User:Percy Snoodle/Catan rewrite

The Settlers of Catan series

The enduring popularity of Settlers of Catan has led to the creation of a great many spinoff games and products, starting with the Catan card game and including a novel, Die Siedler von Catan by Rebecca Gablé (ISBN 3-431-03019-X) set on the island of Catan.

Catan card game

Teuber first returned to the Catan theme in 1996 with the Settlers of Catan card game, a card game for two players. The game is longer, with games lasting roughly 90 minutes, and is more complex, containing amongst other things a sixth resource type, gold. Each player places cards representing the game elements of Settlers - roads, settlements and regions - in their own separate areas, and seek to expand their principality while scoring victory points for certain features. As of 2007, seven expansions have been published for the card game, with the most recent being Artists & Benefactors, released at the 2006 Nuremberg International Toy Fair.

Settlers expansions

After releasing the card game, Teuber began to publish expansions for the base game. The first, Seafarers of Catan, wasreleased in 1997. Seafarers adds ships which allow players to cross sea hexes, and includes scenarios in which players explore an archipelago of islands. It also adds gold-producing hexes which allow players to take the resource of their choice. This was followed in 1998, by the first historical scenario pack, which allows players to reenact the building of the pyramids of Egypt or the expansion of Alexander the Great's empire using Settlers game mechanics. In 1999, expansions to allow fifth and sixth players were released for both Settlers and Seafarers. As well as extra components to accomodate more players, the expansions add an extra trade phase to the turn, so that players can participate in the game during each others' turns.

The second large expansion to the game, Cities and Knights of Catan, was released in 2000. It adds concepts from the card game and its first expansion to Settlers, including Knights who must be used to defend Catan from invading barbarians, and improvements which can be bought for cities which give benefits to players. A 5-6 player expansion for Cities and Knights was released at the same time.

Also released in 2000 was a book of variations for Settlers. A second scenario pack for Settlers concerning the building of the Great Wall of China and the Trojan war was released in 2001, and in 2002 a travel edition of Settlers was published, featuring playing pieces which slot into a fixed-layout board. Atlantis: Scenarios and Variants was published in 2005. Atlantis is 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 includes a deck of event cards which replace the dice in the main game, giving it a less random spread of resource production.

Two special editions of the game were released in 2005: A collector's edition of the base game and Cities and Knights, with hand-painted 3D tiles and playing pieces; and a 10th anniversary edition with detailed plastic pieces.

The third large expansion, Traders & Barbarians was announced for release in 2007. Like Atlantis, Traders & Barbarians collects together a number of smaller scenarios, some of which have previously been published elsewhere. The set includes an official two-player variant.

Standalone games

Die Siedler von Nürnberg, a standalone game set at the foundation of the city of Nuremberg, and 'Starfarers of Catan, a standalone game set in the far future, were released in 1999. Starfarers was followed in 2001 by a 5-6 player expansion and by Starship Catan, a two-player card game. Two "mission packs" for Starship Catan were published in 2003 and a third was published in 2004. Also released in 2003 was, The Kids of Catan, a children's game played on a revolving board was published.

Two more historical reenactment games were released using Settlers game mechanics: Settlers of the Stone Age, released in 2002 and set in the Stone Age; and Struggle for Rome, released in 2006 and set at the fall of the Roman Empire. When Struggle was published, it and Stone Age were put under the common brand "Catan Histories"

The Catan brand name was also used for two games set on the island of Catan, but otherwise unrelated to the parent game. The first, Candamir: The First Settlers, was released in 2004 and is an adventure board game set around the first settlement of Catan. Players control individual settlers hunting and gathering, with characteristics affecting success. The second, Elasund: The First City, was released in 2006 and is a two- to four-player game in which players build within a single city, with game mechanics based on real estate pricing and eminent domain.

A dice game based on Settlers of Catan was announced in 2007.

Licensed adaptations

Many companies and conventions have produced adaptations of Settlers for promotional purposes, and a few companies have obtained licenses to sell derived games. The Water of Life was producend in 1997 for Scottish distillery Glen Grant, and The Communication in Catan was made in 2000 for the French telecommunication company Alcatel. Capcom publish a line of Rockman.EXE Catan (ロックマン エグゼ　カタン) games, based on their Rockman.EXE franchise and including standard and portable versions.

The Settlers of Canaan, a licensed version of Settlers of Catan with additions to fit themes from the Old Testament, was released in 2002 by Cactus Game Design, and The Settlers of Zarahemla was released in 2003 with additions to fit themes from the Book of Mormon by Inspiration Games. SimplyFun, a company which produces simplified versions of board games, released Simply Catan in 2006.

Video games

Since the game's release, a number of computer games ahve been published based on Catan and its spinoffs. The first officially-sanctioned release was Catan: The Computer Game by Big Fish Games. A PC CD version of the Catan card game was released in 2000. Microsoft acquired the game for MSN Games and released Catan Online in August 2005. They later produced Catan, a version of Settlers for the Xbox Live Arcade.