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Catan Base Game

$47.99

In CATAN (formerly The Settlers of Catan), players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players build by spending resources (sheep, wheat, wood, brick and ore) that are depicted by these resource cards; each land type, with the exception of the unproductive desert, produces a specific resource: hills produce brick, forests produce wood, mountains produce ore, fields produce wheat, and pastures produce sheep.

Setup includes randomly placing large hexagonal tiles (each showing a resource or the desert) in a honeycomb shape and surrounding them with water tiles, some of which contain ports of exchange. Number disks, which will correspond to die rolls (two 6-sided dice are used), are placed on each resource tile. Each player is given two settlements (think: houses) and roads (sticks) which are, in turn, placed on intersections and borders of the resource tiles. Players collect a hand of resource cards based on which hex tiles their last-placed house is adjacent to. A robber pawn is placed on the desert tile.

A turn consists of possibly playing a development card, rolling the dice, everyone (perhaps) collecting resource cards based on the roll and position of houses (or upgraded cities—think: hotels) unless a 7 is rolled, turning in resource cards (if possible and desired) for improvements, trading cards at a port, and trading resource cards with other players. If a 7 is rolled, the active player moves the robber to a new hex tile and steals resource cards from other players who have built structures adjacent to that tile.

Points are accumulated by building settlements and cities, having the longest road and the largest army (from some of the development cards), and gathering certain development cards that simply award victory points. When a player has gathered 10 points (some of which may be held in secret), he announces his total and claims the win.

Description

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!

  • 10+
  • 3–4 players
  • 45–90 min.

Game Introduction: Clever trading, strategy, tactical skill, luck

  • Spiel des Jahres 1995 (1995 Game of the Year) [Germany]
  • Deutscher Spiele Preis 1995 (1995 Award for Best Adult and Family Games) – 1st place [Germany]
  • Essener Feder 1995 – Beste Spielregel (1995 Award for Best Rulebook) [Germany]

To play with 5–6 players, the 5–6 player extension is required.

  • Base Game
  • Seafarers
  • Cities & Knights
  • Traders & Barbarians
  • Explorers & Pirates

About the game

The women and men of your expedition build the first two settlements. Fortunately, the yet uninhabited land is rich in natural resources. You build roads and new settlements that eventually become cities. Will you succeed in gaining supremacy on CATAN? Barter trade dominates the scene. Some resources you have in abundance, other resources are scarce. Ore for wool, brick for lumber – you trade according to what is needed for your current building projects. Proceed strategically! If you found your settlements in the right places and skillfully trade your resources, then the odds will be in your favor. But your opponents are smart too.


To begin the game, we build the game board using hexagonal terrain tiles. CATAN is born – a beautiful island with mountains, pastures, hills, fields, and forests, surrounded by the sea.

The Settlers of Catan - Game Board

Each of us places two small houses on spaces where three terrain hexes meet. They are our starting settlements.

And so it begins. I roll two dice. An “11”! Each terrain hex is marked with a die roll number. Each player who owns a settlement adjacent to a terrain hex marked with the number rolled receives a resource produced by this hex. Hills produce brick, forests produce lumber, mountains produce ore, fields produce grain, and pastures produce wool.

We use these resources to expand across CATAN: we build roads and new settlements, or we upgrade our existing settlements to cities. For example, a road costs 1 brick and 1 lumber. If we do not have the necessary resources, we can acquire them by trading with our opponents.

Each settlement is worth 1 victory point and each city is worth 2 victory points. If you expand cleverly, you may be the first player to reach 10 victory points and thus win the game!

Additional information

Weight 3.4 lbs
Dimensions 14 × 12 × 5 in