De Kolonisten van Catan: De Koloniën Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Material
• 2. Introduction
• 3. Setup
• 4. The Founding Phase
• 5. Rule Changes
  • 5a) Ships
  • 5b) Colonies
    • Discovering with ships and placing outposts
    • Founding a settlement on the coast of the colonies
    • Discovering with roads
    • Further rules
  • 5c) Colony tokens
  • 5d) The volcanoes
  • 5e) Robber and pirate
  • 5f) The warship
  • 5g) Special victory points
• End of the Game
• Game Tip
• Variable Setup and Variants
  • Variable setup
  • Setup variants
  • Setup for the earlier edition of Seafarers

1. Material

The scenario requires the following components:

• 5 punch-out sheets
• 2 frame pieces
• 4 overview cards
• 4 water hexes
• 3 jungle hexes
• 2 volcano hexes
• 1 gold river hex
• 92 colony tokens, divided as follows:
  • 24 discovery tokens
  • 22 gold tokens
  • 22 ore tokens
  • 24 gem tokens
• 20 outposts in 4 colours (5 each)
• 4 warships in 4 colours (1 each)
• 1 pirate (black warship)
• 1 rulebook

The table below lists the hexes and number tokens by type. The number-token counts for the home island and for the colonies are printed as given.

Hex type	Water	Grain	Hills	Forest	Pasture	Mountains	Desert	Gold	Jungle	Volcano	Total
Home island + sea	20	4	4	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	38
Colonies	3	0	0	0	0	5

Number tokens	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(8)	(9)	(10)	(11)	(12)	Total
Home island	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	18
Colonies	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Harbors: 5 x 3:1, 1 x grain, 1 x wool, 1 x wood, 1 x brick. In addition, about 10 Catan chips (victory point chips) are needed.

Printed footnote: the asterisk on the colony hex total (19) is printed on the sheet and is not further explained there.*

2. Introduction

In the scenario "Die Kolonien", some fundamental rules change, especially those of the Seafarers expansion. The following presents only the changed rules. Unless stated otherwise, all rules of the base game and of the Seafarers expansion remain valid.

3. Setup

Build the island landscape according to the illustration. The hexes marked with question marks remain face down for now.

Shuffle the harbor tokens, and place them randomly on the marked spots shown in the illustration. Shuffle the hex tiles provided for the colonies, and form a face-down stack next to the game board from them. (It is best to place a hex tile you do not need on top of the stack, for example one of the other hills or grain hexes, and then, when a new colony hex is discovered, to draw the bottom tile from the stack.) The stack contains 19 hex tiles, but only 18 hexes are to be discovered. One hex tile therefore always remains unused. (This is marked with an asterisk in the material table.)

Shuffle the 10 number tokens for the colonies as well, and place them as a face-down stack next to the game board. The colony tokens are sorted and made ready.

Each player receives 5 settlements, 4 cities, 15 roads, 3 ships, 1 warship and 5 outposts in his colour.

4. The Founding Phase

Game for four: The founding phase proceeds according to the normal rules. However, each player must found his first settlement on a coastal intersection of the home island that faces the colonies. (At least one of the seven sea hexes must be touched.) A ship is placed on this settlement; a road may not be built. The second settlement may be built freely within the normal rules.

Game for three: In the three-player game, each player also founds a third settlement. The starting player (that is, the player who last built his second settlement) begins, and the following players then take their turns clockwise. Resources are given for the third settlement built.

5. Rule Changes

Overview:

• 5a) Ships
• 5b) Colonies
• 5c) Colony tokens
• 5d) The volcanoes
• 5e) Robber and pirate
• 5f) The warship
• 5g) Special victory points

5a) Ships

Unlike in the scenarios of the Seafarers expansion, the ships in "Die Kolonien" are not placed one after another along a sea route. Instead, they move from intersection to intersection. Therefore each player has only 3 ships available.

• Ships can discover colonies, build outposts, and transport colony tokens from the colonies to the home island. (See 5b Colonies.)
• After rolling and distributing resource income, a player may move his ships at any time during his turn. (This includes ships built in the same turn.)
• It is perfectly allowed to build ships, move ships, build them again, and so on.
• The movement range of a ship is determined by the higher of the two production dice. If a player rolls, for example, a 3 and a 5, he may move each of his ships up to 5 intersections.
• A ship may not end its move on an intersection (or be placed there) where another ship already stands. It may, however, be moved over own and foreign ships. It may not be moved over the pirate.
• A ship may not end its move on an intersection where a foreign settlement stands. It may, however, be moved over foreign settlements. A ship may end its move on an intersection with an own settlement.

5b) Colonies

The colonies contain valuable and exotic hexes, for example ones that produce the badly needed ore, and they can also provide victory points and development cards directly. To enjoy the benefits of the colonial goods, however, they must first be transported to the home island. But first, of course, they must be discovered.

Discovering with ships and placing outposts

• If a ship reaches an intersection with an undiscovered hex, a hex is drawn from the stack and turned face up. If it is a sea hex, the player may keep moving the ship if it still has movement points left. If it is a land hex, the player removes his ship (back to the supply) and places one of his outposts in the middle of the land hex instead. In addition, he receives a colony token matching that hex, which he must convert immediately if possible. (Converting colony tokens: see below.) If the newly discovered hex has no printed number token, the top number token from the stack is placed on it, including on a desert. (No two red numbers may lie next to each other here. If this would happen, the next token is drawn, and the stack is reshuffled together with the set-aside red number token.)

Caption, illustration A: Player Red moves his discovery ship onto an intersection that borders an undiscovered hex. Caption, illustration B: He draws a hex from the face-down stack, turns it over, and has discovered "Jungle". Caption, illustration C: The player places an outpost on the jungle hex and immediately receives a "Discovery" colony token as a reward.

Important: It is not allowed to forgo converting the ship into an outpost just because the player does not like the newly discovered hex!

• If a ship reaches a land hex that has already been discovered, the player may choose whether to convert the ship into an outpost or to keep exploring.

Founding a settlement on the coast of the colonies

• Outposts allow settlements to be built on the coast of the colonial area. For a settlement adjacent to a land hex, one needs an outpost on that land hex. For a settlement between two land hexes, one needs an outpost on both land hexes.
• If a player meets this condition, and the distance rule is observed, he pays the normal building costs for the settlement, removes his outpost or outposts from the adjacent land hex or hexes, and places the settlement. From then on, this settlement can produce colony tokens.

Caption, illustration A: Player Red has built outposts on two discovered landscape hexes. He may build a settlement on the intersections marked in red. Caption, illustration B: Player Red founds his settlement between jungle and mountains and removes his outposts. Caption, illustration C: As soon as Player White is on turn, he may build a settlement on the intersections marked in white.

Discovering with roads

• If a player has founded a settlement on the coast of a colonial area, he may discover further from there by building roads from his settlement according to the normal rules. If a road reaches an undiscovered hex, a hex is drawn from the stack and turned face up, just as when discovering with ships. If it is a land hex, the player receives a matching colony token, and a number token is drawn from the stack if applicable. However, the road is not converted into an outpost.
• On his own roads, a player may found further settlements in the colonies (both on the coast and in the interior of the land), subject to the distance rule. For a settlement founded in this way, no outposts are needed, including for a settlement on the coast.

Further rules

• To build a second or third settlement on a hex, the player must reach the desired intersection either with roads or again by building outposts with ships.
• Settlements in the colonies may never be upgraded to cities!

5c) Colony tokens

• When the number of a colony hex is rolled, the colonial settlements produce. That is, a matching colony token is placed for each settlement: ore on the mountains, gold on the gold river, gems in the desert, discovery in the jungle. A volcano produces a colonial token of the player's choice (but see 5d The Volcanoes). Each settlement can store only 3 tokens. If the settlement already holds 3 tokens, its production is forfeited.
• To make any use of a colony token, a player must first fetch it with a ship and transport it to one of his home settlements.
• A ship can transport up to 3 colony tokens.
• Loading and unloading costs the ship no movement points. It is therefore entirely possible to move a ship to one of your own colonial settlements, load colony tokens, and return to the home island.
• Transferring cargo to other ships is not allowed, so no chain transport is possible (loading a ship, moving it, transferring to a second ship, moving that one, and unloading it if applicable).
• Along the player's own road network in the colonies, colony tokens may be moved freely during the player's own turn. Ships can also be loaded directly with colony tokens located in other colonial settlements, if those settlements are connected by roads to the colonial settlement where the ship is.
• When a ship carrying colonial tokens reaches a settlement on the home island, the tokens are converted immediately where possible:
  • An ore token is always converted immediately into an ore resource card.
  • A gold token is always converted immediately into a resource card of the player's choice (but not ore!).
  • Discovery tokens are collected until the player has 3 discovery tokens. These are then converted immediately into 1 victory point (Catan chip).
  • Gem tokens are collected until the player has 2 gem tokens. These are then converted immediately into a development card.
• Colony tokens are not resource cards. They cannot be stolen "sobald" (as soon as) they have been delivered to the home island, and they are not counted when hand cards are checked after a rolled 7. Also, a Monopoly card cannot be played on colony tokens.

Translator's note: the German here is "sobald" ("as soon as"), translated as printed. The sheet does not clearly say whether tokens still in the colonies or on ships can be stolen, so check the printed German before ruling on this point.

5d) The volcanoes

• Settlements on a volcano produce colony tokens of the player's choice. This is powerful but also dangerous. Each time a volcano field has produced, the volcano erupts. For this, a die is rolled. If a settlement stands at the intersection with the rolled number, it is destroyed. Colony tokens stored there may still be transported to another settlement over an own road network. If that is not possible, those tokens are also lost.
• An erupting volcano does not affect roads, ships or outposts.
• If individual roads remain after a settlement is lost, a new settlement may be built on them.
• The die roll for the volcano does not change the movement range of the active player's ships, which is set by the production roll.

5e) Robber and pirate

• The robber is not in the game.
• The pirate stands outside the game board at the start of the game. It comes into play on the first rolled "7" (or a played Knight card).
• Like ships, the pirate is placed on intersections. It may be placed only on a free intersection (without ship, settlement or city) that borders at least one sea hex. The pirate may never be placed on intersections that border the frame.
• When a "7" is rolled, a Knight card is played, or the pirate is driven away by a warship (see below), the active player moves the pirate to any other intersection bordering a sea hex.
• If the pirate is placed on an intersection next to a foreign ship or a foreign colonial settlement, the active player may choose a token from that ship or colonial settlement and take it. The stolen token is converted immediately if possible.
• If the pirate is placed on an intersection next to a foreign home settlement or city, the active player draws a hand card from that player as usual.
• Naturally, only one token, or one hand card from one player, is stolen.
• Outposts cannot be taken by the pirate.
• The pirate also blocks the sea routes of ships: no other ship may stand on the pirate's intersection, and ships may not be moved over the pirate.
• If the pirate occupies a coastal intersection, that intersection is blocked for building settlements. A settlement can be built there again only once the pirate has been driven away.
• The pirate does not block road connections. Colony tokens can therefore be transported over an intersection occupied by the pirate, and a road can still be built through it.

5f) The warship

• Each player owns one warship.
• A warship costs 2 lumber and 1 wool to build.
• A player builds his warship and places it in the middle of a sea hex.
• The warship protects the player's own ships and settlements/cities on the six intersections bordering the warship's sea hex from pirate raids.
• Furthermore, the pirate may not be placed on these six intersections. If the pirate stands on an intersection of the sea hex on which a warship is placed, the pirate is driven away. This lets the active player, if applicable, steal from another player.
• A warship may also be moved. This is possible once per own turn. Moving costs 1 wool. If the pirate is driven away by the move, this lets the active player, if applicable, steal from another player.
• A warship cannot be moved in the turn in which it is built.
• It is, however, possible to drive the pirate away by playing a Knight card and then drive it away again in the same turn by placing or moving the warship. (With a rolled "7", the active player can in theory drive the pirate away up to three times in one turn.)

5g) Special victory points

• The Longest Trade Route is not in the game.
• The Largest Army is in the game.

End of the Game

Four players: The game is won by the player who is on turn and has more than 11 victory points.

Three players: The game is won by the player who is on turn and has more than 12 victory points.

Game Tip

It is best to place the colony tokens next to the settlements or ships, not on top of them. When tokens are transported on a ship, first move only the ship, and pick up the tokens once the journey has ended. This makes it easier to reconstruct where the turn began.

Variable Setup and Variants

Variable setup

The number tokens on the home island should always be laid out as indicated in the setup. The hexes can be varied as desired.

Setup variants

You can also vary the colonies, with more or fewer hidden water hexes. However, there should always be at least two water hexes open between the home island and the colonies. You can therefore vary freely between 0 and 9 open water hexes. Have fun discovering!

Setup for the earlier edition of Seafarers

Build the game board as shown in the printed diagram on the last page of the sheet (not reproduced here). All rules apply as described above. Here there is one hex tile and one number token more than needed.

Material for this setup (as printed):

Hex type	Water	Grain	Hills	Forest	Pasture	Mountains	Desert	Gold	Jungle	Volcano	Total
Home island + sea	17	3	4	4	4	1	-	-	-	-	33
Colonies	6	-	-	-	-	4

Number tokens	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(8)	(9)	(10)	(11)	(12)	Total
Home island	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	16
Colonies	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Harbors: 5 x 3:1, 1 x grain, 1 x wool, 1 x wood, 1 x brick. Harbors from the base game: none.