Gaming WorkshopSiedler von Catan Variants

 


Super Siedler

New Structures

Entdecker Structures

New Cost Card

Entdecker Cost Card


These new rules for Siedler von Catan were playtested extensively in the long Raleigh summer of 1999. We had two copies of the game that year, so we ended up joining them and inventing Super Siedler.

These rules for combining two copies of Siedler, and for adding the pieces from Entdecker, are also available as a download.

Super Siedler

Equipment: Two copies of Siedler von Catan.

Setup: When building the board, mix in eight sea hexes, four with ports and four without. The land of Catan will then have lakes, inlets, and inland ports. A good shape for the board is two regular boards joined at an edge, with four hexes filling the space at each shared vertex. But any shape will do.

An interesting variant is to deal out the hexes to the players and have them place them, one by one, in some alternating order. The resulting board may have a very odd shape, indeed.

When placing the remaining port hexes around the edges of the board, distribute them as evenly as possible. There may not be enough other sea hexes to fill the perimeter of the board, but that doesn't matter.

Place the counters on the hexes, one set at a time, but each set in the designated, by letter order. Choose a spiral pattern that approximates the one used in the regular game. After placing counters, check to make sure that no red counters ("6" or "8") are touching each other. If any are, switch one with a black counter that is not adjacent to any red counters. Keep doing this until all red counters are isolated from one another, unless this is not possible.

Place a bandit in each desert.

New Rules: There are now two bandits, which cannot simultaneously occupy the same hex. Each has the normal effect of a bandit. When a player must move the bandit (because of rolling a seven or playing a Ritter), he or she may choose which one to move. One must be moved, of course.

Since there are twice as many hexes for each number that can be rolled on the dice, the number of raw material cards one can hold without losing some when the robber becomes active (because someone rolled a seven) is increased to ten.

New Structures: There are new structures that can built, with a new cost card for them.

Bridge
Highway
Metropolis

More structures can be built if one has the wooden pieces from the game Entdecker. Just assign each player the pieces of the closest matching color to their Settler pieces, and use this cost card.

Prospector
Trading Post
Fort
Capital

Victory: The number of points required to win should be 20-30, depending on how long a game you want.


Related Sites
Review of Die Siedler von Catan
 at the Game Cabinet
The Settlers of Catan

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