Catan Geographies: The Carolinas
Catan Geographies: The Carolinas Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Rules for 3-4 Players
In order to settle this region, you need the game pieces and cards from The Settlers of Catan game. You also need additional markers for victory point (VP) tokens; you can use Catan chits from the Seafarers expansion, coins, or whatever else is handy. The standard Settlers of Catan rules apply to this scenario, with the following exceptions listed below.
Game Rules for 5-6 Players
In addition to the standard Settlers of Catan rules, the rules of The Settlers of Catan 5-6 Player Extension rules are also in effect. Furthermore, all of the Catan Geographies: The Carolinas rules (1-9 below) are in effect, with the following exception: Before beginning, no VP tokens are placed on the VP intersections. VP spaces no longer grant you a VP. Instead, they are treated as regular city fields (see rules 1 and 6 below).
Layout note: on the panel the numbered rules 1-10 follow the 5-6 player heading, although the 3-4 player introduction refers to exceptions "listed below". They are transcribed here in the printed order and placement.
Rules
1. Settlement Building
Settlements may only be built on the named "city fields" (city-field icon). The normal distance rule doesn't apply to Springfield, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh/Durham.
2. Road Building
You can only build roads on the "road fields" (plain road-field icon) or the "trading road fields" (solid-bar trading road-field icon). If you build a road adjacent to a city field, you may only build another road beyond this field after you build a settlement on this field.
3. Waterways
If you build a settlement/city on a city field connected to a blue "waterway" (blue waterway icon), treat the waterway and all waterways connected to it as your roads. These waterways can be shared by players. No one can build on a waterway. Waterways DO NOT count as "pieces" for calculating the "Longest Road." In Catan: The Carolinas, the waterways represent the ferries, boats and barges that are used throughout the Outer Banks.
4. 3:1 Resource/Commodity Trade
If you build a road on a trading road field beside a 3:1 scroll, you may trade any 3 of the same type of resource for any 1 other resource of your choice. Additionally, if you are using the Rice & Tobacco Variant, additional special rules apply (see below).
5. Special 2:1 Trade
If you build a road on a trading road field by a special 2:1 scroll, you may trade resources to the supply as stated in the scroll next to the field. So, you may trade 2 of the same depicted resource type for any 1 other resource of your choice.
6. VP Intersections
Before beginning a 3-4 player game, place a VP token (worth 1 VP) on each VP symbol on the board (VP-intersection icon). The first player to build a road to an intersection with a VP token receives that VP token.
In a 5-6 player game, these intersections do not receive a VP token but are instead treated as if they were regular city fields. Hence, all rules that apply to regular city fields also apply to the VP intersections in a 5-6 player game.
7. "Off Map" Settlements
In a 5-6 player game, players may build settlements (and cities) on the VP token locations. In these cases the settlements/cities here produce resources for the obviously adjacent terrains as usual, even if the map terrain does not fully extend to the VP intersection.
8. Robber
Before you start, place the robber on the indicated space on the map (near Cape Hatteras in the Outer Banks of North Carolina).
9. Victory
You win the game if, on your turn, you reach 13 VPs with 3 players, 12 VPs with 4 players, and 10 VPs with 5-6 players.
10. Rice & Tobacco Variant
If all players agree, you can recreate the historic rice and tobacco agriculture in The Carolinas by using the following variant rules (you will need to supply two kinds of tokens, approximately [0-20 — digits uncertain in source photo] of each. They can be coins, game pieces, or whatever you wish):
The map is divided into 2 regions. North Carolina has city fields with a light blue ring (light-blue-ring city-field icon). South Carolina has city fields with a red ring (red-ring city-field icon). If you do not receive a resource card after any normal production roll (except a "7"), you may take 1 commodity token as follows:
- If you have a settlement or city in North Carolina, you can take a tobacco token.
- If you have a settlement or city on South Carolina you can take a rice token.
- If you have a settlement or city on both, you can take 1 token of your choice.
These tokens are commodities. You may trade commodities with other players (just like a resource card). You cannot steal commodities, nor do they count as resources when a "7" is rolled. You can trade rice and tobacco commodities to the supply as follows:
- 2 rice + 2 tobacco (4 tokens in total) for any 1 resource card of your choice.
- If you have a "3:1" port, you may trade 2 of any 1 commodity + 1 of the other for any 1 resource card of your choice (1 rice + 1 tobacco for example).