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Rules of Catan Seafarers

The Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber and originally published in Germany in 1995. Distributed by Mayfair Games in the United States, The Settlers of Catan takes place on the island of Catan (composed of interlocking hexagonal game tiles representing different types of land) with game players acting as settlers competing with one another by trading resources and attempting to build the best settlement. The Seafarers expansion set was published in 1996 and provides avid game players with more possibilities and challenges in addition to the original rules of the game. By adding ships to the game, players now have the opportunity to sail to different islands within the Catan Archipelago.

Ships
- Catan: Seafarers uses all the same rules as the original board game, with a few additional rules. The first addition is new rules for the building, placing and movement of ships. To build a ship, expend one wool resource (to make the sails) and one lumber resource (to make the hull and masts). Ships can travel between two sea hexes (the hexagonal game tiles) for an aquatic route or one land hex and one sea hex for a coastal route. Ships cannot travel between two land hexes and cannot travel along a coast if a road is already in place. Newly built ships can be placed next to a coastal settlement or ships already placed on the board. Roads and shipping routes cannot connect with one another without a settlement to connect them together at a desired intersection. Unlike roads, which are permanent, shipping routes are fluid and can fluctuate in the direction they meander.
Victory Points
- Catan: Seafarers also adds on to the acquisition of special Victory Point tokens. The game is won when any one player reaches 13 Victory Points. In the expansion set, if a player establishes a settlement on one of the smaller islands, one Victory Point is earned. Only one point per player may be earned in this manner. Players can still establish a settlement on a smaller island (and earn a Victory Point) even if another player has already established a settlement on the same island. In the original board game, players competed for the ̶0;Longest Road.̶1; Playing with the expansion set, players compete for the ̶0;Longest Trade Route.̶1; The Longest Trade Route can comprise both roads and shipping routes. The player with the longest trading route is awarded two Victory Points.
The Pirate
- As with The Robber in the original board game, The Pirate in Catan: Seafarers can affect the game in three ways. If a player rolls a seven during his or her turn, the player can opt to move the pirate instead of the robber. The pirate can be placed at the center of any sea hex (the pirate cannot be placed on land). The player who moved the pirate can then steal one resource from any one ship adjacent to the hex on which the pirate now rests. If a player uses a Knight Development Card, that player has the choice to move the pirate to any sea hex (or the robber to any land hex). Also, ships cannot sail along the border of any sea hex on which the pirate rests. Ships also cannot move away from the border of any sea hex while the pirate remains adjacent to said border.

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