The Settlers of Catan (english rules)

The goal of this game is to earn 10 points through builing houses and towns. You are a Settler discovering a new island, you want to settle down there, but many other people are doing the same.

The different landscapes and types of resources

There are six different kinds of landscapes on catan. Each one (exept the desert) of them correspond to a differnt type of resource.

	pasture (Weideland) wool (Wolle) sheep (Schaf)		farmland (Ackerland) corn (Getreide) ear (Ährenbündel)
	fell (Hügelland) loam (Lehm) bricks (Bausteine)		mountains (Gebirge) ore (Erz) lode (Erzgestein)
	forest (Wald) wood (Holz) trunk (Baumstämme)	desert (Wüste ) doesn't give any resource

Rule of distance You can only build a house if there are no other houses or towns at the adjacent crosspoints. Example: The houses with A are already build. You can't build at the placed marked with a B, because they are to near. C is allowed.

Preparations shuffle the landscapes lay them on the table as shown on the left put harbors around there fill in the water-pieces put the numbered chips on the board, starting at a landscape on the edge with the letter A going clockwise like a spiral inside, leave the desert free (The bigger the print of the number the more often it is thrown, the red ones are the most frequent ones) put the thief on the desert let everyone throw the dice, to decide who is beginning Forming a foundation the first player builds a house and an adjacent road clockwise all others do this, too (notice the distance-rule) the last player starts again: building a second house and a road, he also gets resources from all landscapes near to the house. anticlockwise back everyone does the same. Now the games starts with the first player.

The Expensetable (Baukosten)

English	German	expenses
street	Straße	1 wood, 1 loam,
house / settlement	Siedlung	1 wood, 1 loam, 1 corn, 1 wool
town	Stadt	2 corn, 3 ore
development	Entwicklung	1 corn, 1 sheep, 1 ore

The Game

The player who is in turn throws the dice. Everyone having a house adjacent to a landscape bearing this number gets one resource of this type, for a town you earn two resourcecards. You don't get anything if the landscape is blocked by the thief.

If a seven is thrown everyone has to count his cards, if he got more the seven of them he has to give the half of his cards back to the bank. In case a player holds an uneven number, then the number of cards handed back is rounded down.

Now the player can buy...

• streets (Straßen) and houses (Siedlungen), which he has to be build immediately and only next to already existing streets. If you have no houses or streets left, you can't build. If you have a streetline with more than five streets you get the "Longest-Street"-Card with equals 2 goalpoints. The street may not be interrupted by a foreign house or town. If someone builds a longer streetline, he gets the card.
• towns (Städte) are replacing houses, they also have to be placed immediately
• Development-cards (Entwicklungskarte) can not be used until the next round and only one per turn
  • Warrior (Ritter): If you use this card you may move the thief to another landscape and steal one card of one of the adjacent players. If you have more then 3 Warriors turned up you also get the "Biggest Warrior Force"-Card which equals 2 Goalpoints, this card is always in possesion of the player with the most warriors turned up. You can play the warrior even before throwing the dice.
  • 1 Goalpoint (Siegpunkt): Don't show this card, when have think you'vewon the game, you reveal the card
  • Improvement (Fortschrift): There are three different improvements
    • road system (Straßenbau): You can build two streets immediately
    • invention (Erfindung): Take two resource-cards
    • monopoly (Monopol): Choose a resourcetyp, everyone bearing cards with this type has to give them to you
• He can exchange cards with every other player any time during his turn.
• If he got any harbours (through building a house or a town nearby) he can exchange 3 same cards to 1 card free of choice (general harbor) or 2 of a prechossen kind to 1 (special harbour). If he has no habour at all he can exchange 4 of a kind to 1.

Some tips

• Try to get wood and loam at the beginning as there are needed very often.
• Try to build next to all kinds of landscapes.
• Build next to landscapes with a big number, because they get thrown more often.
• Habours are very useful especially when you have lots of resourcecard of one type.
• Even if its not your turn, try to exchange cards with the player who is.

translation by martin girschick, march 1999