The official website for The Settlers of Catan

General Questions

• Region expansions - May I build region expansions adjacent to a settlement?

  Yes.

• Region expansions - What is a region expansion?

  Region expansions are cards you place adjacent to regions; they feature a brown text box.

• Resources - What can I use gold for in the Introductory Game?

  Gold is only used for trading or for choosing cards you want to add to your hand. The Gold Ship allows you to trade gold for another resource at a 2:1 rate. In addition, the Goldsmith and the event Traveling Merchant enable you to trade gold 3:2 and 1:1, respectively. In the Theme Games, particularly in The Era of Gold, gold is more important.

• Road complements - Can I protect a road complement via a Fire Brigade?

  No, but protection is not necessary anyway.

• Road complements - Can I use an Arsonist to burn down road complements?

  No.

• Road complements - Is it allowed to remove road complements?

  Yes.

• Road complements - What are road complements?

  Road complements are units or buildings that are placed on roads - that way, they don't occupy building sites in settlements.

  Note: Road complements belong to the Age of Darkness Expansion and Age of Enlightenment Expansion.

• Roads - Why are there 7 roads, although there are only 5 settlements?

  So that you can't prevent the opponent from settlement building by building the 6th road.

• Units - May I build units twice?

  That depends:

  Units which have proper names or are marked with "(1x)" may only be built once, all other units may be built as often as desired.

• Versions of the game - Duel of the Princes - Which event cards are used in the Duel of the Princes?

  The following event cards are always included in the game: Yule, Invention, Year of Plenty, and Traveling Merchant. From the sets used, add the event cards that do not depict a half moon symbol, then add as many randomly drawn event cards depicting a half moon symbol until a total of 12 event cards is reached.

• Versions of the game - Introductory Game - During the course of the game, do I have to draw cards from the stack I took the starting cards from?

  No.

• Versions of the game - Introductory Game - In the Introductory Game, do I have to adhere to the region setup as specified there?

  The setup specified in the rules is the best option for beginners. Of course, once you have become more experienced, you can try to gather additional expertise by using different setups. In that case, however, you should add the Theme Sets, because there you can arrange the regions at your convenience.

• Versions of the game - Theme Game - In the Theme Game, how are the cards that are placed face up brought into play?

  You may build the cards that are placed face up as soon as you can pay their building costs and have met their potential requirements.

• Versions of the game - Tournament Game - Do I have to show my opponent the backs of the cards in my hand?

  Yes.

• Versions of the game - Tournament Game - Where do I find the Tournament Game rules?

  You may download the Rivals for Catan Tournament rules from the Catan website: >click<