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Explorers & Pirates – The New Expansion for “The Settlers of Catan” – Part 6

 
February 14, 2013
Klaus Teuber

Part 6: Spices for Catan

Logbook: “Once more, the Council of Catan sent us to an area with abundant fish stocks. We have to get fish again, but that's not all. Apparently, the fish are too bland for the Catanians on the home island. Why else are we also supposed to obtain spices now? Fortunately, people say that there are no pirates' lairs in this area ...”

A spice field

Spice Hex

This scenario includes the missions “Fish for Catan” and “Spices for Catan.” To acquire spices, the players must first discover hexes whose inhabitants harvest spices.

If you discover a spice hex, you receive 2 gold. In addition, you place as many spice sacks on the village of the spice hex as there are players in the game.

A ship at a spice hex with one crew

A ship at a spice hex with two crews

“Finally we have discovered an island whose inhabitants harvest spices. We hastily equip a crew , put him on the next available ship, and bring him to the spice island. Needless to say that this time, the crew isn't an intrepid warrior who puts the fear of God into the pirates. No, in this mission our crews are polite merchants who are so likeable that a smile on their lips is usually enough to win the villagers over.

Gaining the friendship of the villagers pays off. For one thing, they give us a spice sack, which we hurriedly load on our ship – for another, the villagers bestow certain advantages on us.

The inhabitants of two villages are experienced seafarers and help us to move our ships faster.”

Swift Voyage

The “Swift Voyage” advantage immediately increases the number of movement points of all your ships by 1. You thus may move your ship a distance of 5 instead of 4 sea routes. If you are friends with both villages marked with the “Swift Voyage” advantage, you even have 6 movement points per turn for each of your ships.

“The inhabitants of two villages have experience fighting the pirates and increase our chances to successfully drive away the pirate ship.”

Pirate Bonus

One village depicts the face of a die with 5 pips, the other village depicts the face of a die with 4 pips. If you are friends with one of these two villages, you drive away an opponent's pirate ship not only by rolling a “6” but also by rolling the number depicted on the village.

“The inhabitants of two villages are experienced merchants. They buy our resources and give us gold in return.”

Quick Gold

If you are friends with one of these two villages, once during the build and trade phase of your turn you may trade any 1 resource of your choice for 1 gold. If you are friends with both villages, you may trade 1 resource for 1 gold twice during your build and trade phase.

“And what do we give in return? We leave our merchant in the village, as a permanent representative. In exchange, until the end of our mission we enjoy the advantage the villagers bestowed on us. In addition, the villagers kindly allow us to build normal settlements and harbor settlements on the periphery of their territory.

Mission Bar

We deliver the spice sack that we received as a welcome gift to the Council of Catan's island stronghold.

Meanwhile, two more villages have been discovered. Great – then our next ship will set sail with 2 merchants aboard. That way, by means of one single voyage we can transport two spice sacks to the Council of Catan's island stronghold.”

Special Victory Point

A victory point scoring track also exists for “Spices for Catan.” Every time you deliver a spice sack to the Council of Catan's island stronghold, you may move your marker 1 field forward. If you occupy the most advanced position on the track, you receive the victory point card “Best Spice Merchant.”

The game ends when a player reaches 15 victory points on his turn.

Klaus Teuber

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Comments

Jacob Busby

Are the backs of the special hexes blue, so that you can't tell them apart from sea spaces when they are face down next to other hexes? this is preferable as we can make our own exploration scenarios that way.

Charles

Once again, congratulations for keeping inventing games which enable people to be together and have fun between friends and families and without seeing the time passing by. All of you "society games creators" are benefactors in this world driven by high technlogy and where the mainstream games are only virtual and create even more physical distance between people. Keep doing like this, I wish you all the best for the future, Charles

Justin smith

I am so looking forward to this expansion! It will really spice up my game night.

Simeon W.

Can you carry mix and match merchants and spice crates when carrying on the ship. For instance, once one spice hex is uncovered I would want to go back and get 2 merchants leave one on the spice hex, get a spice crate. In the course of that another spice hex may have been uncovered. This way I could quickly sail to the newly exposed hex. Also, couldn't I just set sail with 2 merchants while exploring in the first place and immediately drop a merchant on spice hex when it is discovered?
Gero Zahn

Gero Zahn

@Simeon Yes, that is possible. The ship has two slots, that could carry one spice pouch and one crew (formerly known as “unit”). You won't be able to ship fish and spices at the same time, as the fish will require all room on the ship.
Dr. Reiner Düren

Dr. Reiner Düren

@Jacob: All hexes for the undiscovered islands have either an orange sun or a green moon on its back. That is necessary to avoid that the special type of hexes for this expansion can be distinguished.

Jacob Busby

@Reiner. Thanks for the prompt answer. Shouldn't I be able to tell the hexes apart by looking at what's on the front of them? If the sea hex has a ring of fishes and a dice on it, then it's for the deep-sea fishing scenario, whereas if it has native village on it then it is for the spice scenario. I'm not convinced on the value of marking the backs of the tiles when it should be apparent from the front which hex is used in which scenario. The advantage in keeping the backs in parallel to the existing backs is for exploration scenarios. Take a scenario like the Fog Islands - a popular sceanrio mainly due to the exploration element. Let's say you wanted to replace the sea hexes in that scenario with deep sea fish hexes and litter the initial islands with the fish vertices from Traders and Barbarians, so that you can include the Fish from Traders and Barabrians. By far the most elegant solution would be to have the backs of the hexes match. We can work around. Drawing the hexes from a sealed bag is one option. Another might be a dice roll whenever a sea hex is drawn. If it matches an unused deep sea fish hex, replace the sea hex with the appropriate sea hex. If you roll a number that's already gone... well there's an imporant environmental message about over-fishing the oceans!

Andrew

Interesting that the English spice hex is different to the German one (when others such as Pirate Fortress looked the same). Will the English hexes each be unique? One of the things I love about the English version is that no two land hexes are the same.

Brandon Anderson

How many player can play this expansion? Could I play this with my 5-6 player version with my Cities and Knight Expansion?? Would I have to purchase a Pirate and Explorer 5-6 extension?
Gero Zahn

Gero Zahn

@Andrew Yes, the Mayfair hex tiles will be unique. @Brandon This expansion is meant for 3-4 players, to be played with a 3-4 player base game. In the beginning, we didn't intend to create a 5-6 player extension, but this is currently being investigated. – We have already published recommendations how to combine Explores & Pirate with Cities & Knights on our German website catan.de, this document will be made available in English probably next week. If a E&P 5-6 player extension is published (which is still in discussion, but not yet finalized), then you should be able to combine E&P 5/6 with C&K 5/6 as well.
Dr. Reiner Düren

Dr. Reiner Düren

@Jacob: The different backs (orange sun or a green moon) shall enable the players to quickly sort the tiles into the approbriate bags. Most players will mainly play only these new scenarios which offers a lot of fun and excitement. Combining these new scenarios with other scenarios or variants is the second step and should not be done before playing these new scenarios several times.

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