Catan: Ancient Egypt Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Overview
  • Game Overview and Starting Set-up for Beginners
• Game Rules
  • Starting Set-up for Beginners
  • Starting Set-up for Experienced Players
• Preparation
  • Starting Set-up for Beginners
• Turn Overview
• The Turn in Detail
  • 1. Resource Production
  • 2. Trade
  • 3. Build
  • 4. Special Cases
• End of the Game
• Help from the Gods
  • Preparation
  • Using God Cards
  • Rules for Playing Your God Card
  • Once You Play Your God Card
  • After You Play Your God Card
• The Great Pyramid
  • Preparation
  • Set-up Phase
  • Gameplay at a Glance
    • Additional Building Options
  • Rolling a "7" and Activating the Robber
  • End of the Game
• Credits

Game Overview

Game Overview and Starting Set-up for Beginners

To make it as easy as possible for you to get started with the game, we use the award-winning "Catan" rules system, which consists of 3 parts.

If you do not know "Catan" first, please read the Game Rules and start to play. If you know "The Settlers of Catan," you only have to acquaint yourself with the changed terms and illustrations, because you already know all game rules. In this case, you can choose whether to play the base game first or immediately familiarize yourself with the "Help from the Gods" cards. You need these cards for "The Great Pyramid" but can also incorporate them into the base game if you wish.

Initially, you should disregard the additional rules starting on page 5 and only play the base game. If you have questions during the game, please consult the Catan Almanac (included as a separate booklet).

1. Egypt lies before you. It consists of 19 terrain hexes surrounded by dunes and sea. Your task is to settle Egypt.

2. There are five different terrain types and one desert in Egypt. Each terrain type produces a different type of resource:

   • Papyrus grove produces papyrus
   • Alluvial land produces brick
   • Pasture produces cattle
   • Fields produce grain
   • Quarry produces stone
   • Desert produces nothing

3. You begin the game with 2 settlements and 2 oxcarts. Each settlement is worth 1 victory point. You therefore start the game with 2 victory points.

4. To obtain more victory points, you must build new oxcarts and settlements and upgrade your settlements to temple cities. To build or upgrade, you need resources.

5. How do you get resources? It's simple. Each turn, 2 dice are rolled to determine which terrain hexes produce resources. Each terrain hex is marked with a round number token, and if, for example, a "10" is rolled, all terrain hexes marked with a "10" number token produce resources.

   You only collect resources if you own a settlement or temple city bordering these terrain hexes. In the illustration, a purple settlement "A" borders the quarry and a turquoise settlement "B" borders the alluvial land. If a "10" is rolled, the purple player receives stone and the turquoise player receives brick.

6. Since settlements usually border on 2-3 terrain types, they can "harvest" up to 3 different resources based on the dice roll. In our example, settlement "C" borders 3 terrain hexes: quarry, pasture, and papyrus grove. A settlement at "D" would only harvest the production from 2 terrain hexes (quarry and alluvial land).

7. Since you can't have settlements adjacent to all terrain hexes and number tokens at the beginning of the game, you may receive certain resources only at rare intervals — or never. This is tough, because building requires specific resource combinations. For this reason, you can trade with your opponents. Make them an offer, or let them make you an offer! A successful trade might yield a big build.

8. You can only build a new settlement on an unoccupied intersection — provided that one of your own oxcarts leads to that intersection and the nearest settlement is at least 2 intersections away.

9. Carefully consider where you build settlements. The numbers on the round tokens are depicted in varying sizes. The taller numbers 6 and 8 are the numbers below the numbers. They also have dots (pips) below the numbers, and the more pips it has, the more likely that number is to be rolled. The red numbers 6 and 8 are the tallest and have the most pips; they are likely to be rolled most frequently. The more frequently a number is rolled, the more likely those numbers produce resources. You should consider settling on hexes that have good potential for production. However, these same hexes are often the primary target for the robber.

Dark Numbers at the Frame Joints

Game Rules

These rules contain all the important information that you need to play! If you need more information during the game, you can look up keywords in the Almanac. All keywords are marked with an ankh symbol.

Important: You won't need die-cut sheet #6 right now. It contains the components to play "The Great Pyramid" scenario. Leave it in the box for now.

Note: When you punch tiles out of the die-cut sheets, always push the tiles through from the front (cut) side. Pushing from the back may cause the tiles to rip.

Starting Set-up for Beginners

For your first games, we suggest that you lay out the game board as shown in the illustration on page 1. First, assemble the frame using the 6 frame pieces. The dark numbers printed on the joints must be face up. Important: The printing on the back of the frame is only intended for "The Great Pyramid" (white numbers on the joints). Make sure that the harbors and oases on the frame are in the right positions.

Now place the terrain hexes inside the frame. Once all of the hexes are in place within the frame, place the number tokens onto the hexes.

Note: 7 of the terrain hexes have the Nile River printed on the back. This side of these hexes are only used for "The Great Pyramid" scenario. Similarly, the desert hex has a picture of a Pyramid building site on the back that is only used in "The Great Pyramid" scenario, so make sure that the desert side is face up for the beginner setup.

Starting Set-up for Experienced Players

Once you have played the game a couple of times, you may find it more fun and challenging to use a random game board set-up. You can find the guidelines in the Almanac under Set-up, Variable.

Preparation

Starting Set-up for Beginners

• Each player receives one "Ancient Egypt" building costs card and all game pieces of one color: 5 settlements, 4 temple cities, and 15 oxcarts. Place 2 oxcarts and 2 settlements on the game board (see illustration on page 1). Place your remaining settlements, temple cities, and oxcarts in front of yourself. If you are playing a 3-player game, do not use the red starting positions shown on page 1. The 3 papyrus boats of each color are only used to play "The Great Pyramid." Set them aside otherwise.
• Place the special cards "Longest Trade Route" and "Largest Mercenary Army" beside the game board, along with the 2 dice.
• Sort the resource cards into 5 stacks and put them face up into the compartments of the card holder; they are the supply. Place the card holder beside the game board.
• Shuffle the development cards and place them face down next to the card holder.
• Set the 10 god cards and the 4 overview cards (see page 5) aside for now. You don't need them to play the base game.
• You receive your first resource production: take 1 resource card for each terrain hex around your starting settlement marked with a white star (see page 1).

Example: Purple receives 1 grain card and 2 cattle cards for her settlement marked with a star.

• Keep your resource cards hidden in your hand.

Turn Overview

The oldest player goes first. On your turn, you can do the following in the order listed:

1. You must roll the dice and resolve resource production (the result of your roll applies to all players).
2. You may trade resources — also with your opponents.
3. You may build: oxcarts, settlements or temple cities, and/or you may buy development cards.

In addition, you may play 1 development card at any time during your turn (also before rolling the dice).

After you're done, pass the dice to the player to your left, who then continues the game with step 1.

The Turn in Detail

1. Resource Production

• You begin your turn by rolling both dice. The sum of the dice determines which terrain hexes produce resources. After rolling, the hexes immediately produce as follows:
• Each player who has a settlement adjacent to a terrain hex marked with the number rolled receives 1 resource card of the hex's type. If you have 2 or 3 settlements adjacent to that hex, you receive 1 resource card for each settlement. You receive 2 resource cards for each temple city you own adjacent to that hex.

Example: If a "6" is rolled, Purple receives 2 brick for her 2 settlements. Turquoise receives 1 brick. If a "4" is rolled, turquoise receives 1 papyrus. If Turquoise's settlement were a temple city, he would receive 2 papyrus instead.

2. Trade

Afterwards you may trade to obtain needed resource cards. There are two types of trade:

a) Domestic Trade (Trade with Opponents)

You can trade resource cards with any of the other players. You can announce which resources you need and what you are willing to trade for them. You can also hear your opponents' offers and make counteroffers.

Important: Players may only trade with the player whose turn it is. The other players may not trade among themselves.

b) Foreign Trade (Trade with the "Supply")

You can also trade without the other players!

• During your turn, you can always trade at 4:1 by returning 4 resource cards of the same type to the supply and taking any 1 resource card of your choice in exchange.
• If you have a settlement at a harbor or an oasis, you can trade with the supply more favorably. A 3:1 harbor or a 3:1 oasis allows you to trade 3 resources of the same type for any 1 resource card of your choice, and at a special harbor or a special oasis you can trade 2 resource cards of the indicated type for any 1 resource of your choice.

Foreign trade 4:1 without harbor/oasis. Foreign trade 3:1 with 3:1 harbor/oasis. Foreign trade 2:1 with special "papyrus" oasis.

3. Build

Now you can build. Through building, you can increase your resource production and your number of victory points!

To build, you must pay specific combinations of resource cards (see the building costs card). Then you take the corresponding number of oxcarts, settlements or temple cities from your supply and place them on the game board. Return the paid resource cards to their supply stacks.

a) Oxcart requires: 1 brick and 1 cattle

• A new oxcart must always connect to 1 of your existing oxcarts, settlements, or temple cities.
• Oxcarts are built on paths, and form a trade route.
• Only 1 oxcart can be built on any given path.

Example: Gray may build an oxcart on the paths marked in green, but not on the path marked in yellow, because Purple's settlement impedes it.

• The first player to build a continuous trade route (not counting forks) of at least 5 oxcarts that is not interrupted by foreign settlements or temple cities receives the special card "Longest Trade Route," worth 2 victory points. If another player succeeds in building a longer trade route than the one created by the current owner of the "Longest Trade Route" card, he immediately takes the special card (and its 2 victory points).

Example: Purple has a continuous trade route of 6 oxcarts (not counting the fork); therefore, she has the "Longest Trade Route." Gray's trade route of 7 oxcarts is interrupted by one of Purple's settlements. So, Gray's longest is 5 oxcarts. Red's is 4.

b) Settlement requires: 1 brick, 1 cattle, 1 grain, and 1 papyrus

• You must build a settlement on an intersection that connects to at least one of your oxcarts. When building a settlement, you must observe the distance rule (see below).
• Regardless of whose turn it is (i.e., during any production phase), when a terrain hex produces resources, you receive 1 resource card for each settlement you have adjacent to that terrain hex.

Example: Gray may build a settlement on the intersection marked in green — not, however, on the intersections marked in yellow, because he has to observe the distance rule.

• Distance rule: You may only build a settlement on an intersection if all 3 (or, next to the frame, 2) of the adjacent intersections are vacant (i.e., none are occupied by any settlements or temple cities — even your own).
• Each settlement is worth 1 victory point.

c) Temple City requires: 3 stone and 2 grain

You build a temple city by upgrading one of your settlements.

• When you upgrade a settlement to a temple city, return the settlement piece to your supply and replace it with a temple city piece.
• For temple cities you receive twice as many resources from adjacent terrain hexes: 2 resource cards from each adjacent terrain hex whose number is rolled.
• Each temple city is worth 2 victory points.

d) Development Card requires: 1 stone, 1 grain, and 1 papyrus

• When you buy a development card, draw the top card from the stack.
• There are 3 different types of development cards, each of which has a different effect: Mercenary, Progress, Victory Point.
• Keep your development cards secret until you use them.

4. Special Cases

a) Rolling a "7" and Activating the Robber

• If you roll a "7," no one receives any resources.
• All players who have more than 7 resource cards must select half of their resource cards and return them to the supply. Players who have an odd number of cards round down (for example, if you have 9 cards, you must discard 4 of them).
• Then you must move the robber:
  1. You must move the robber to another hex (this can also be the desert hex).
  2. Then you draw 1 resource card from one opponent who has a settlement or temple city adjacent to the terrain hex you have placed the robber on. The player who is robbed holds his resource card hand face down.
  3. Afterwards, you begin your turn's trade phase.

Important: If the number of the hex containing the robber is rolled, the owners of adjacent settlements and temple cities do not receive resources from that hex.

b) Playing Development Cards

During your turn, you may play 1 development card — before or after rolling and resolving production. That card, however, may not be a card you bought during the same turn! There are three types of development cards.

1. Mercenary Cards:

• If you play a mercenary card, you must immediately move the robber. (See steps 1 and 2 above.)
• Once played, mercenary cards remain face up in front of yourself.
• The first player to have 3 mercenary cards face up in front of himself receives the special card "Largest Mercenary Army," which is worth 2 victory points to its holder.
• If another player has more mercenary cards face up in front of himself than the current holder of the Largest Mercenary Army card, he immediately receives the special card and the 2 victory points move from the old holder to the new holder.

2. Progress Cards:

If you play a progress card, follow its instructions. Then remove the card from the game (put it in the box, set it aside, etc.).

3. Victory Point Cards:

You must keep victory point cards secret. You may only reveal them if you or another player reach a total of 10 victory points.

End of the Game

If you have 10 or more victory points during your turn, the game ends and you are the winner.

Help from the Gods

Use these cards when you play "The Great Pyramid" scenario. The set consists of 10 god cards plus 4 overview cards containing a brief description of the gods' functions. You can easily incorporate the god cards into the base game too.

Preparation

Give each player a God Power Summary card. This card has a brief description of each god card's power.

Each god card has a front side (marked "A" and colored green) and a back side (marked "B" and colored blue). Four of the god cards have a number in addition to the letter on their "A" side. Horus is "A1," Ptha is "A2," Atum is "A3," and Osiris is "A4." Make a stack of these 4 cards in front of yourself, "A" side up. Make sure that the top card is A1, and the remaining cards follow in numerical order ("A2," "A3," and "A4"). Set the cards without numbers "A" side up beside the game board to form a display.

After you build your second settlement during the set-up phase, take the god card from the top of the stack and place it in front of yourself, "A" side up. Therefore, if you are the first player to place your second settlement, you take the A1 card, the next player takes the A2 card, and so on.

After the set-up phase is finished, place any remaining god cards (in a 3-player game this includes the A4 card) beside the rest of the god cards on display, "A" side up.

Using God Cards

Using a god card is a two-step process. The first step is a choice of whether or not you will use the god card. Once you choose to play your god card, you must resolve all of the effects as written on the card itself. The effects on each god card offer you a special advantage described on the card.

Important: Unlike the other god cards, Isis does not give you a choice of whether or not to play the card. If you have this card and someone rolls a "7," you must play Isis.

Rules for Playing Your God Card

There are four main rules to follow that dictate if, when, and how you can play your god card.

• You may only play a god card on your own turn, unless the card says otherwise. For example: Isis & Atum.
• You cannot play a god card on the same turn you receive it.
• You may only play a god card one time on the turn you use it, unless the card says otherwise. For example: Amun's 2:1 power can be used multiple times after you declare which resource you are trading.
• If you can't / don't comply with all of a god card's requirements, you cannot play it. For example: You can't use Maat if you have the most victory points. You can't use Ptha, and spend 1 cattle and 1 brick to build an oxcart, because you must actually substitute 1 resource to use his power. You can't use Amun's power of 2:1 trades if you don't actually give 2 cards to the supply in exchange for 1 card.

Once You Play Your God Card

Once you have made the choice to play your god card, you must resolve all of the effects as written on the card itself.

After You Play Your God Card

After you resolve the effects of the god card you played, read the bottom "After Use:" line. It explains your options.

• If the card is on its "A" side, you can choose either option 1 or option 2 below.
• If the card is on its "B" side, you must select option 2 below.

1. Turn the card over so that its "B" side is face up and keep it in front of yourself. You can use the god card's advantage a second time on a subsequent turn.
2. Return the god card to the display (turn it "A" side up) and choose one of the other available god cards from the display (no, you cannot take back the one you just placed on the display). Place your new god card "A" side up in front of yourself.

The Great Pyramid

Preparation

When you play "The Great Pyramid" for the first time, place the terrain hexes and number tokens inside the frame as shown in the rulebook's illustration.

If you have already played "The Great Pyramid," you may vary the hex layout as follows:

First place the hex depicting the Nile Delta (the hex where the Nile forks) as shown in the illustration. Shuffle the remaining Nile hexes and randomly set up the course of the Nile by placing the hexes in the areas surrounded by red borders. Now the Nile runs through hexes that are arranged in random order.

Shuffle all other hexes and randomly place them on the spaces still available. Then place the number tokens in the usual fashion (see Set-up, Variable).

Important: All of the rules of the base game apply to this scenario, unless otherwise specified in the rules that follow.

You and each other player should take a building costs card and place it in front of yourselves, "Great Pyramid" side up.

Now detach the components from this die-cut sheet.

In addition to the game pieces that you already have, each player takes 3 papyrus boats in their own color. Also take 12 pyramid blocks in your color.

The remaining gold-colored pyramid blocks belong to "the pharaoh." They have numbers on their backs. Shuffle these pyramid blocks and place them (number side down) in a stack beside the game board.

Each player receives 1 pharaoh card. Place your card in front of yourself, "Pharaoh's Curse" side up. "Pharaoh's Curse" reduces your victory point score by 1, which is why you start with only 1 victory point.

Place the pyramid building site beside the game board.

Put the "Vizier's Favor" card beside the pyramid building site.

Set-up Phase

The set-up phase has 2 rounds. Each player builds 1 settlement and 1 oxcart per round, as usual.

Round One

Each player rolls 2 dice. If you roll highest, you are the starting player and begin. Place 1 of your settlements on an unoccupied intersection that must border on a Nile hex. Place 1 of your oxcarts adjacent to this settlement. The oxcart may point in any direction.

Exception: You can never place an oxcart on a path across the Nile. You must use a papyrus boat to cross the Nile, which you cannot place during setup.

The other players then follow clockwise. Everyone places 1 settlement and 1 adjoining oxcart.

Round Two

Once all players have built their first settlements, the player who went last in the first round begins round two. If this is you, build your second settlement on any unoccupied intersection (respecting the distance rule) and place an oxcart adjacent to it. After you build, the other players follow counterclockwise. That way, the starting player places his second settlement last.

Remember: During the set-up phase, you may only use oxcarts (not papyrus boats) to build your trade routes.

You receive your starting resources immediately after building your second settlement; for each terrain hex adjacent to your second settlement, you take a corresponding resource card from the supply.

Gameplay at a Glance

Additional Building Options

a) Papyrus Boat requires: 2 papyrus + 1 cattle

You are not allowed to build oxcarts across the Nile. You cross the Nile with papyrus boats instead. Conversely, you may not place a papyrus boat on a normal (land-based) path.

Like oxcarts, you may place papyrus boats either adjacent to intersections that border on your own trade route (oxcart / papyrus boat) or adjacent to intersections on which you have built one of your own settlements or temple cities. If you have built 1 papyrus boat, you can later build an oxcart on an adjacent path (or a second papyrus boat if the adjacent path also crosses the Nile, like the 3 paths that border the Nile Delta hex).

Papyrus boats also count toward the "Longest Trade Route."

b) Building the Pyramid

Inserting a pyramid block into the pyramid. Building costs: 1 stone + 1 cattle

Important: You may not build pyramid blocks until you have built at least 1 papyrus boat across the Nile.

After paying the building costs, place 1 of your pyramid blocks on a space of the pyramid building site.

The pyramid consists of 4 levels. First, 16 pyramid blocks are placed on the 16 spaces of the bottom level, then 9 pyramid blocks on the second level, 4 blocks on the third level, and the last pyramid block is placed on the upper level.

Effects of Building the Pyramid

Pharaoh's Curse and Pharaoh's Blessing: As long as you have built more pyramid blocks than another player, turn your pharaoh card so that its "Pharaoh's Blessing" side is face up. "Pharaoh's Blessing" is worth 1 victory point. Therefore, "Pharaoh's Curse" affects only the player, or players, who have built the fewest building blocks. If you all have built the same number of pyramid blocks, "Pharaoh's Curse" affects everyone.

Vizier's Favor: If you are the first player to place one of your pyramid blocks, take the "Vizier's Favor" card from beside the pyramid building site. You keep the card until another player builds a pyramid block. Therefore, the Vizier's Favor card always belongs to the player who most recently built a pyramid block. As the card's owner, you have the following advantages:

• Once during your turn, you may trade any 1 of your resource cards for any 1 different resource card from the supply (1:1 trade). You may do so on the same turn you received the card.
• When a "7" is rolled, you are only required to discard half of your resource cards if you have more than 9 cards.

Rolling a "7" and Activating the Robber

If you roll a "7," take 1 of the gold-colored pyramid blocks and reveal the number on its back. You will see a number between 6 and 9. This number indicates the maximum number of resource cards each player may own without having to discard half of their resource cards. For example, if the number is "8," you only lose half of your resource cards if you have more than 8 resource cards.

Remember: If you have the "Vizier's Favor" card, you are only affected if you have more than 9 resource cards in your hand.

Pharaoh Builds the Pyramid: Place the gold-colored pyramid block on an empty space on the pyramid building site.

After completing all of the steps above, you move the robber and draw a resource card from an opponent as usual.

End of the Game

The game ends when one of the following conditions is met:

• A player reaches 11 victory points on his turn. This player wins the game.

OR

If you have the most victory points, you win if either of the following occur:

• All 12 of the pharaoh's gold-colored pyramid blocks have been used.
• The pyramid is finished.

If there is a tie in either of these cases, the tying player who contributed the most pyramid blocks wins. If there is a tie in this case, if one of these tied players has the Vizier's Favor card, that player wins. If no tied player has the Vizier's Favor Card, the tied players share the win.

Credits

Author: Klaus Teuber

Editorial Team (German Ed.): Wolfgang Lüdtke, Reiner Müller, Klaus Teuber, Benjamin Teuber, Peter Neugebauer

Illustration & Figure Design: Michael Menzel

Graphic Design: Michaela Kienle/Fine Tuning

Thanks (German Ed.): The author and publisher thank all of the playtesters and copy editors.

Production & Layout (English Ed.): Ron Magin

Translation (English Ed.): Gavin Allister

Development (English Ed.): Coleman Charlton, Morgan Dontanville, Pete Fenlon and Ron Magin

Special Thanks: See additional credits in the almanac

Copyright © 2014 Catan GmbH. Catan, Catan: Egypt, Catan Collectors Edition, the Catan Map image and all associated marks are trademark properties of Catan GmbH. All rights reserved. Produced by Mayfair Games, Inc. under an exclusive worldwide English-language license from Catan GmbH. See www.catan.com.