New: FAQ for "Die Siedler" 1.0
>From jerry@uni-paderborn.de (Gerald Siek)
Organization University of Paderborn, Germany
Date Tue, 23 Apr 1996 09:05:59 +0100
Newsgroups rec.games.board
Message-ID
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fellow settlers,
here's version 1.0 of the FAQ for "Die Siedler from Catan". The
answers are based on the original german rules and clarifications
given by the german publisher Frankh-Kosmos. Please mail any
questions or errors found to me (jerry@math.uni-paderborn.de).\
Thanks to David desJardins for correcting some english-language
mistakes.
Gerald Siek, 04/23/96
"Die Siedler von Catan" Mini-FAQ / rules clarifications
-------------------------------------------------------
Q: I have a 3:1 harbor. Can I trade 3 different resource cards
for one?
A: No. All 3 cards must be of the same type.
Q: Does above apply for trading 4:1, too?
A: Yes.
Q: I just built a sheep harbor. Can I trade my sheep immediately?
A: No. All trading must be done *before* building.
Q: I have enough resources for a settlement *and* a city. Can I build
a settlement and upgrade it to a city in the same turn?
A: No. You have to wait one round. Only *existing* settlements may
be upgraded.
Q: Can I play a Ritter card *before* rolling the dice?
A: Yes. Cards can be played anytime during your turn. Your
turn starts when the player before you hands the dice to you.
Q: Can I play a Ritter card *between* rolling the dice and the production
of new resources?
A: No. Resources are produced *by* rolling the dice, thus this is an
indivisible operation.
Q: I have 9 victory points and I've drawn an Entwicklung card with
one additional VP. Do I win the game immediately or must I wait
one round?
A: You win immediately. VP cards are not played in the same manner
as Ritters or other Entwicklung cards. You gain the victory points
a soon as you draw the card.
Q: So the "one Entwicklung card per turn" limit does not apply to VP cards?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I build a road past an opponent's settlement?
A: This depends on who came first. Here's an example:
\_______/ \_______/
/ H\ / \
/ \ / \
_/ \_______/ \_
\ /F G\ /
\ / \ /
\_______/ \_______/
/B E\ / \
/ \ / \
_/ \_______/ \_
\A /D C\ /
\ / \ /
\_______/ \_______/
/ \ / \
Suppose Player 1 (p1) has a settlement at A and roads at A-B and B-E
Player 2 (p2) has a settlement at C and roads at C-D and D-E
If p1 builds a settlement at E, p2 may *not* build a road at E-F.
But:
If p2 builds a road at E-F *before* p1 builds the settlement at E,
p2 *may* continue to build roads at F-G or F-H After that p2
may even build additional settlements at G or H. However, the
road C-D-E-F-G/H is "disconnected" at E with regard to the "longest
trade route"
Q: Where can I find additional information about "Die Siedler" on the net?
A: Trevor Dewey maintains an excellent Siedler web page. It can be found at:
http://www.virtual-cafe.com/~tdewey/diesiedler.html
Q: I've found another ambiguous rule. How can I add it to the FAQ?
A: Just mail it to jerry@math.uni-paderborn.de
This FAQ is maintained by Gerald Siek (jerry@math.uni-paderborn.de)
Those who like good boardgames and can read german may want to check out:
http://members.aol.com/knutmwolf/spielplatz/
or http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~jerry/mirror/kmw/spielplatz/
--
Gerald Siek - jerry@uni-paderborn.de - University of Paderborn, Germany
Click here
Die Siedler is the short name of Klaus Teuber's
Spiel des Jahres(1995) winning boardgame Die Siedler Von Catan.
It is produced by Franckh-Kosmos
in Germany. This page is not associated in anyway with Franckh-Kosmos
or Mr. Teuber; being merely the mutterings of a a man pushed over the
edge by the game.
In english Die Siedler Von Catan translates as "The Settlers of Catan".
Die Siedler is one of the most addictive board games to come around
in the last twenty years.
The English, French, and Flemish translations of the rules for Die Siedler
can be found, along with a great many other useful gaming items, at Ken
Tidwell's most excellent
Game Cabinet. There is a great review of Die Siedler by
Jocelyn Becker
in the cabinet (Though I disagree rather strongly with a few of the
strategies she proposes. See the Laws of Catan section
in this document for futher information on strategy.)
That is a tough one. Are you going to force me to describe it like
this to you? You know this always leads to weird interpretations.
I'll take my chances.
Whatever. I would liken it to a mixture of Go, Eon's Borderlands, and
Go Fish, with a dash of Civilization and a pinch of Poker.
Huh? Go and Go Fish? Eon? Who are they? What?
Like I said...
Sure, but without my gifs (peter?) you're going to have to tax
your imagination.
Die Siedler is played on a game board composed of 37 semi-randomly
placed hexagons. The hexagons represent the various lands of the newly
discovered island of Catan. Players represent four bands of settlers
(red/blue/white/orange) who settle in this brave new world.
1 Wasteland
3 Mountains
3 Hills
4 Farmlands
4 Pastures
4 Forests
5 (1 each) of Wool/Timber/Brick/Ore/Wheat special harbors.
4 3:1 harbors
9 Opean Sea tiles (decorative only)>
The players assemble the board by shuffling the land tiles and
placing them face down. They then shuffle and place the harbor tiles
and finally the place the open sea tiles. After the tiles are
placed they are turned face up and the players scrutinize the board.
As might be expected the one of the most important board tile is the wasteland.
It's placement can determine the tempo of the game. Center placement is by far
the worst, followed by placement in the middle ring of tiles and (best) placement
in the outer ring of land tiles.
After the tiles are placed the tokens are distributed counterclockwise around
the board in alphabetical order. They are then turned face up to gasps of
horror if the two and the twelve are on the hill tiles or perhaps gasps of disgust if
the six and the eight are on the pasture tiles.
Players then place their two inital settlements and roads. Each player
places one settlement in clockwise order, when the fourth player has
placed his first settlement and road each player then places his settlement in
reverse order. The upshot of which is that the fourth player places
his second settlement and road immediately after he places his first.
Obviously playing fourth is best.
Regular play commences with each player, in turn, doing the following actions.
Player phase:
- Production.
- Trade.
- Build.
Production:
During the production phase. The phasing player rolls two six-sided
die to determine which tiles will prodcue. On a roll of seven no tiles
produce, instead the phasing player moves the robber to any tile he
chooses, stealing one card from any player with a settlement or city on
that tile. Furthermore, that tile is now locked until another seven is rolled or a
player plays a Ritter card and the robber moves. Locked tiles do not
produce. On each tile
is a token with a number there are two of each number between three and six and
eight and eleven, there one two token and one twelve token and (obviously)
no seven tokens. Any player with a settlement or a city that is on a
vertice of the producing tile recieves one resource card for each settlement
and two resource cards for each city. A tile may have (due to the distance
rule either one, two or possibly three (if all cities are placed
orthogonally) settlements or cities.
Mountains are mined for their Ore.
Hills produce Clay which are made into Bricks.
Pasture produce Sheep which are shorn for their Wool.
Farmlands grow Wheat.
Forests produce Timber.
Trade:
During the trade phase. The phasing player may trade with anyother player.
He may also preform sea-trade. The other players may only trade
with the phasing player. If a player does not own a harbor he may
trade his resource cards at a 4:1 ratio: 4 of any single type of
resource for one of any other resource. If the player owns a 2:1
special harbor or 3:1 general harbor he may trade his resource cards
at those rates during this time. The player may trade so long as he
wishes -- though clubs may want to set some time limits.
Build:
During the build phase the player transforms his resource cards into
various structures and/or development cards. Costs are as follows:
1 Brick + 1 Timber == 1 Road
1 Brick + 1 Timber + 1 Wool + One Wheat == 1 Settlement
2 Wheat + 3 Ore == 1 City (Cities are upgrades to existing settlements)
1 Wheat + 1 Ore + 1 Wool == 1 Development Card
It is during this phase that the game is most often (but not always) won.
The game ends win one player declares he has ten victory points.
Victory points are accumulated in the follwing ways:
Settlements == 1 VP (Limit 5)
Cities == 2 VP (Limit 4)
Longest Road == 2 VP (Limit 1)
Most Knights == 2 VP (Limit 1)
VP Development Cards == 1 VP (Limit 5)
Development Cards bought in one turn may not be used or displayed until
the next. Development Cards may be used or displayed at any time
during that players turn.
Well it doesnt seem all that great.
It is a great game. But you have to play it to figure it why. Any
text or graphic description wont do it justice. Hell, even when you get the box
and look at the rules and materials you still wont figure it out.
Play with three other good gamers (do not play a three player game) and then you'll
figure it out.
So far as I know, there are only two places that
have it in stock in the USA. It's probably much easier to obtain in
Germany and other parts of Europe
Games People Play
1100 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
(617) 492-0711
R & D Games
6400 Baltimore National Pike, #128
Baltimore, MD 21228, USA
(410) 788-4280
Phantom of the Attic
Pittsburgh, PA
(412) 621-1210 (Thanks Brad)
If you know of anyone else who carries it in the USA or Canada please
send me an email and I will
be happy to add them to this list.
Whoa. Hold on. Did you just say you played it with a couple of guys? By
couple you don't mean two do you ? You do? Man, oh Man.
You didnt check out my How
to ruin your enjoyment of a Great Game section.
Yes Virgina, there will be an expansion set. According to a post
from Gerald Siek on r.g.b the current release date
is set for the Nuremberg Game Fair in march(feb? can someone confirm?).
The alpha-version of the expansion has the following:
Chris Farrell (farrell@cicero.lerc.nasa.gov) writes:
>I heard talk awhile ago about an expansion for Die Siedler to accomodate 5
>or 6 people, that was to be available in October. Has anyone heard anything
>more about this?
I've been in Essen and the folks from Frankh-Cosmos (the german distributor
of DSvC) told me that the 5-6 players expansion is planned to be released
at the "Nürnberger Spielemesse" (Nuremberg Game Fair) in February (or March)
1996. A lot of people were quite disappointed about this. Of course one
could make his own "expansion" by using two copies of DSvC :-)
If I remember correctly, the "alpha-version" of the expansion set included
18 additional land tiles (one additional desert, one less willow)
3 additional port tiles (3:1)
3 additional sea tiles
2 sets of buildings for the 5th and 6th player
7 Knight cards
3 "Fortschritt" cards (one of each)
3 Vicory point cards
10 additional resource cards of each type
There was one major rule modification:
Every player is allowed to build or buy developement cards during every
player's turn, i.e. after the current player has built settlements/roads/etc.
all other players may do this, too, following clockwise.
This new rule was introduced because in a 6 player game players can accumulate
a large number of resource cards during one round which would make the robber
too important and powerful.
--
Gerald Siek - jerry@uni-paderborn.de - University of Paderborn, Germany
Click Here
The expansion also introduces the controversial all build
rule.
Doesnt this expansion list seem a little excessive?
Sure looks that way to me. Disregarding the rule controversy. I can
see the need for the addtional development cards and resource cards.
But 18 land tiles? The expansion sounds like its going to be the
equivalent of playing two three player games as opposed to what I hoped for:
the equivalent of a pumped up super-psychotic four player game.
You keep going on endlessly about four player as opposed to three player games.
See the following.
- Play with more or less than four players.
- Allow free trading during every players turn.
- Allow builds to occur during every players turn.
- Play nice.
- Whine.
- Forget to Bathe.
Why does it suck to play with more of less than the four players?
Both in play of the the normal game and playtesting of a 5/6 player
variant a general consensus emerged from all players and testers.
Three player games suck because there are too many resources.
Four player games suck because the game time increases and there are
too few resources. Die Siedler as it stands is perfectly balanced for
four players. So it goes.
Who on earth would allow free trading?
Got me. But apparently some groups do. Since this is explicitly verboten
in the rules I have; I am curious as to what their rationale is. Seems to
me it would skew the game.
Who on earth would allow builds to occur during every players turn?
Klaus Teuber. This apparently is the current change to the rules for the 5/6
player expansion. Their rationale, if that is the appropriate word, is that
the robber becomes too important. Klaus, I doubt if you will ever read
this, but if you do please, please don't make this rule change. Here is
why the rule as it stands is just fine for a six player game.
The likelyhood is that the robber will move once during every complete
phase(1 in 6 chance!). This is true, but to quote Douglas Adams,
probably unimportant.
The card loss due to robber movement should essentially balance with
the increased production due to five players rolling for production
before you move as opposed to three. Of course this all assumes that
the game balance hasnt been altered already by adding way to many land
tiles. Oh hell go check out my six player variant.
What do you mean it ruins the game to play nice?
Corollary Question:
But there is this gamer who has never played before so we thought...
You thought you'd give him or her some slack. Listen, people don't learn
how to play games by being given slack. If you play nice with a novice
you aren't teaching him or her how the game is played with real gamers.
I'm not saying that you
should all laugh at the person when he or she places his second village
on a coastal hex between a 2 sheep and the wasteland (though maybe
you should). Give him the 2 minute intro and then let him sink or
swim, in the end he or she will be a better player and thank you for it.
Corollary answer: Die Siedler is most fun when it is at its most brutal.
People who whine sure do suck.
They sure do.
Why wont some gamers bathe? They give the rest of us a bad rap
No idea. But I do try to avoid playing with that small minority
of gamers who appear to have an allergy to water and soap.
It's okay. Take a breath. You've bought Die Siedler, looked at the
componets (Wow! I didn't know an orange could be that...ugly. Eeeh.) For
the hell of it you went to your gaming club or invited some friends
over and suddenly you look at the clock its 3:00 am you just played your seventh
game in almost as many hours (well not including the gastronomic
interphase). And you know you are about to go to sleep dreaming of
little black figures locking down your brick production...
There is only one question in your mind. Why is it such an awesome
game?
Die Siedler rocks for the following reasons:
- It's Quick! Four good players can play a game in a smidge over an hour.
You can play 5 games of Die Siedler in the time it takes to play one
game of Titan.
- It's Dirty! I can't recall a game where there are so
many ways and means to screw your so-called friends. From the initial
placement of cities(You really didnt think you were going to be all
alone on that 6 brick did you?), to moving the robber(Red and White
are on the 6 brick lock em down Scotty!), to trading(You really want to
build that road? I'll give you my wood for three brick. Dont bother asking
anyone else. I've got the only wood in the game and you don't have a 3:1
port), to building (You really didnt think I'd let you get out?).
- It's Hard! Die Siedler is not an easy game to win. Because
of its ever-changing board the optimal strategy changes for each
game. There are however some general strategic guidelines.
- It's Easy! The rules are reasonably clear. Most players
can learn it in a sitting. Whether they can master it, is another
question.
You keep losing because you can't win Die Siedler with lucky dice rolls.
You've just discovered one more appeal of Die Siedler:
Luck has almost nothing to do with Die Siedler. In the end
the odds even out. In a four player game by the midgame all available
settlements slots have been taken. You can not produce without someone
else also gaining via your "lucky" rolls. This is a little less true in the
three player variant--yet one more reason to avoid three player games.
Maybe so but what about the (guy/girl/thing) that rolled three twos to win
the game
Someone won a game just because he/she/it rolled three twos allowing
her/his/its' forest/hill/mountain/farmland/pasture to produce three times
in a row? Come again? Was he/she/it at seven victory points and you all
just gave him/her/it a victory point for rolling the two? Either the
player was well placed to take advantage of this fortitous rolling
(possible in 2nd place before this statistical blip occured) or
you all failed to realize the effects of this production on his/her/its'
ouput and so did not respond properly: failed to trade embargo, play a
ritter to steal his cards, etc.
But..
Look, if you depend upon dice to win
then you should stop playing Die Siedler and go play Risk.
So give me some strategies
Hey didn't I just tell you to go play Risk? No. No. I'm just
trying to change the subject now. OK, I will give you some strategies
but not the optimal strategy, because frankly an optimal
strategy doesn't exsist. Caveat: all strategies are for four player
games only. You play a three-player at your own risk.
- Control a port. You can't win, you can't place and you can't show
without a port. Ideally a 2:1 but grab a 3:1 if you must.
- Corollaries to the above: Decide before you place your towns, which
2:1 port you are going to try to get. Place your first town on or near(2 roads lengths)
that port. Don't cry if another player places his town on the port.
You had your chance.
- Penultimate Corollary to the above: Place roads to hinder access to ports.
It doesnt matter whether you can use them or not. What does matter is that you
are denying them to your opponents
- Decide before the midgame whether you are going to go for longest
road or most knights. You can't win a four player game without them
unless your opponents are playing extremely poorly.
- Becker's Law: You'll always have too much sheep, except for
when you actually need them.
- The sheep, lumber, and wheat ports are
better than the brick and ore ports.
There are more sheep, lumber and wheat lands and you generally have better things
to do with your brick and ore in the early and midgame than trade it out 2:1.
- Grab a Six and an Eight (no matter what they are) when you can, but
be prepared for the robber to park there. Remember: the odds even out.
- Jeremy's Observation: There are no bad development cards.
- Corollary to Jeremy's Observation: Buy a development card when you can.
- Brick is the rarest and most important resource in the beginning, it is
becomes almost worthless after the midgame.
- Ore is just as rare and always important.
- Currently, the most popular strategy in the group I play with
is to place settlements on commodities: ore, sheep, wheat. Using
Tech cards and city upgrades to quickly reach 10 VP's. This is an
extremely powerful strategy
- Timber is more common than brick and worth just as little in
the endgame.
- Wheat gets no respect. While it is more common than ore it is at
least as valuable.
- Enough has already been said about sheep.
- Corollary to the above: Upgrade to a city as quick as you can. An early
2x bonus is invaluable. A great combination is to be on an ore/wheat
intersection with access to the ore port.
- Corollary to the Corollary: If you ever let someone have a city on an
ore/wheat intersection with access to the ore port before the midgame
commences you all deserve to lose. And that guy or girl deserves to ronk all
over you.
- Bob's Golden Rule: Greed is good.
- You should almost always play your Ritter cards before you
roll for production.
- Never give into blackmail. Force your opponent to play his
Ritter card to get the resource card you refuse to trade.
- Production monopolies are over-rated and difficult to come by.
- Corollaries to the above: If you see someone grab a great spot with his
first town say between a 9 wheat, 5 wheat, 10 wheat, do the right thing
and grab the wheat port. It may not help you but it certainly screws him.
- Your first two towns are critical. But don't sweat their placement.
Any optimal arrangement of towns is sure to get screwed up by your opponents.
- Your first two roads are as critical as your first two towns. Do not place
them in the wrong direction.
- The Fourth Player Ronk Law: Starting fourth is best. Unless you are
purposely screwed by your opponents your placement while not optimal will
be better than any of the others.
- The Ronk the Fourth Player Law: Starting anything but fourth sucks. Don't
let the fourth player walk all over you with his or her placements. It is worth
a sucky placement of your second towns to hinder the fourth player.
- Corollary to the above: The first player should place his first town
to optimize production. He should place his second town where it screws
the most people. Irregardless of production value.
- Nothing slows a player down like a trade embargo.
- Corollary to the above: Never trade with anyone at seven or more VP's.
- Restatement of the above Corollary: Never trade with anyone unless it is
to your advantage.
- Short form of the above Restatement: Don't help other players.
- If everybody else is placing towns by that six brick. Place as far
away as possible. Hopefully by a timber, even a mediocre or poor one. It is always much better to be by yourself
with room to grow than in the middle of a mess near optimal production hexes.
This seems obvious, but is hardly ever done.
- When you can, place settlements opposite opponents on frontiers.
Place orthogonally in your own territory.
- The Better to have Loved and Lost Law: It is almost never a good
idea to trade multiple items for one item just to reduce your hand below
seven. All you are doing is helping another player; probably to
your disadvantage.
- Restatement of the above: Better four bricks discarded
to the pile than a road in your face.
- The Prime Directive (Craig's Law): it is always an optimal play to screw
the other players.
Anyone else with wisdom to distill please email me and I will add to the
Laws of Catan with credit to the proposer.
Well the rules are generally pretty clear, there are a couple of things
that seem to have been left out or forgotten. This is what a few of my gaming
club members and I have come up
with. Feel free to argue or flame me. Ultimately it is up to you and your group
to define the rules you wish to play under.
- The road is fine rule.
If player A builds a settlement on a legal intersection such that player
B's road can not trace a legal route to a town or city that road is now
considered (take your pick):
(1) Lost: remove the road.
(2) Abandoned: the road remains but can not be
built from.
(3) Just Fine: the new settlement only affects player B if the road
was a requisite to his/her eligibility for the Longest Road special card.
Player B can count roads up to Player A's settlement and he may continue to
count roads from Player A's settlement he just may not count through the
settlement. Player B may continue to build from the road in question.
The correct answer is 3. The road is just fine.
- Road placement
Can you place a road past an opponents settlement?
My short answer: no. There has been some discussion about this on
r.g.b I think the arguments given by the people believing you
can is specious. Because it is not explicitly stated that you cant they
assume you can. I believe that it was such a fundamental assumption
that Mr. Teuber didnt bother to state it.
- Sea Trade.
Sea trade occurs during the phasing player's trade phase. That is to say before
the build phase. You can not build in a port and trade through that
port in the same turn.
- Trading 4:1.
You may trade four of one resource for one of that same resource.
- Victory Point Development Cards.
The rules on play of victory point cards are contradictory. It
clearly states in the Development Card Play section that development
cards may not be played on the turn they were bought. It just
as clearly gives an example in the Game End section were a player
wins by buying a victory point card and playing it in the same turn.
Currently we adhere to the first rule. Development Cards may not
be played or used on the turn they are bought.
- Upgrading.
You can not both place a settlement and upgrade it in the same turn. The
rules state explicitly that you may only upgrade an existing settlement.
- What do I do about that awful orange color?
Paint it. But do not paint it (a better) orange. Better orange's are
more red. I made the mistake of painting mine a very nice shade
of pumpkin -- in bad light it is hard to distingish from the
red. I would suggest black, bright green, purple or (haven't tried it)
yellow. Unfortunately, without knowing what colors the expansion
set is using it is hard to know what color to paint.
- Starting token placement
For a semi-randomized token placement during the initial setup do the following:
Roll two dice. First dice is high/low; second is movement number. If high start at top of
hexagons and count over the second die number (counterclockwise)
If low start at bottom and do same.
- Starting harbor placement
For a semi-randomized harbor placement during the initial setup do the following:
Place all the one edge harbor hexes first. Roll one die if high place the
harbors on the harbor hex that is immediately to the left of the top one edge harbor hex against
the right edge of the two possible hexex. Now moving counterclockwise from
that hex alternate the placement of the harbor hex tiles against the left and
right hex edges.
- Seating order and starting position.
Roll for starting position and seating order. First player can choose to
stay or move as he/she/it wishes. players move into apropriate positions.
I think we got this from 1870 or something.
Currently this variant is undergoing playtesting. Abuse at your own
possible. Playing time ups a bit. Warning: During playtesting the general
consensus of the testers was the Die Siedler works best as a four
player game.
As you can see this variant encourages intense competion over
scarce resources.
Arms Race:
An Arms Race occurs when two or more siedlers purchase more than three
tech cards. Star Wars occur when said tech cards are
kept face down and hidden. It is pretty much a forgone conclusion that
the siedlers engaged in the Arms Race will win the game (See Jeremy's
Observation. After Star Wars begins you can pretty much ignore
the points on the board.
Blackmail:
V. A useful tool for the experienced siedler. Usually used in conjunction
with Ritter cards.
Example Usage.
Siedler#1: If you dont trade me your ore I'm going to play a Ritter card and
lock you down.
Siedler#2: That's blackmail!
Siedler#1: And your point is what?
Block:
V. A block is a the strategic placement of a road or settlement such that
it restricts (or prevents) another siedler's expansion. A good siedler is
alwyas looking for blocks.
Syn.
Brick:
N. Useful for roads, settlements and trade. Produced on Hills.
Vital in the early game.
Syn. Mud. Clay.
Germ. Baustine
Collq. Expressions: All bricked up/out. Brickless. Mudless. No clay, no play.
Development Cards:
There are three main types of Development Cards: Ritters(Knights), Fortschriftt
(Progress), and Siegpunkte(Victory Point Cards). Development Cards all cost
1 wheat, 1 sheep, and 1 ore. See Jeremy's Observation.
Syn. Tech. Chance.
Collq. Expressions: See Arms Race.
Distance Rule:
A settlement may only be placed at intersections where the three
adjoing vertices are also bare of settlements. The upshot of this is as
follows: All settlements are at least two road lengths away from each
other. Greedy siedlers can lock out settlement opportunities by placing
their settelments opposite each other on any given tile. This limits that
tile to just those two settlements due to the distance rule.
Freedom:
N. The condition in Die Siedler of having access to free edges and intersections
for the future play of settlements or roads.
Syn. Space. Alone.
Collq. Expressions: "Let my people Go!" (Said while building a road toward
through the only available pass in hopes that another siedler will not
beat you to it.)
Lock, Locked:
V. Not producing. A conditon caused by the prescense of the Robber on a tile.
Syn. Shutdown. Shutout. Robbed. Slammed. Screwed.
Collq. Expresions: Locked down/up/out.
That tile has been locked down.
More properly: Stop asking for ore
nitwit. The 6 ore has been locked down for ever.
Also: You are NEVER seeing that 6 ore (must be said gleefully for proper
effect.)
Ore:
N. Useful for cities and development cards.
Vital in the mid game.
Syn. Rock. Stone.
Germ. Erz
Collq. Expressions. Oreless. Rudderless.
Ritter:
N. Knight development card. Playing a Ritter card allows you to move the
Robber. Having the greatest number of Ritter cards
over three gives the player 2 Victory Points and the Grosste Rittermacht
card. Ritter's are good for a number of different reasons: You can
use them as threats to coerce someone into trading. You can use them
to end a lock out of one of your tiles, and you can use them to
win the game by revealing sufficent cards to gain the Grosste Rittermacht
card.
Syn. Robber (by hopelessly confused gamers)
Robber:
N. The black piece on the board. Starts in Wasteland moves on a production
roll of seven. Steals half the cards from your hand if you have over
seven cards. Sometimes your best friend, other times your worst nightmare.
Very useful as a threat.
Syn. The Dude, The Thief, The Baron, The Robber, Ritter (Called so by
hopelessly confused gamers).
Germ. Rauber
Collq. Expressions. Moving the Dude. Make my day. In your FACE. See Locked.
Sheep:
N. More common name for Wool. See Wool.
Adj. Worthless.
Example Usage.
Your brick is about as useful as sheep to me.
Tech:
N. A Development Cards.
Collq. Expressions. Aquiring Tech. Teching up.
Tile:
N. The playing area of Die Siedler is composed of 37 tiles.
9 Open Seas, 9 Harbors, 4 Farmlands, 4 Forests, 4 Pastures,
3 Hills, 3 Mountains and 1 Wasteland.
Syn. Hexes, Lands
Timber:
N. Most useful in the early game. Necessary for roads and settlements.
Syn. Wood. Trees. Forest
Germ. Holz
Token:
N. Small round cardboard disks. On one side is written a letter, on the
other a number. The tokens are placed on the tiles before play.
Wheat:
N. Always useful. Necessary for settlements, cities, and development cards.
Possibly the most underrated of all the resources. You can win with wheat.
Syn. Bread. Grain.
Germ. Getreide
Collq. Expressions: Let my people go! (Said when converting 4 wheat into 1 brick:
Biblical Reference).
Wool:
N. Useful for settlements and development cards. See Becker's Law.
Usually just called Sheep.
Other Syn. Lamb. Mutton. Baa.
Germ. Wolle
In article , paul@morat.demon.co.uk (Paul Andrew King) writes:
|> Has anyone played Die Siedler Von Cataan with the new expansion set ?
|> How does it work with 5 or 6 players ?
We played it this weekend, and I for one thought the game dragged too much. The
great thing about regular Settlers, is if you get unlucky early, you only have
about an hour of misery to suffer through. In the expansion, it was more like
2-2.5 hours of misery. Also while the card mix was partially increased, no more
VP cards were added, removing some of the incentive for buying them I think. The
good rule change is that after the main person takes his/her turn, everyone elase
gets to build (no trading or even using ports). I think it plays much better as
The OFFICIAL page (German)
Nic Chilton's Intimate Settlers variant
Gerald Siek's
page
Poorly Maintained by
Trevor Dewey . Who sadly
doesn't play much Die Siedler anymore.
