Explorers of Catan

From World Of Catan

Explorers of Catan is a The Settlers of Catan variant designed by Kathryn Andersen. It is not to be confused with The Explorers of Catan which is an individually sold, unlicensed expansion that was distributed by someone on eBay in the early 2000s.

Explorers of Catan is a game where three players settle and explore the unknown continent of Catan, with the aim of settling the most territory. Some of the ideas of this are based on "Intimate Settlers", a Settlers of Catan 2-player variant.

Settlers of Catan base set (Variation: use 6-player extension set also) Number of players: three Setup

  1. Separate out the land hexagons, the port hexagons and the water hexagons.
  2. Shuffle (or otherwise randomize) the land hexagons, and lay them out face down in the usual hexagon shape.
  3. Lay down the water hexes around the edge, leaving a space between each hex -- that is, water, space, water, space. The spaces are for the port hexes.
  4. Pull out three 3-in-1 port hexes, and place one, face up, on one side of the "continent", so that it touches two land hexes. Place the next 3-in-1 port hex on the third side of the continent, face up, so that it touches two land hexes. Likewise place the third 3-in-1 port hex on the fifth side of the continent, so that it touches two land hexes.
  5. Place all the other port hexes face-down in the spots left for them around the edges of the continent.
  6. For each of the face-up 3-in-1 ports, turn the land hexes next to them face-up, and place a number token on each one, such that the probability marks of both tokens add up to 8. That is, one can put a 9 + 5, or 8 + 10, or 8 + 4 or 6 + 10 or 6 + 4.
  7. Take the remaining number tokens and put them face down on the table, or in a bag, so that they can be picked randomly.
  8. Use your favourite method of figuring out who goes first.
  9. The player who goes first picks which exposed port is his. He can place two settlements and two roads as follows: one settlement at the port, a road to the vertex of port-land-land, another road from that vertex between the two face-up land hexes, and a settlement at the end of this road.

     (Variation: place one city at the port and one road instead of two settlements and two roads)

     In either case, he then turns up the third land hex (the one between the two known land hexes) and pulls a token from the pool for it, just as if he were exploring new territory (see below for Exploring New Territory). Note that he does not get to see the third hex until after he has chosen which port is his own.
 10. The second and third players do likewise, with the ports of their choice.
 11. Turn all the port hexes face up.
 12. Everyone is given one resource card of each type.

Then you can start playing. Play

Play goes as for normal Settlers, with the following additions. Exploring New Territory

When a road is built such that it points towards a vertex which contains an unexplored (face down) hex, then the player building the road can turn the hex face up.

If the hex is a land hex, the player then takes a random number token from the unused pool, and places it on the new land hex, provided that it - is not identical to the number of any hex touching it - its placement does not put a 6 token next to an 8 token

If either of these happen, then the token must be placed back in the pool and another one drawn. If there are only two tokens left and they both break the rule, then one must be swapped with the next-most-recently placed token. (Note: see below about Bonus Points)

After a hex has been "discovered" it is treated just like an ordinary hex; roads and settlements can be built on it, and so on. Bonus Points

If you wish, you can make yourself one or two bonus Explorer Points cards, which are worth one point, for the first person to expose a 2 and/or 12 hex and/or desert. Victory Conditions

The whole board must be explored before anyone can win. After that, the first to 12 points is the winner (though you can choose to play to more or less points if you wish). If you are playing to more points, then you may wish to give a player two colours of blocks to use, the second colour to be used after the player has used up all of the first colour. The Longest Road

Note that since every person is playing from one starting spot, it's more likely that there is going to be a "longest road". Some variants have it that as soon as someone else makes a road of equal length to the longest road, then there is no "longest road" and the card goes back into the box until there is again just one person who has the longest road.

As ever, where there are variant scorings, double-check with the people you're playing with before you start, as to which rules you are playing by, so as to avoid squabbles later.