Eselbeus' Catan World
This site provides tips, variants, and commentary about "catan" games.
Settlers of Catan Seafarers of Catan Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights Starfarers of Catan Settlers of Catan Card Game Starship Catan Settlers of the Stone Age
Variants News Who is Eselbeus?(FAQ and Contact) Adventures of Woody and Clay(comic) Catan Articles Sitemap LinksContact
New variant posted! The Gods of Catan!Here! News update. Here!(10/23/05)
Apologies for the lack of recent updates. I will be resuming updates of this site and comic January 2007! (12/04/06)
Welcome to my Settlers of Catan site!
My site should provide the following:
1. Answer some questions about game rules (maybe you can answer some of mine!)
2. Provide you with my best tips and strategies, as well as articles to raise questions.
3. Provide you with variants that I've created (I've been really disappointed that Mayfair hasn't come out with more).
4. My ideas and thoughts about Starfarers. I haven't found much about this on the internet, so I'm going to provide it myself. It's truly a great game, but no one really talks about it.
5. This site (to the best of my knowledge) is home to the world's first Catan comic strip.
Settlers of Catan
Settlers of Catan
This game was the first game that Mayfair made of this series. In the game you build settlements and cities on the island of Catan with the resources that you produce. Development cards add a great twist to this, allowing a multitude of roads to victory. The idea is to get a certain amount of victory points (10) to win. The victory points are based on the number of cities and settelments you have and various bounuses including development cards.
Strategies and tips within a general overview of the game
Seafarers of Catan
This game is an add-on to Settlers of Catan and is very similar to the original game, but there are more rules and roads to victory...or to be catanonically correct, trade routes to victory. There is no consistent set up for the game. You have to choose a scenario from the rule book (If you're creative enough you can make your own). The basic idea is that you can have multiple islands and you build ships to get to them. There might be certain additional victory point bonuses available, but it depends on the scenario.
Strategies and tips within a general overview of the game
Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights
This expansion make for the regular catan game plus cool stuff like cities and knights. The development card deck from the regular game is replaced with three new decks. In addition to resources, your cities produce trade goods as well which allow you to upgrade your cities for bonuses. From time to time in the game there is a brigand attack. This is an instance where your knights come into play. Knights are game pieces instead of cards and they can attack other knights. This game requires more victory points to win (13) than the regular game.
Strategies and tips within a general overview of the game
Settlers of Catan Card Game
This is a two player card game version of Setters. It takes the basic elements of the game but adds event cards and you can build buildings to protect your cities and gain resources and victory points. This game is comparable to the Cities and Knights as some of the same cards are involved. In fact, if you haven't noticed, the "Savior of Catan" looks a lot like "Falk the Fair."
Strategies and tips within a general overview of the game
Card Game Expansions
At one point, I thought that these did not work so well, but I have since used all of the expansions and have found that they can be effective in adding to gameplay. I have plans to add a section on the expansions someday.
Historical Scenarios
Alexander der Grosse/Cheops
This only comes in German and the actual game does not have an English translation. However, the rules in English can be found on the internet. I don't recall the site right now, but you can look for it in a search engine. These games feature a special board and different ways of playing the old game. I have plans to add a section on these scenarios. There are a few other scenarios that I have not played and will not be adding sections to this site in the near future.
Starfarers of Catan
Starfarers of Catan
This game is not an expansion of the Settlers of Catan, but it's still a cool game. The basic principles of the Settlers of Catan still exist. Mainly the names of things are changes, but it's still more complex. There are still five resourses, you have colonies instead of settlements and spaceports instead of cities. Some of the main differences include: you build colony ships before you found the colonies (you have to move them to a habitable system before you collect resources); the board setup is not randomized, however the rolls are; no development card equivalent, there are event cards instead. This game requires the most victory points (15) to win, however, you start with 4.
Strategies and tips within a general overview of the game
Starship Catan
This is a two player card game version of Starfarers. If you think this is comparable to the Settlers of Catan card game, their are some basic similarities regarding resources, but it is completely different. Instead of traveling across a board, you move through decks which represent sectors of the galaxy. You discover planets and you can trade at outposts.
Strategies and tips within a general overview of the game
Settlers of the Stone Age
Settlers of the Stone Age
Though the name "Catan" is not in the title, it is still on the box. This is another game that is simillar to Settlers of Catan. The idea is the same with resource production and expansion, but the board is not variable. Players build explorers and convert them into camps to get victory points. There are other ways to acquire victory points and like Settlers of Catan, 10 victory points wins the game.
Variants and Scenarios
Variants
I will post my variants to the game on the variant page. I may list other variants someday. For now, I'm posting, the Free Settlement Strategies Variant. I hope to post my Battle Catan Variant up someday after I work out a couple of bugs. I may have scenarios on here someday.
Variants page
Versions/editions
I recently purchased the newest edition of the Settlers of Catan and there are a few changes. Discovery cards are called Year of Plenty, Knights are Soldiers, some of the rules are clarified, building names are different, less development cards, and unfortunately the pieces are the lower quality like in Starfarers and there are no variants listed like Islands of Catan like in the second edition. Overall I am disappointed. I hope Mayfair restores this game to its former glory.
Adventures of Woody and Clay comic
To the best of my knowledge, this is the world's first Settlers of Catan comic strip! It's made with stick figures, because I have no drawing talent. This was originally a test project, but I've decided to keep it on here and update it from time to time.
Meet Woody and Clay here!
I also created a second comic which will eventually be a spoof on the original Evil Alliance of Catan
Who should view this site?
This site is intended for people who are total catan fanatics! (although you've probably noticed that I provide information for people who have never played these games) I created this site because I want to see more like it. This is for people to see an new in-depth view of the game they love, and to see different ways of playing it. Most sites I've seen don't REALLY tell you what these games are like. Most sites I've seen don't REALLY tell you why you might be losing 90% of the time. This site is to provide answers and stir questions.
Last updated: 12/04/06
(Note: From now on I will still be updating this page whenever a new game comes out or I come up with a new variant. I will also more than ocasionally (hopefully weekly or biweekly) update the new comics strip I have started. Keep an eye on the news page for news about future updates to this site.)
Links to other stuff with vague references to starfarers
