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77-535: Catan , previously known as The Settlers of Catan or simply Settlers , is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber . It was first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as Die Siedler von Catan ( pronounced [diː ˈziːdlɐ fɔn kaˈtaːn] ). Players take on the roles of settlers, each attempting to build and develop holdings while trading and acquiring resources. Players gain victory points as their settlements grow and

154-462: A games inventor said when interviewed about his game, The Great Train Robbery : With crime you deal with every basic human emotion and also have enough elements to combine action with melodrama. The player's imagination is fired as they plan to rob the train. Because of the gamble, they take in the early stage of the game there is a build-up of tension, which is immediately released once the train

231-407: A 10th-anniversary collector's edition of the base game and Cities & Knights , with hand-painted 3D tiles and playing pieces. Mayfair Games released a fourth edition of The Settlers of Catan in 2007, with new artwork, a locking frame, a deeper box, and an insert tray; there was also a minor rule change. Soon after its release, two changes were made to the fourth edition. The robber playing piece

308-514: A competition between two or more players. To give a few examples: in checkers (British English name 'draughts'), a player wins by capturing all opposing pieces, while Eurogames often end with a calculation of final scores. Pandemic is a cooperative game where players all win or lose as a team, and peg solitaire is a puzzle for one person. There are many varieties of board games. Their representation of real-life situations can range from having no inherent theme, such as checkers , to having

385-460: A development card. There are five different types of development cards, including cards worth one victory point; knight cards, which allow the player to move the robber as if they had rolled a 7 (but without the remove-half rule); monopoly cards, which allow the player to steal all of any one resource from other players; road building cards, which allow the player to build two roads without paying extra resource cards; and year of plenty cards which allow

462-577: A dice game such as Ludo , by giving each player the choice of rolling the dice or using the previous player's roll. Another important aspect of some games is diplomacy, that is, players, making deals with one another. Negotiation generally features only in games with three or more players, cooperative games being the exception. An important facet of Catan , for example, is convincing players to trade with you rather than with opponents. In Risk , two or more players may team up against others. Easy diplomacy involves convincing other players that someone else

539-445: A game belongs to several categories. The namesake of the board game, gameboards would seem to be a necessary and sufficient condition of the genre , though card games that do not use a standard deck of cards (as well as games that use neither cards nor a gameboard) are often colloquially included, with some scholars therefore referring to said genre as that of "table and board games" or " tabletop games ", or seeing board games as

616-479: A game piece. Playing board games has also been tied to improving children's executive functions and help reduce risks of dementia for the elderly. Related to this is a growing academic interest in the topic of game accessibility, culminating in the development of guidelines for assessing the accessibility of modern tabletop games and the extent to which they are playable for people with disabilities. Additionally, board games can be therapeutic. Bruce Halpenny ,

693-491: A modified form in the Traders and Barbarians expansion. Kosmos, Mayfair, and 999 Games released the first stand-alone "Catan Geographies" title, Catan Germany , in 2008. In 2009, Schätze, Drachen und Entdecker ('Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers') was published. This was a scenario pack for fans that included six new scenarios and the pieces needed to play them. It was re-released in 2017 with artwork updated to match

770-516: A player has 9 resource cards, and a 7 is rolled, the player must get rid of 4 cards. On the player's turn, the player may spend resource cards to build roads or settlements, upgrade settlements to cities (which replace existing settlements), or buy development cards. Players can trade resource cards with each other; players may also trade off-island (in effect, with the non-player bank) at a ratio of four-to-one resources for one of any other. By building settlements adjacent to ports, players may trade with

847-766: A player moves their token, as in Monopoly , to how their forces fare in battle, as in Risk , or which resources a player gains, as in Catan . Other games such as Sorry! use a deck of special cards that, when shuffled, create randomness. Scrabble does something similar with randomly picked letters. Other games use spinners, timers of random length, or other sources of randomness. German-style board games are notable for often having fewer elements of luck than many North American board games. Luck may be reduced in favour of skill by introducing symmetry between players. For example, in

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924-414: A player rolls 7, the robber must be moved to another hex, which will no longer produce resources until the robber is moved again. That player may also steal a resource card from another player with a settlement or city adjacent to the robber's new placement. In addition, when a 7 is rolled, all players with 8 or more resource cards must discard their choice of half of their cards, rounded down. For example, If

1001-407: A settlement adjacent to a hex containing the number just rolled receive one card of the corresponding resource; cities produce two cards of the corresponding resource. For example, if a player has one city and two settlements adjacent to a grain hex, that player would take four grain resource cards if the corresponding number was rolled. There is also a robber token, initially placed on the desert; if

1078-420: A skilled player will win more often. The elements of luck can also make for more excitement at times, and allow for more diverse and multifaceted strategies, as concepts such as expected value and risk management must be considered. Luck may be introduced into a game by several methods. The use of dice of various sorts goes back to the earliest board games . These can decide everything from how many steps

1155-514: A specific theme and narrative, such as Cluedo . Rules can range from the very simple, such as in snakes and ladders ; to deeply complex, as in Advanced Squad Leader . Play components now often include custom figures or shaped counters, and distinctively shaped player pieces commonly known as meeples as well as traditional cards and dice. The time required to learn or master gameplay varies greatly from game to game, but

1232-416: A subgenre of tabletop games. H. J. R. Murray 's A History of Board Games Other Than Chess (1952) has been called the first attempt to develop a "scheme for the classification of board games". David Parlett 's Oxford History of Board Games (1999) defines four primary categories: race games (where the goal is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the final destination), space games (in which

1309-551: A version of Catan was coming to Facebook. In 2010, Vectorform showcased a Microsoft PixelSense game for Settlers of Catan . USM also developed an Android and iOS mobile app version simply called "Catan" with the various expansions available as DLC. Board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use pieces . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked game board (playing surface) and often include elements of table , card , role-playing , and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature

1386-571: A version of Settlers for the Xbox Live Arcade . It was released on 2 May 2007. Game Republic developed a PlayStation 3 version in 2008 titled also Catan . A Nintendo DS version of Settlers was developed by Exozet Games GmbH in collaboration with Klaus Teuber. The game can be played against computer opponents, and includes Nintendo WiFi online play. It was released in 2009, but only in Europe. The Settlers of Catan online game

1463-542: Is a large facet of the market, with $ 233 million raised on Kickstarter in 2020. A 1991 estimate for the global board game market was over $ 1.2 billion. A 2001 estimate for the United States "board games and puzzle" market gave a value of under $ 400 million, and for United Kingdom, of about £50 million. A 2009 estimate for the Korean market was put at 800 million won, and another estimate for

1540-521: Is a list of some of the most common game categories: Although many board games have a jargon all their own, there is a generalized terminology to describe concepts applicable to basic game mechanics and attributes common to nearly all board games. Entdecker Entdecker ( [ɛntˈdɛkɐ] , German for "Discoverer") is a German-style board game designed by Klaus Teuber and published in 1996 by Goldsieber in German . Although

1617-417: Is a two-player strategy game for expert players that plays like a board game, and The Struggle for Catan , published in 2011, is a two- to four-player game that plays more like a card game and is suitable for Catan novices. Catan Junior is a 2012 spinoff for families with children. The game is based on the original Settlers of Catan with a "pirate" theme and simpler rules. Players build "pirates' lairs" in

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1694-424: Is about this game's impact on American gaming communities and what came of it. In 2020, Erica Price noted that while Catan had become "a mid to late 2010s staple in popular culture," she argued that "the one place where Catan has seen a drop in popularity over the past decade is in its first world, that of hobby board games." She attributed this decline to a "lack of innovation," as well as "a reluctance to buy into

1771-579: Is an expansion released in 2013. The computer opponent characters from the PC/Mac game Catan – Cities & Knights return in this scenario as "helper cards", which can be used during gameplay; for example, the helper card for Candamir allows the player who uses it to substitute any one resource when buying a development card. The popularity of The Settlers of Catan led to the creation of spinoff games and products, starting in 1996 with The Settlers of Catan card game (later renamed to Catan Card Game ), and

1848-544: Is available for the PC only in German. Cities & Knights was available in both English and German. Catan and some of its expansions are also available in various languages for mobile phones, iPhone , iPad , iPod Touch , BlackBerry and Android smartphones. A 2009 version was developed by Exozet Games and published by United Soft Media for iOS in 2009-2010, for Android in 2011, and for Windows Mobile in 2013. Catan

1925-485: Is hidden from players. This makes finding the best move more difficult and may involve estimating probabilities by the opponents. Many board games are now available as video games. These are aptly termed digital board games, and their distinguishing characteristic compared to traditional board games is they can now be played online against a computer or other players. Some websites (such as boardgamearena.com, yucata.de, etc.) allow play in real time and immediately show

2002-878: Is not necessarily related to the number or complexity of rules; for example, chess or Go possess relatively simple rulesets but have great strategic depth. Classical board games are divided into four categories: race games (such as pachisi ), space games (such as noughts and crosses ), chase games (such as hnefatafl ), and games of displacement (such as chess ). Board games have been played, traveled, and evolved in most cultures and societies throughout history. Several important historical sites, artifacts, and documents shed light on early board games such as Jiroft civilization game boards in Iran. Senet , found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c.  3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively,

2079-415: Is robbed. Release of tension is therapeutic and useful in our society because most jobs are boring and repetitive. Playing games has been suggested as a viable addition to the traditional educational curriculum if the content is appropriate and the gameplay informs students on the curriculum content. There are several ways in which board games can be classified, and considerable overlap may exist, so that

2156-539: Is the oldest board game known to have existed. Senet was pictured in a fresco painting found in Merknera's tomb (3300–2700 BC). Also from predynastic Egypt is mehen . Hounds and jackals , another ancient Egyptian board game, appeared around 2000 BC. The first complete set of this game was discovered from a Theban tomb that dates to the 13th dynasty . This game was also popular in Mesopotamia and

2233-451: Is used. Oil can also be taken out of the game, for victory points and to prevent disasters. The scenario Catan: Frenemies was released in 2012. In Frenemies , players are rewarded with redeemable "favor tokens" for "helping" their opponents by moving the robber harmlessly, giving away resources, and connecting their roads to their opponents' road networks. Depending on the circumstances, these favors might not be helpful. Helpers of Catan

2310-399: Is winning and should therefore be teamed up against. Advanced diplomacy (e.g., in the aptly named game Diplomacy ) consists of making elaborate plans together, with the possibility of betrayal. In perfect information games, such as chess, each player has complete information on the state of the game, but in other games, such as Tigris and Euphrates or Stratego , some information

2387-727: The Caucasus . Backgammon originated in ancient Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago. Ashtapada , chess , pachisi and chaupar originated in India. Go (4th century BC) and liubo (1st century BC) originated in China. The board game Patolli originated in Mesoamerica and was played by a wide range of pre-Columbian cultures such as the Toltecs and the Aztecs . The royal game of Ur

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2464-400: The "hobby game market" ("the market for those games regardless of whether they're sold in the hobby channel or other channels,") at over $ 700 million. A similar 2015 estimate suggested a hobby game market value of almost $ 900 million. A dedicated field of research into gaming exists, known as game studies or ludology. While there has been a fair amount of scientific research on

2541-515: The 2003 novel, Die Siedler von Catan , by German historical fiction author Rebecca Gablé , which tells the story of a group of Norse seafarers who set out in search of the mythical island of Catan. In 2002 a travel edition of Catan was published, featuring playing pieces which slot into a fixed-layout board. In 1999, Starfarers of Catan was released. It was loosely based upon the original Catan , including similar dice mechanisms for resource production as well as trading and building. However,

2618-616: The 2015 fourth edition of Settlers of Catan . Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers will be available in English as of July 16, 2021. Catan: Oil Springs is an expansion by Erik Assadourian and Ty Hansen introduced in 2011 designed to draw attention to environmental issues. It is offered as a free download or for purchase from the Mayfair Games website. The scenario adds oil fields that can be used to make other resources and develop metropolises, but disasters can strike if too much oil

2695-547: The American board game market for the same year was at about $ 800 million. A 2011 estimate for the Chinese board game market was at over 10 billion yuan . A 2013 estimate put the size of the German toy market at 2.7 billion euros (out of which the board games and puzzle market is worth about 375 million euros), and Polish markets at 2 billion and 280 million zlotys , respectively. In 2009, Germany

2772-584: The Gaming Acts of 1710 and 1845 . Early board game producers in the second half of the eighteenth century were mapmakers. The global popularization of board games, with special themes and branding, coincided with the formation of the global dominance of the British Empire . John Wallis was an English board game publisher, bookseller, map/chart seller, printseller, music seller, and cartographer . With his sons John Wallis Jr. and Edward Wallis, he

2849-653: The Middle East, mancala is a popular board game archetype with many regional variations. In India, a community game called Carrom is popular. A popular board game of flicking stones ( Alkkagi ) is popular in South Korea . In the late 1990s, companies began producing more new games to serve a growing worldwide market. In the 2010s, several publications said board games were amid a new Golden Age or "renaissance". Board game venues also grew in popularity; in 2016 alone, more than 5,000 board game cafés opened in

2926-515: The U.S., and they were reported to be very popular in China as well. Board games have been used as a mechanism for science communication . Some games, such as chess, depend completely on player skill, while many children's games such as Candy Land and snakes and ladders require no decisions by the players and are decided purely by luck. Many games require some level of both skill and luck. A player may be hampered by bad luck in backgammon , Monopoly , or Risk ; but over many games,

3003-737: The United States and its sister game Traveller's Tour Through Europe were published by New York City bookseller F. & R. Lockwood in 1822 and claim the distinction of being the first board games published in the United States. Margaret Hofer described the period of the 1880s–1920s as "The Golden Age" of board gaming in America. Board game popularity was boosted, like that of many items, through mass production , which made them cheaper and more easily available. Different traditional board games are popular in Asian and African countries. In China, Go and many variations of chess are popular. In Africa and

3080-625: The ability to anticipate moves, plays an essential role in chess-playing ability. Linearly arranged board games have improved children's spatial numerical understanding. This is because the game is similar to a number line in that they promote a linear understanding of numbers rather than the innate logarithmic one. Research studies show that board games such as Snakes and Ladders result in children showing significant improvements in aspects of basic number skills such as counting, recognizing numbers, numerical estimation, and number comprehension. They also practice fine motor skills each time they grasp

3157-474: The bank at three-to-one (three of any single resource type) or two-to-one (two of a specific resource) ratios, depending on the port. The goal of the game is to reach ten victory points. Players score one point for each settlement they own and two for each city. Various other achievements, such as establishing the longest road and the largest army (by playing the most knight cards), grant a player additional victory points. Resource cards can also be spent to buy

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3234-454: The base game. The first, Seafarers of Catan , was released in 1997; it was later retitled Catan: Seafarers . Seafarers adds ships that allow players to cross sea hexes, and includes scenarios in which players explore an archipelago of islands. It also adds gold-producing hexes that allow players to take the resource of their choice. The second major expansion to the game, Cities and Knights of Catan (later Catan: Cities and Knights ),

3311-488: The board gaming market is estimated to be smaller than that for video games , it has also experienced significant growth from the late 1990s. A 2012 article in The Guardian described board games as "making a comeback". Other expert sources suggest that board games never went away, and that board games have remained a popular leisure activity which has only grown over time. Another from 2014 gave an estimate that put

3388-472: The concept of exploration, and the combined game (sometimes known as "New Shores") is probably the closest game to Teuber's original intentions. In 2020, the Board Game Analysis blog created a mathematical model to evaluate how balanced any particular board layout is, with scores ranging from 0 to 1 and lower scores being more balanced. According to that model, the beginner layout recommended in

3465-403: The first to reach a set number of victory points, typically 10, wins. The game and its many expansions are also published by Catan Studio, Filosofia, GP, Inc., 999 Games, Κάισσα (Káissa), and Devir. Upon its release, The Settlers of Catan became one of the first Eurogames to achieve popularity outside Europe. As of 2020, more than 32 million copies in 40 languages had been sold. The players in

3542-455: The game board but do not necessarily enforce the game's rules, leaving this up to the players. There are generalized programs such as Vassal , Tabletop Simulator and Tabletopia that can be used to play any board or card game, while programs like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds are more specialized for role-playing games. Some of these virtual tabletops have worked with the license holders to allow for use of their game's assets within

3619-485: The game represent settlers establishing settlements on the fictional island of Catan. Players build settlements , cities, and roads to connect them as they settle the island. The game board, which represents the island, is composed of hexagonal tiles ( hexes ) of different land types, which are laid out randomly at the beginning of each game. Newer editions of the game began to depict a fixed layout in their manual and recommend this to be used by beginners. In 2016, editions of

3696-570: The game were released with a conventional fixed layout board in this configuration, the hexes of which cannot be rearranged. Players build by spending resources (wool, grain, lumber, brick, and ore) that are depicted by these resource cards; each land type, with the exception of the unproductive desert, produces a specific resource: hills produce brick, forests produce lumber, mountains produce ore, fields produce grain, and pastures produce wool. On each player's turn , two six-sided dice are rolled to determine which hexes produce resources. Players with

3773-474: The game won 2nd prize in the Deutscher Spiele Preis in 1996, many gamers were disappointed with the game after the success of Teuber's previous game, The Settlers of Catan . An updated version, Die Neuen Entdecker , was published in 2001 by Kosmos ; this version was published in English by Mayfair Games under the title Entdecker - Exploring New Horizons . This version of the game won

3850-468: The game's manual has a balance score of 0.094. They also analyzed a board layout used in a 2016 tournament, which scored a 0.106. A sample of 100 million randomly generated board layouts formed an approximately normal distribution with the majority of boards' scores clustered around 0.25. The base game of the Catan series, Catan , is designed for 3–4 players. In 1996, an extension to allow up to six players

3927-494: The game. An updated set of Catanimal Sprite plushes was introduced in early 2021 and are based on new illustrated characters by artist Kay O'Neill . Catan is popular in the United States, with The Washington Post calling it "the board game of our time" in 2010. American video game designer Richard Dansky described Catan as "a hardcore game and a light social pastime and everything in between". A 2012 American documentary film titled Going Cardboard (featuring Klaus Teuber)

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4004-459: The growth of the board game market at "between 25% and 40% annually" since 2010, and described the current time as the "golden era for board games". The rise in board game popularity has been attributed to quality improvement (more elegant mechanics , components , artwork, and graphics) as well as increased availability thanks to sales through the Internet. Crowd-sourcing for board games

4081-465: The islands and build ships to reach new building sites. Resource and development cards are replaced with tiles, trading and building are simpler, and the "Ghost Captain" does not steal resources as the robber in the base game does. Star Trek Catan is a spin-off of the original series released in 2012 by Mayfair Games. The game uses the same basic components with new names, new graphics, and some minor rules additions. The building costs and resources match

4158-474: The object is to arrange the pieces into some special configuration), chase games (asymmetrical games, where players start the game with different sets of pieces and objectives) and displace games (where the main objective is the capture the opponents' pieces). Parlett also distinguishes between abstract and thematic games, the latter having a specific theme or frame narrative (ex. regular chess versus, for example, Star Wars -themed chess). The following

4235-467: The opponents' moves, while others use email to notify the players after each move. The Internet and cheaper home printing has also influenced board games via print-and-play games that may be purchased and printed. Some games use external media such as audio cassettes or DVDs in accompaniment to the game. There are also virtual tabletop programs that allow online players to play a variety of existing and new board games through tools needed to manipulate

4312-628: The original game. It incorporates the "Helpers of Catan" expansion, with the cards renamed as Star Trek characters. A Game of Thrones Catan: Brotherhood of the Watch is a spin-off based on George R. R. Martin 's A Song of Ice and Fire series. As Brothers of the Night Watch, players harvest resources from the Gift to build settlements and keeps, while contributing to the defense of the Wall. The game

4389-470: The player to pick up two resource cards of their choice. Teuber's original design was for a large game of exploration and development in a new land. Between 1993 and 1995 Teuber and Kosmos refined and simplified the game into its current form. Unused mechanics from that design went on to be used in Teuber's following games, Entdecker and Löwenherz . The game's first expansion, Catan: Seafarers , adds

4466-418: The popularity of app-supported games (though solely mobile versions of Catan exist), crowdfunding, and new mechanics." Since the game's release, a number of computer games have been published based on Settlers of Catan and its spinoffs. The first sanctioned English-language release was Catan: The Computer Game , developed for the PC by Castle Hill Studios and published by Big Fish Games . This off-line game

4543-417: The program; for example, Fantasy Grounds has licenses for both Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder materials, while Tabletop Simulator allows game publishers to provide paid downloadable content for their games. However, as these games offer the ability to add in the content through user modifications , there are also unlicensed uses of board game assets available through these programs. While

4620-586: The psychology of older board games (e.g., chess , Go , mancala ), less has been done on contemporary board games such as Monopoly , Scrabble , and Risk , and especially modern board games such as Catan , Agricola , and Pandemic . Much research has been carried out on chess, partly because many tournament players are publicly ranked in national and international lists, which makes it possible to compare their levels of expertise. The works of Adriaan de Groot , William Chase, Herbert A. Simon , and Fernand Gobet have established that knowledge, more than

4697-582: The score of each roll is recorded by "building" roads, settlements, cities, and knights on a score sheet that shows a miniature version of the island of Catan. In the base game, one to four players try to get the highest score. There is also a "plus" version of the game, which, like the original Catan board game, is a race to be the first player to score 10 victory points. In addition to the Catan Card Game above, two additional card game spinoffs have been published. Rivals for Catan , published in 2010,

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4774-558: The spin-off also introduces spaceports, spaceships, and the flight mechanism. The "Catan Histories" subseries includes Settlers of the Stone Age , a re-release of Struggle for Rome , Settlers of America, and Rise of the Inkas . The Catan Dice Game was released in 2007. The game is played with six dice, the faces of which depict one of six resources (brick, lumber, wool, grain, ore, or gold). The dice are rolled up to three times, and

4851-481: Was announced on 16 December 2002. Catan Online World allows players to download a Java application that serves as a portal for the online world and allows online play with other members. The base game may be played for free, while expansions require a subscription membership. Two official PC versions of Catan have been released, The First Island (the basic game only) and Cities & Knights (with Seafarers and Cities & Knights expansions). The First Island

4928-638: Was available from MSN, as it was acquired by Microsoft who also released Catan Online in August 2005 on MSN Games , the game now requiring an internet connection. In 2005, Capcom edited the first portable version of Settlers of Catan on the N-Gage Nokia handheld device. In June 2009 the MSN version of Settlers was discontinued. The same game later became available on other online services. Teuber and Big Huge Games worked together to produce Catan ,

5005-413: Was changed from a black to a grey color and the soldier development card was renamed a knight. Fourth-edition versions of Cities & Knights , Seafarers , and the 5- to 6-player extensions were also released. Catan: Explorers & Pirates , the fourth large expansion, was released in 2013. which introduces new elements for the game including moving ships, new resources, and pirates. The Catan line

5082-426: Was considered to be the best market per capita, with the highest number of games sold per individual. Some academics, such as Erica Price and Marco Arnaudo, have differentiated "hobby" board games and gamers from other board games and gamers. A 2014 estimate placed the U.S. and Canada market for hobby board games (games produced for a "gamer" market) at only $ 75 million, with the total size of what it defined as

5159-528: Was found in the royal tombs of Ur, dating to Mesopotamia 4,600 years ago. Board games have a long tradition in Europe. The oldest records of board gaming in Europe date back to Homer 's Iliad (written in the 8th century BC), in which he mentions the Ancient Greek game of petteia . This game of petteia would later evolve into the Roman ludus latrunculorum . Board gaming in ancient Europe

5236-704: Was not unique to the Greco-Roman world, with records estimating that the ancient Norse game of hnefatafl was developed sometime before 400 AD . In ancient Ireland, the game of fidchell or ficheall , is said to date back to at least 144 AD, though this is likely an anachronism. A fidchell board dating from the 10th century has been uncovered in Co. Westmeath, Ireland. In the United Kingdom, association of dice and cards with gambling led to all dice games except backgammon being treated as lotteries by dice in

5313-534: Was one of the most prolific publishers of board games of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. John Betts' A Tour of the British Colonies and Foreign Possessions and William Spooner's A Voyage of Discovery were popular in the British empire. Kriegsspiel is a genre of wargaming developed in 19th century Prussia to teach battle tactics to officers. The board game Travellers' Tour Through

5390-434: Was published in 2005. Atlantis was a boxed set which collected a number of scenarios and variants published in gaming magazines and at conventions, such as The Volcano and The Great River . The set also included a deck of event cards which replaced the dice in the main game, giving it a less random spread of resource production. The event cards, which were also available as a standalone item, have since been re-released in

5467-407: Was rebranded in 2015 for the 20th anniversary of the series, with the original Settlers game renamed simply Catan . There are variations of the visual style of the game with subsequent releases. A list of version comparisons can be found here: "Identify your English Catan Set" . Catan Collector . 28 October 2022 . Retrieved 30 December 2022 . In 1998, the first Historical Scenario pack

5544-403: Was released at the same time. In 2000, a book of variations for Settlers was released. The third large expansion, Catan: Traders & Barbarians , was released in 2008. Traders & Barbarians collects a number of smaller scenarios, some of which have previously been published elsewhere. The set includes an official two-player variant. A special edition of the game was released in 2005:

5621-435: Was released for the base game. As well as extra components to accommodate more players, the expansion adds an extra building phase to the turn, so that players can participate in the game during each other's turns. Players may not trade with other players during this phase nor may they trade in with the bank (maritime trade) from their own hand. After releasing the 5- to 6-player extension, Teuber began to publish expansions for

5698-400: Was released in 1998. It adds concepts from the card game and its first expansion to Catan , including Knights who must be used to defend Catan from invading barbarians, and improvements that can be bought for cities that give benefits to players. Three commodities (paper, coin, and cloth) can be produced, in addition to the original resources. A 5- to 6-player extension for Cities & Knights

5775-416: Was released in 2017 in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Czech/Slovak, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Hebrew and French. Catan: Dawn of Humankind is a spin-off featuring the first humans published by Catan Studios in 2022. Players move their tribe to explore new continents and establish camps. Mayfair released a series of mini-stuffed animals based on the different resources presented in

5852-649: Was released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2007. It was pulled without notice in mid-2014. There is no official word on why it was pulled or if it will return. Another game called Catan was released for the PlayStation Network in 2008. This version is an original adaptation of the board game, not a port of the 2007 XBLA adaptation by Big Huge Games . GameSpot gave the Playstation game 7 out of 10 and called it "a captivating experience". It also has been discontinued. Mayfair Games announced in 2010 that

5929-647: Was released, which allows players to re-enact the building of the pyramids of Egypt or the expansion of Alexander the Great 's empire using Catan game mechanics. A second scenario pack for Settlers concerning the building of the Great Wall of China and the Trojan war was released in 2001. Die Siedler von Catan: Das Buch zum Spielen was published in 2000. It contained the rules and pieces for 15 new scenarios and many variants. Atlantis: Scenarios and Variants

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