the "copper hex" (equivalent to the "gold hex" in some expansions to Settlers of Catan), allows bordering players to select which resource(s) it produces. Trading ports are scattered along the western coastline, which borders the Great Sea, as well as around the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, which is surrounded by land tiles.
In Settlers of Canaan, the "robber" is called the "plague." Moving the robber is referred to as "cleansing the plague" from a particular land tile, and it has the same effect as in Settlers of Catan.
The object of the game is to amass 12 victory points. Current scores are indicated by color-coded markers on the eastern side of the playing board. Victory points are earned by building settlements and cities, by building the longest road, by amassing the most priests (equivalent to knights/soldiers in Settlers of Catan), and by obtaining the "King's Blessing."
If ties exist in competition for either the longest road or the most priests, then the corresponding 2-point bonus is removed from play.
The game ends when a player reaches 12 victory points or when the "Wall of Jerusalem" is completed, whichever comes first. In the latter scenario, the player with the most victory points wins the game. (If two or more players tie, then the winner is the player who has contributed more stones to the Wall of Jerusalem. If a tie exists in this tiebreaker, then gameplay continues until a clear winner emerges.)
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Wikipedia