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Die Siedler von Catan
Intimate Settlers
aktualisiert am 11.12.1997
Designed by Duncan Adams and Nic Chilton © 1997

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 This variant is currently going under a playtest. I am happy for anyone to use the rules, but please email me so that I know who is using it, and to keep you informed of changes and when the final version is ready.
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Intimate Settlers is a game for two players that uses the Settlers of Catan basic game. The two players are small nations surrounded by uncharted territory. The aim is to expand your territory, building trade routes, hopefully to the mythical homeland of a people across the unknown.
 


Playing time, approximately 90 minutes.


 

1. Game Components

To play this variant only a basic set of Settlers (either Kosmos or Mayfair) is needed. Each player takes one colour (for roads, settlements and cities), and then the roads of one of the two remaining colours (to be used as ships). Optionally counters may be used for keeping track of additional Victory Points.

2. Set-up

The resource (raw material) cards and development cards are shuffled and placed in piles as in the standard game. Each player is given the following seven hex tiles, the rest are put to one side for use in the 'Discovery' stack. The Five land tiles are placed together in two rows (the green tiles in the diagram), with the two tile row squarely facing the other player. The player can decide where to put each land tile. This set of five tiles is known as the players Home Base. The plain sea tile and the 3:1 harbour are then placed adjacent to the land tiles (shown as blue in the diagram).
 



 


Once each player has done this, the space between the two Home Bases should be measured to ensure they are four tiles apart. This can be achieved by temporarily placing four tiles and moving each players starting set up so that they are exactly four tiles apart - these temporarily placed tiles can then be removed.

Each player is given the number tiles 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 to be placed on the land tiles. The player going first, determined by highest dice role, places his/her first number tile, player B then places, his/her first number tile, this is repeated for each tile until each player has placed all five number tiles.

Each player then places two settlements, shown by 'A' in the diagram at the intersection between three land hexes. A road is placed next to each settlement on any of the surrounding edges (as in the standard game). Player A places the first road, then player B places their first, player A places their second, etc.

The remaining Hex and number tiles will be used when exploring the undiscovered region. Shuffle all the remaining Hex Tiles (land, sea, and harbours), and place them in a bag to allow them to be drawn randomly, called the 'discovery' stack. Accordingly the remaining unused number tiles should be mixed in another bag to allow random drawing when a land tile has been discovered.

To complete the set-up each player then choose any three resource cards.

3. Playing the Game

The game is then played like the standard Settlers game, with each player taking turns. The game also uses rules from the seafarer expansion set for ships (though the additional Victory Points are different) - these have been summarised below for those unfamiliar with the expansion set.

An important difference between this variant and the basic game is in trading. The players in this game may no longer trade with each other, although trading with the bank at 4:1 or through settlements on harbours is still allowed.

The victory conditions the game is to reach 18 victory points. These are awarded as in the basic game, but additional victory points are also available (see section below)

4. Ships

Intimate settlers has ship units, as used in the seafarer expansion set. Building ships cost one wool and one wood. Ships are like roads, placed along the edges of tiles, either on coastal edges or in open sea. Newly built ships must be placed either next to an own settlement or city and/or next to an own ship (branching is allowed). It is however not allowed to be built continuing on from a road (and vice versa for building roads onto ships), unless a settlement or city has been built at the connecting intersection.

In general ships are used on sea/coasts like roads are on land. If a chain of ships, or a ship line, built into the sea reaches land a settlement may be built (but the distance rule still applies). An uninterrupted ship line between two settlements is called a 'closed ship line', and a ship line which does not (yet) connect is called an 'open ship line'. The foremost ship of an 'open ship line' may be displaced and moved elsewhere (according to the rules governing ship placement). Only one ship per turn may be displaced, and this cannot be a ship built in the same turn. Ships in a 'closed ship line' may not be displaced.

The cards that apply to roads in the basic game also now apply to ships. The longest trade route card includes roads and ships, and the "Road Building" card allows building of two ships, two roads, or one of each. There is no pirate ship (as in the seafarer expansion) in this variant.
 



 

5. Discovery

All of the area outside the 14 tiles used in the initial set-up is treated as 'undiscovered region' of the board. Once a player places a ship or road along the edge towards an intersection where a hex tile is missing he/she then draws a hex tile randomly from the bag of hex tiles (the 'discovery' stack) and places it on the board to fill in the missing space. If the tile is a harbour the player may choose the orientation of the tile, although if it is being placed next to another harbour tile it may not be placed so that it causes an intersection to contain two ports. If it is impossible to place the harbour tile without causing two ports at one intersection, then another tile may be drawn and the harbour shuffled back into the bag.

If the tile drawn is a land tile, then the player randomly draws a number tile to place on the land tile. This land produces one resource card of the same type for the player who drew the tile. If the hex tile drawn is a sea or harbour tile, then no resource card is produced.

5.1 Building into the unknown.

If a player is building two or more roads/ships on the same trade route where the first ship built to the intersection with a missing tile, the player may build one unit at a time deciding if he/she wants to carry on building (given sufficient resources in their hand) once the hex has been drawn. This allows a player to decide if they want to stop if they discover land or sea.

6. Special Victory Points

In addition to the Victory Points awarded as in the basic game of settlers the following VP's are available.

6.1 Settlement on New Land

The first player to build a settlement on each new island is awarded 1 extra Victory Point. A new Island is one consisting of one or more land hexes that have been 'discovered' and are not connected by land to either players home base (i.e. surrounded by sea hexes and/or undiscovered regions) at the time of building. Note: if a 'new land' subsequently turns out to be connected to a players Home Base, or other previously discovered Island by discovering land in a surrounding 'undiscovered' region, the Victory Point still stands, since it was awarded for the status of the island 'at the time of building'. The first settlement on each 'discovered' island is awarded the extra VP, and not the first settlement by each player (if one player has built on an island, the other player does not get an extra VP for building on the same island).

6.2 Foreign Trade Route

An aim of the game is for a trade route to be established with the opposing player's home base. Extra Victory Points are available for building onto the opposing players Home Base (i.e. original starting five land hexes. If the starting island have been extended by discovered hexes, these do not count in terms of awarding these VP's, since they are not part of the original Home Base. Note: These are mutually exclusive. If a player is claiming the 5 VP, he/she cannot claim the 1 VP for the ship along the edge of the Home Base. Similarly if the settlement is upgraded they get 7 VP for the city and do not claim 5 VP for the settlement or 1 VP for the ship along the edge.

If a player has claimed +1 VP for building a ship along the edge of a land tile of the opponents Home Base, and subsequently displaces this ship - the VP is lost.
 

7. Optional Rules

The Following extra rules are currently optional extra's. We are hoping that feedback from the play tests will decide their fate. Please email me with comments.
a) Play with the Pirate Ship as per Seafarer rules.

The pirate ship starts on any sea hex, in the middle of that hex.
i) If a player throws a 7, he can choose whether to move the thief or the pirate ship. If he moves the pirate ship he can steal a card from an owner of neighbouring ships.
ii) If a player plays a knight card, he again has the same choice.
iii) A ship can neither be placed at nor removed from an edge adjacent to the pirate ship.
b) All Ships, roads, Settlements and cities on opposing home base to count cumulatively towards 18VP's required to win the game
c) At the beginning of the game, four of each product are shuffled together to make a "trade pack". On a players turn he/she may exchange any one only of their resource card for the top unknown card from the "trade pack". Once the trade pack is exhausted it is re-shuffled and may be used again.
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