CATAN

Description

CATAN is a resource-trading and building board game where players compete to dominate the island by constructing settlements, cities, and roads to reach 10 victory points. Key mechanics include: - *Resource production* Two dice rolls determine yields from hex tiles (brick from hills, wood from forests, ore from mountains, wheat from fields, sheep from pastures), collected by adjacent settlements or cities. - *Building and expansion* Spend resource cards to construct roads, settlements, and upgrade to cities for points. - *Trading* Exchange resources with players or at ports for better rates. - *Robber disruption* On a 7 roll, move robber to block production and steal cards from opponents' adjacent structures. - *Development cards* Play for special effects, including largest army points or secret victory points. - *Victory conditions* Accumulate 10 points via buildings, longest road, largest army, and hidden victory point cards. CATAN (formerly The Settlers of Catan) is a competitive board game where players vie for dominance on a modular hexagonal island by building settlements, cities, and roads using resources like sheep, wheat, wood, brick, and ore. Setup involves arranging resource hex tiles (plus desert) in a honeycomb with water and ports, placing number disks for dice correlations (two 6-sided dice), positioning initial settlements and roads at intersections/borders with starting resource hands, and placing the robber on the desert. A turn allows playing a development card, rolling dice for resource collection (blocked by robber or on 7), building improvements, trading at ports or with players, and on 7s, moving the robber to stifle production and steal cards. Points come from settlements (1), cities (2), longest road, largest army (from development cards), and secret victory points; first to 10 wins. The game excels in appealing to both novices and experts, has won awards, originated as Die Siedler von Catan by KOSMOS, saw multiple Mayfair editions renamed CATAN in 2015, and features various editions (travel, portable, wooden, 3D, etc.) plus spin-offs and expansions.