The Settlers of Catan

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/settlers-of-catan-movie-tv-project-gail-katz-1201437121/

I sincerely hope that everyone has had the opportunity to experience this board game as it is truly a masterpiece! If you have not yet had the chance, before class on Tuesday I would definitely recommend checking out: https://catanuniverse.com/en/game where you can play online and learn the basics of the game. Catan has TONS of rules so I think it will be beneficial to give an overview of the game propelling us forward consistently so we can talk about some more interesting stuff!

Game Components

The game is made up of the following components:

• 19 terrain hexes (tiles) 

• 6 sea frame pieces 

• 9 harbor pieces 

• 18 circular number tokens (chits) 

• 95 Resource Cards (bearing the symbols for the ore, grain, lumber, wool, and brick resources) 

• 25 Development Cards (14 Knight/Soldier Cards, 6 Progress Cards, 5 Victory Point Cards) 

• 4 “Building Costs” Cards 

• 2 Special Cards: “Longest Road” & “Largest Army” 

• 16 cities (4 of each color shaped like churches) 

• 20 settlements (5 of each color shaped like houses) 

• 60 roads (15 of each color shaped like bars) 

• 2 dice (1 yellow, 1 red) 

• 1 robber 

• 1 Game Rules & Almanac booklet

Game Setup

The game can be setup from a beginner version where the oldest player goes first, but as we are all experienced math students, age has become trivial as a deciding factor, and we must leave it up to chance to decide who goes first. 

In this version of Catan, called Variable Game Setup, the board is setup in the following manner:

1. The terrain hexes will be placed face up, randomly inside the board frame (6 sea frame pieces).

2. The harbor pieces will be placed face up, randomly on each of the 9 harbors on the board frame.

3. The 18 number tokens will be placed face up, moving from one corner of the board, circularly counter clockwise in toward the center of board, skipping the desert.

https://media.giphy.com/media/qgs1fA4rZhLKU/giphy.gif

Each player begins the game by choosing the color of their pieces and receives the following: 5 settlements, 4 cities, and 15 road segments.

Each player rolls both dice, and the player who rolls the highest goes first and begins the game. That player then places their first settlement and a road segment adjacent to their settlement. The other players then follow suit, in a clockwise motion. Once every player has laid down one settlement and one road segment, the last player to do so lays down their second settlement and second road segment, and then they pick up the three resource cards from tiles on which they laid their second settlement. The rest of the players again follow suit, picking up their resource cards along the way as well.

The player who rolled highest initially will be the last to place their second settlement, but will begin the game by rolling the dice!

Game Play

Your turn:

As your turn begins, you roll the die for resource production - this roll applies to all players, so if you roll an 8 and other players also have a settlement on an 8 then they also collect their respective resource.

Following your roll, you have the ability to trade resources either with other players (domestic trade) - through whatever method each party sees fit, or via a maritime trade - in which you can trade 4 of the same resource for any 1 resource you seek. If you have a settlement on a port you can trade at a ratio of 3:1 or 2:1 depending on the port.

After you have finished trading you can build roads, settlements, cities, or buy a development card. You can also play one development card during your turn, but you may not play a development card that you bought in the same turn.

Note: As ability increases, combining trading and building is suggested, it not only makes the game more fun but it speeds up play! 

Building

Building requires resources and everything that you need to build in the game requires different resources.

Roads: 1 Brick, 1 Lumber

Settlements: 1 Brick, 1 Lumber, 1 Wool, and 1 Grain

Cities: 3 Ore and 2 Grain

Development Cards: 1 Ore, 1 Wool, and 1 Grain

A quick note on roads, the first player to build a continuous road (not containing forks) receiving a special card appropriately called Longest Road worth two victory points. If another player surpasses 5 that player is now the rightful owner of the Longest road, and two victory points. 

Special Cases

1. Activating the robber! *GASP*

If a 7 is rolled, nobody collects any resources as there are no chits with the number 7 on them. 

Additionally, every player who has more than 7 resource cards forfeits half (rounded down (the floor)) of their cards and must return them to their respective piles.

Whoever is responsible for rolling the 7 must then move the robber, to wherever you see fit, which includes the desert tile! This means hindering your opponents from collecting resources if the robber is on one of their settlement's hex tiles, or maintaining a neutral relationship with players if you decide to place the robber on the desert. 

Finally, you may then steal (it is a robber after all) 1 random resource card from another player who has a settlement adjacent to the target terrain hex. 

https://memegenerator.net/instance/34567149/success-kid-rolls-a-7-in-settlers-of-catan-has-6-cards

2. Playing Development Cards

Types of Development Cards:

Knight: The player can move the robber.

Road Building: The player can place two road segments, just as if they built them like normal.

Year of Plenty: The player can pick up any two resource cards of their choice from the bank.

Monopoly: The player can claim all resources of a single type from the other players in the game, which they currently hold.

Victory Point Card: This adds 1 victory point to a player's total and should be kept hidden until the player is ready to declare victory!

As I said earlier, at any point during your turn you can play 1 Development Card, which you already had. 

The first player to reveal 3 Knight cards, commands the Largest Army in the game and receives 2 victory points, until another player gets a larger number of knight cards, similar to Longest Road.

Winning

If you have 10 or more victory points during your turn, then you've won and the game is over! If you find yourself in the situation where you have accrued 10 victory points and it isn't your turn then you must wait until it is your turn to declare victory.

https://media.giphy.com/media/SxthdSyeTcbRK/giphy.gif

Alright, a rather long winded introduction to the rules, but I felt that it was necessary in order to discuss some of the math going on in the game!

I want to leave you all with the following questions, which I hope to also talk about on Tuesday:

Does anyone think that getting robbed can be a good thing?

How can we think about Catan from an economist's point of view?

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleyperez/how-to-piss-off-every-settler-of-catan-in-just-14-moves?utm_term=.wodxaMvVy#.wtpqg5pYW

Sources:

"Development Card." World of Catan Wiki. Wikia, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.
Teuber, Klaus. "Game Rules & Almanac." Settlers of Catan. N.p., 1995. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.