Catan Scenario: Crop Trust Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Board Preparation
• Scenario Components
• Game Preparation
  • Game Components
• Scenario Rules
  • Harvesting Food
  • Crop Shortage
  • Ensuring Crop Diversity
    • Depositing Seeds in the Seed Vault
    • 1. Pay the Storage Costs
    • 2. Record the Deposit and Receive Rewards
    • 3. Store Seeds in the Vault
    • 4. Replant Crops in the Fields
  • Effects of Growth
    • Revealing Event Tokens
    • Regional Crop Loss
    • Small-scale Crop Loss

Game Board Preparation

For your first Catan: Crop Trust game, the rules recommend the set-up shown in the printed "Starting set-up for your first game" diagram (page 2). Please note that the desert is not used in this scenario. Instead, you use the additional fields hex included in this scenario (watermarked with a seed vial icon).

Add your scenario components (listed below) to those found in your Catan game. Then, set up as follows.

[Board diagram: the printed sheet shows the starting layout of the terrain hexes and number tokens, with the Robber on the 2 hex, the Extra Fields Hex, starting settlements and roads in each player colour, and crop tokens on the fields hexes.]

Scenario Components

• 90 Crop Tokens (in 5 diverse crop varieties: wheat, beans, maize (corn), rice, and quinoa). The front sides depict crops. The back sides depict seed storage vials.
• 41 Event Tokens (in 4 different categories). The fronts show the disaster symbols described under Scenario Rules; the backs show a seed vial.
• 1 Fields Hex (replaces the desert).
• 1 Number Token "9".
• 4 Crop Storage Records (with build costs and seed storage).
• Seed Vault display.
• 1 Rules Book with Crop Trust Almanac.

Game Preparation

Game Components

Player Pieces. Each player chooses a set of game pieces in one of the available colors. If this is your first game, place your starting settlements and roads on the board as shown in the Starting Set-up. After you are comfortable with the new rules, try the variable setup (see page 7).

In a 3-player game, set aside the pieces of 1 color. Do not place the starting settlements and roads of this color on the board.

Each player receives a Crop Storage Record player aid and places it in front of him/her.

The Seed Vault & Crop Tokens. Place the starting crop tokens on the fields hexes as shown in the "Starting set-up for your first game." Place the seed vault display beside the game board. Each player places 4 crop tokens (seed vial side up) of one plant type on one of the 2 seed vault spaces marked in their player color. Red chooses rice, White chooses beans, Orange chooses maize, and Blue chooses quinoa. Place all remaining crop tokens beside the board.

The Robber. The robber starts on the pasture hex marked "2".

Starting Resources. At the beginning of the game, each player receives the starting resources for the settlement of his/her player color (marked with stars in the starting set-up for your first game).

Event Tokens. Shuffle the event tokens face down (seed vial side up). Each player takes 7 of these tokens and places 1 face-down token under each of the remaining 3 settlements and 4 cities of his/her supply. In addition, place 1 face-down event token each on the special victory point cards "Longest Road" and "Largest Army." Arrange the remaining event tokens into a face-down supply stack and place it beside the board.

Scenario Rules

Unlike in the Catan base game, the Catan: Crop Trust scenario specifies the crops depicted by the "grain" card. Here, the fields produce wheat, maize, rice, quinoa, and beans. Hence, for all these crops we use the generic term "food" instead of "grain." The grain resource cards are called "food cards."

Play this scenario according to the standard Catan board game rules. Apply the following scenario rules, which modify game play.

Harvesting Food

If someone rolls the number of a fields hex adjacent to your settlement/city, you may choose to harvest or not to harvest food. To harvest food, you remove a crop token of your choice from the fields hex and return it to the supply. After removing a crop token—no matter of which type—from a fields hex, take a food card (grain card) from the supply. For a city, you may remove 1-2 crop tokens and accordingly take 1-2 food cards in exchange.

Per normal Catan game rules, you must take 1 resource card for each settlement and 2 resource cards for each city adjacent to a terrain hex whose number was rolled. This rule also applies to this scenario… except for the resource "food" (grain). If someone rolls the number of a fields hex adjacent to your settlement/city, you may choose not to remove a crop token from the field. In this case, however, you receive no food card.

You make the choice to harvest/not harvest in 1-2 harvest rounds. Harvest rounds are conducted in player order, starting with the player that rolled the dice (called the "active player"). If the active player does not have a settlement/city adjacent to the producing hex, start with the next player in clockwise order entitled to receive production from this hex. During a harvest round, each player who has a right to harvest crops from this hex decides whether to remove 1 crop token and take 1 food card in exchange. Each player participating in the harvest of crops produced by a fields hex may only remove 1 crop token when it is his/her turn to select.

Example: White rolls a "9". The player order is White-Red-Blue-Orange. Red, Orange, and Blue are on the "9" grain hex. Red is the first player clockwise from White and decides to harvest. She removes 1 wheat crop token from this hex (returns it to the supply) and exchanges it for a food card (takes a grain card from the supply). Blue also decides to harvest. He removes 1 beans crop token and takes a food card. Blue cannot remove a 2nd crop token until the 2nd harvest round. Orange removes 1 maize token and takes a food card. Blue can now take his second harvest for his city, but he chooses not to harvest.

Crop Shortage

If someone rolls the number on a fields hex and that hex does not contain enough crop tokens for all players entitled to harvest the crops produced by that hex, you still harvest food in 1-2 rounds as normal. Harvesting stops when the hex bears no more crop tokens.

Should there be no more crop tokens on a fields hex when it is your turn to harvest, you cannot harvest. You cannot obtain a food card. Now, all the owners of settlements or cities adjacent to this fields hex can no longer harvest to receive food cards.

Printed note beside the example: "This hex has only 2 remaining crop tokens. The next '9' roll will definitely force some hard choices due to a crop shortage on this field." (Illustrates a fields hex with 2 crop tokens left, shown "before" and "after" harvest.)

Ensuring Crop Diversity

Depositing Seeds in the Seed Vault

You may store crop tokens—and thus seeds—in the seed vault once during your turn by making a seed deposit. You may only deposit crop tokens of which there is at least 1 on a fields hex adjacent to one of your settlements or cities (for example: if none of the fields hexes adjacent to any of your settlements/cities have a rice token, you cannot deposit rice).

The robber does not affect the storage of crop tokens in the seed vault. You may take a crop token from a fields hex and store it in the seed vault even if that fields hex is being blocked by the robber.

If you decide to store crop tokens, follow this 4-step process (you must complete each step):

1. Pay the storage costs
2. Record the deposit and receive rewards
3. Store seeds in the seed vault
4. Replant crops in the fields

1. Pay the Storage Costs

First, pay the storage costs by returning 1 lumber and 1 ore to the supply. Then you proceed as follows.

Example: Red takes 1 ore card and 1 lumber card from her hand and returns them to the card supply. Her storage costs are now paid.

2. Record the Deposit and Receive Rewards

Take 1 crop token from a fields hex adjacent to one of your settlements or cities. Place it on an unoccupied space of your Crop Storage Record. The Crop Storage Record shows 2 rows, each with 5 spaces for crop tokens. Place your first crop token on the green-framed space in the upper row. Place additional tokens one by one on the next spaces in the direction indicated by the arrows. The following rules apply:

• You may only place 1 crop token of each type in each row.
• If you want to store a crop token of a certain type and you have already placed a token of that type in the upper row, you may place it in the second row.
• If you have already placed a token of a certain type in both the first and the second rows, you may not place a third token of that type on the Crop Storage Record. This also means that you cannot store crop tokens of this type in the seed vault (see below, Store seeds in the Vault).
• You don't receive a reward for the first crop token placed in a given row of your Crop Storage Record. When you place a second token, you receive 1 development card for free. For the third, fourth, and fifth crop tokens you place in one of the rows, you receive 1 victory point each. In theory, you can receive these rewards twice—if you manage to place 5 different crop tokens on the spaces of the second row as well.

Example: Red removes 1 crop token "beans" from a fields hex adjacent to her settlement/city. She may not place the token in the first row of her Crop Storage Record because she has already placed a beans token there. She must place it on the first space of the second row of her Crop Storage Record, because that is the first available space in that row.

3. Store Seeds in the Vault

You have 2 spaces of your player color on the seed vault tile. Use these as your storage areas in the seed vault. One space is empty. The other space is always filled with 4 crop tokens (remember that you filled that space at the beginning of the game). From the supply, take 4 crop tokens of the same type as the token that you placed on your crop storage record (step 2 above). Place these tokens on your unoccupied space in the seed vault (seed vial side up).

If there aren't enough crop tokens of a type available (which is very rare), place the remaining crop tokens of this type in the seed vault (again, even if they are less than 4).

Example: In step 2, Red placed a "beans" token on her crop storage record. She now takes 4 "beans" tokens from the supply and places them on her empty space in the seed vault.

4. Replant Crops in the Fields

Take the 4 crop tokens currently on a space of your color in the seed vault (i.e., the tokens next to the space you just filled with new crop tokens) out of the seed vault. Place the 4 tokens on the fields hexes of the game board. Distribute them as follows:

• You must place each of the 4 crop tokens on a different fields hex.
• You don't have to own a settlement or city adjacent to the fields hexes on which you place them.
• A fields hex may contain various identical crop tokens.
• A fields hex may contain no more than 7 crop tokens. You may not place a crop token on a fields hex that already contains 7 crop tokens.
• Should multiple fields hexes already contain 7 crop tokens and, as a result, you are unable to distribute all 4 crop tokens among the fields hexes, return the remaining tokens to the supply.

Example: Red now takes the 4 "rice" tokens that are already in her other seed vault space and replants them. She distributes these 4 tokens by placing each of them on different fields hexes on the board (1 token per hex).

Effects of Growth

Crop tokens are not only removed from the board by harvesting. Building and developing the island's network of settlements, cities, and roads and providing food for the knights also causes pressure on crops.

Revealing Event Tokens

Each time you build a settlement or city, take the event token underneath, turn it over, read the respective event out aloud, and resolve the event. Proceed similarly whenever you receive the special victory point cards "Longest Road" or "Largest Army" (be it the first time these cards are awarded or later, when they change hands).

If you have built a city and returned your settlement to your supply, draw a new event token from the supply stack and place it under this settlement. You take a similar approach when a special victory point card changes hands and you are the new owner of the card: after revealing the event token on the card and resolving the event, you draw a new event token from the supply stack and place it face down on the special victory point card.

If you have played all event tokens from the supply stack, shuffle them and arrange them into a new face-down supply stack.

The fronts of the event tokens show various symbols indicating different disastrous effects as described below.

Regional Crop Loss

Remove all crop tokens of the type depicted on the event token from the fields hexes marked with the depicted numbers and return them to the supply.

If this occurs, return all crop tokens of this type from the supply back into the box. Tokens of this type on crop storage records still remain.

It is now no longer possible to plant or harvest this crop, nor is it possible to store this crop in the seed vault.

Example: In this example, you would remove all "beans" crop tokens from the fields hexes marked with the number tokens 5, 6, or 8.

Small-scale Crop Loss

Remove 2 crop tokens of the type depicted on the event token from the board. Return these 2 tokens to the supply. You must first remove crop tokens of the depicted type from fields hexes adjacent to which you have built a settlement/city. If there are fewer than 2 of the affected crops on such hexes, remove the required number of crop tokens from other fields hexes.

Example: In this example, you would remove 2 "quinoa" crop tokens from the board.

Large-scale Crop Loss

Remove 3 crop tokens of the type depicted on the event token from the board. Return these 3 tokens to the supply. You must first remove crop tokens of the depicted type from fields hexes adjacent to which you have built a settlement/city. If there are fewer than 3 of the affected crops on such hexes, remove the required number of crop tokens from other fields hexes.

Example: In this example, you would remove 3 "maize" crop tokens from the board.

Monoculture

Monoculture is the cultivation of a single crop species in a given area. If a fields hex contains only 1 type of crop token (for example: only beans tokens, or only rice tokens), you must remove all of these tokens and return them to the supply.

Example: If a fields hex contains 2 beans and 3 maize, no action is taken. However, if one hex contains only 4 beans, and another hex contains only 1 rice, you must remove all 4 beans tokens and the single rice token.

Extinction of Plant Species

Crop tokens may disappear from the game board during harvest and due to the event tokens. If there are no crop tokens of a given type on the board, and if no crop tokens of this type are stored in the seed vault, this plant species is considered extinct.

If you reveal an event token that depicts an extinct plant species, return it to the box. Then draw a new event token from the supply and resolve its effects.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as any 1 of the following 3 end game conditions occur:

1. A player reaches 10 victory points on his/her turn.
2. 3 of the 5 fields hexes no longer contain crop tokens.
3. 2 of 5 plant species are extinct.

If you meet end game condition 1, you win the game!

Important: If you reach your 10th victory point (for example, by building a settlement/city), you must still reveal an event token. If this event token causes end game condition 2 or 3 to occur, then end game condition 2 or 3 takes precedence.

If end game conditions 2 or 3 occur, the game ends immediately. If you are the player with the most crop tokens on your crop storage record, you win, because you are the player who most contributed to conserving plant diversity. In case of a tie, the tied player who has the most victory points wins. If the tie persists, both players win.

Please note: If, during the production phase, you remove a crop token from a fields hex, thereby causing end game condition 2 or 3 to occur, you lose the game—even if you have the most crop tokens on your crop storage record. In this case, the player with the 2nd most crop tokens on his/her crop storage record wins.

If you reach 10 victory points during your build phase but are forced to reveal an event token, and this event token causes end game condition 2 or 3 to occur, you may still win the game, if you have the most crops stored in your crop storage record.

Variable Set-Up

For subsequent games, we recommend that you use a variable set-up. To this end, shuffle the terrain hexes, distribute them face down, and then turn them over. Place the number tokens as shown in the set-up example below. This ensures a balanced distribution of the number tokens, while the varying positions of the fields hexes transform every game into a different and unique experience.

[Variable set-up diagram: the printed page 7 shows a 19-hex board laid out for subsequent games, with the number tokens in the positions printed there. The crop tokens go on the hexes bearing the numbers listed below.]

Distribute the crop tokens among the fields hexes as follows:

• Place 1 quinoa on each fields hex marked "2" and "12".
• Place 1 quinoa and 1 maize on each fields hex marked "3" and "11".
• Place 1 quinoa, 1 maize, and 1 wheat on each fields hex marked "4" and "10".
• Place 1 quinoa, 1 maize, 1 wheat, and 1 beans on each fields hex marked "5" and "9".
• Place 1 crop token of each crop species on each fields hex marked "6" and "8".

At the beginning of the game, the following crop tokens are placed on the seed vault spaces: The starting player places 4 crop tokens "rice" on one of the 2 seed vault spaces of his/her color. The next players in clockwise order each choose 4 crop tokens "beans," "wheat," and "maize."