The Settlers of Catan - Terrain game

Game data

• Age: from 12 years
• Number: 20 +
• Terrain: outdoors, forest, meadow
• Leaders: 6-9 (depending on number of groups and variation)
• Duration: 60 min +

Materials

• Raw materials (bricks, wood, sheep, ore, ears of corn) --> can be different colored pieces of paper
• Baking paper to mark the villages, towns and streets (for the building center)
• Barrier tape to mark the group locations
• possibly markings for robbers

Aim of the game

Each group (nation) builds as many roads, villages and towns as possible. The nation with the most points wins. There is one point per village, two points per town and five points for the longest road.

Implementation

Depending on the number of children, there are 5 to 8 colonies. Each has its own group location (HQ). Each tribe has a raw material (bricks, wood, sheep, ore, ears of corn) in its HQ.

To build certain things, they need different resources, which they can obtain in 2 ways:

1. Go to the HQ of another tribe with your own resource card and exchange your resource 1:1 for another.
2. Capture other players and make rock-paper-scissors with 3 victories. The following applies:

• The winner receives as many cards from the opponent as he had in his hand (He had 2, so he also receives 2 if the other player has that many).
• A player may never have more than 6 cards in his hand. This means that he cannot attack with more than 3 cards.
• The game is always played for the maximum number of cards that both players have. (The attacker has 3 cards, the attacked player has 2, so the game is played for 2 cards)

Then you rush to the building center (in the middle of the terrain) with the various resources and can build there by handing over the cards and drawing the corresponding building for the corresponding people on the baking paper. The following applies:

There must be at least two roads between two villages.

Before a town can be built, a village must first be built.

Variants

1. Robbers (marked leaders) suddenly enter the game, give the participants a high-five and start constructing buildings themselves. They do not have to trade, but receive the participants' cards for free if they touch them. (Only introduce this towards the end of the game)
2. A certain leader goes to the headquarters of a group. Where this leader is, no resources can be exchanged. This creates a blockade. The players are dependent on bartering with each other.
3. It costs twice as much to build something. The players must cooperate more with each other as they can only carry 6 cards.

Image sources

• Cover picture: © Lukas Leuenberger / Jungschar Brunnen