Catan: Explorers & Pirates Expansion

Asmodee MFG3075

Catan: Explorers & Pirates is the fourth major expansion for The Settlers of Catan (following Seafarers, Cities & Knights and Traders & Barbarians) and it includes five scenarios and three missions; some of the scenarios make use of the missions while others do not.

Includes 5 novel scenarios, each of which builds upon your previous experience. All are easy to learn, rich in character, and lots of fun. In each, you explore an unknown sea by ship and build settlements on the discovered islands.

Scenario 1 (Land Ho!) introduces you to valuable harbor settlements, shipbuilding, exploration, and overseas settlement-the most important basic rules of this expansion. Each subsequent scenario introduces a new mission and its simple new rules. The game culminates in Scenario 5 (Explorers & Pirates), which incorporates all of these very rich new themes in a diverse and exciting campaign of bold exploration and piracy!

Explore Catan! Build harbor settlements, ships, settlers, and sailing crews and set out across mysterious seas in search of new lands, spices, fish, and gold fields.

Catan: Explorers & Piratesdiffers from theCatanbase game in three main ways. First, instead of having only a single island in the game on which players build and compete for resources, three islands are present but the landscape of only one of these islands is known at the start of the game. Players start on this island, then build ships and bring settlers into play so that they can then travel to new lands. When a ship ends its movement on unexplored territory, that hex is revealed and a randomly-drawn number chip placed on it, with the player earning one resource as a reward assuming the hex produces resources, that is. (The number of unknown tiles varies from 16 to 32, depending on the scenario.) A settler and ship can be transformed into a port settlement, from which roads and new ships can be built to enable further exploration.

Second, instead of using cities,Catan: Explorers & Piratesallows players to build port settlements for two corn and two ore, with a port settlement supplying one resource when the adjacent number is rolled at the start of a turn. Like cities, port settlements are worth two victory points (VPs), and the number of VPs required to win depends on the scenario.

Third, if a player receives no resources during the production roll (other than on a roll of 7), she receives one gold in compensation. Two gold can be traded with the bank for a resource of the player’s choice.Gold has other uses as well, such as helping you escape from pirates.

Contents:

• 16 harbor settlements
• 36 crews
• 12 ships
• 8 settlers
• 4 pirate ships
• 6 pirate lair tokens
• 6 fish hauls
• 24 spice sacks
• 76 gold coins
• 6 gold fields
• 6 fish shoal hexes
• 6 spice hexes
• 12 standard terrain hexes
• 15 frame pieces
• 12 markers
• 3 mission cards
• 3 victory point cards
• 4 new building costs cards

Key Points:

• Adds several new aspects to Settlers of Catan
• The board gets bigger and there are multiple islands to explore
• There are ships to build and pirates to fight
• Adds a new fishing variant
• Adds a new resource: spices
• Adds more stuff to the game for players to try
• Requires Catan base game to play

Additional Information:

• For 3-4 players
• 90-120min play time
• Ages: 12 years +

Expansions & Extensions:

• Catan: Explorers & Pirates 5-6 Player Extension