The Settlers of Catan
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| Designer(s) | Klaus Teuber |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) |
Kosmos (Germany) Catan Studio (USA and UK) Filosofia (France) 999 Games (Benelux) Capcom (Japan) Smart (Russia) Κάισσα (Greece) Devir (Brazil) HaKubia (Israel) Grow Jogos e Brinquedos (Brazil) Galakta (Poland) Albi (Czech republic and Slovakia) |
| Publication date | 1995 |
| Players | 3 to 4 (standard) 2, 5, or 6 (with expansions) |
| Age range | 8+ |
| Setup time | approximately 8 minutes |
| Playing time | 1-4 hours |
| Random chance | low-moderate |
| Skill(s) required | Strategy |
| Website | catan.com |
The Settlers of Catan, sometimes shortened to Catan, is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber and first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as Die Siedler von Catan. Players assume the roles of settlers, each attempting to build and develop holdings while trading and acquiring resources. Players are awarded points as their settlements grow; the first to reach a set number of points, typically 10, is the winner. The game and its many expansions are also published by Mayfair Games, Filosofia, Capcom, 999 Games, Κάισσα, and Devir.
The Settlers of Catan was one of the first German-style board games to achieve popularity outside of Europe. As of 2015, more than 22 million copies in 30 languages had been sold. The game involves large amounts of strategy, while still being fairly simple to learn.
The players in the game represent settlers establishing colonies on the island of Catan. Players build settlements, cities, and roads to connect them as they settle the island. The game board, which represents the island, is composed of hexagonal tiles (hexes) of different land types, which are laid out randomly at the beginning of each game. Newer editions of the game began to depict a fixed layout in their manual, which has been proven to be fairly even-handed by computer simulations, and recommend this to be used by beginners. In 2016, editions of the game were released with a conventional fixed layout board in this configuration, the hexes of which cannot be rearranged.
Players build by spending resources (brick, lumber, wool, grain, and ore), represented by resource cards; each land type, with the exception of the unproductive desert, produces a specific resource. On each player's turn, two six-sided dice are rolled to determine which hexes produce resources. Any players with settlements or cities adjacent to hexes marked with the number rolled receive resource cards of the appropriate type. There is also a robber token, initially on the desert; if a player rolls 7, the robber must be moved to another hex, which will no longer produce resources until the robber is moved again; the player may also steal a resource card from another player. In addition, when a 7 is rolled, all players with more than 7 resource cards must discard half of their cards, rounded down. However, the player gets to choose which half of their resource cards they must discard. For example, a player with 11 resource cards must discard any five cards when a 7 is rolled.
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