The Settlers of Catan - Terrain game

Game data

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

Material

• Raw material (brick, wood, sheep, ore, ear of corn) --> can be different colored pieces of paper
• Baking paper to mark the villages, towns and streets (for 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 one has its own group location (HQ). Each tribe has a resource (brick, wood, sheep, ore, ear of corn) in its HQ.

In order to build certain things, they need different resources, which they can obtain in 2 ways:

1. Go to the HQ of another nation with your own resource card and exchange your resource 1:1 for another one.

2. Capture other players and make scissors-stone-paper on 3 victories. The following applies:

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

You then rush to the building center (in the middle of the terrain) with the various resources and can build there by handing in the cards and drawing the corresponding building on the baking paper for the corresponding people. 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.

Variations

1. Robbers (marked leaders) suddenly come into play, high-five the participants and start building buildings themselves. They do not have to make any trades, they 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 HQ of a group. No resources can be exchanged where this leader is. 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.

Picture credits

• Cover picture: © Lukas Leuenberger / Jungschar Brunnen