Game: Seafarers of Catan, The - 5-6 Player Expansion

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rober — 2008-11-14T09:37:37+00:00

overview

Thread: Re: Is This a Mistake?

RDewsbery — 2008-10-05T19:56:13+00:00

Kevin Youells wrote:
My fault. I clicked on this thinking that you were wondering if playing with the 5-6 player expansion was the mistake.

Me too. The answer is that in almost every circumstance it *is* a mistake to play Settlers with more than 4. I can't think of any situation where I'd use my Settlers 5/6 player expansions (I made the mistake three times over, with the basic game, with seafareres, and with cities and knights). There are just so many better choices with 5 or 6 than any flavour of Settlers.

Thread: Re: Is This a Mistake?

slake — 2008-10-05T19:05:22+00:00

Same here. Glad it's not just me!

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joebelanger — 2008-09-12T14:08:58+00:00

The Great Unknown

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ackmondual — 2008-06-20T16:39:06+00:00

End game of our 5p "A New World V" scenario. US Mayfair 3rd edition

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Emil 109 — 2008-05-19T09:16:26+00:00

Greek Edition

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brassmatch — 2008-04-23T01:29:53+00:00

Mayfair 4th Ed 5-6 Player Exp Box Contents

Thread: Re: Is This a Mistake?

Im Always Blue — 2008-04-22T13:46:22+00:00

I was just about to post this message on here too...glad I'm not the only one!

Thread: Re: Is This a Mistake?

nnjed — 2008-04-12T13:39:06+00:00

Thanks for the replies all. I've sent an email to Mayfair. Will just have to wait and see what they have to say.

Thread: Re: Is This a Mistake?

Ponton — 2008-04-12T10:16:08+00:00

I had exactly the same problem. Solution: Write a friendly email to Mayfair and ask for a replacement rulebook. They'll send you one without charging any shipping or material costs.

Thread: Re: Is This a Mistake?

ColtsFan76 — 2008-04-12T03:20:06+00:00

I can't confirm, though I had heard some of the graphics didn't get updated in some of the rule books. But in this case, it sounds like they may have grabbed the wrong one completely.

Thread: Re: Is This a Mistake?

Kevin Youells — 2008-04-12T01:06:52+00:00

My fault. I clicked on this thinking that you were wondering if playing with the 5-6 player expansion was the mistake.

Thread: Is This a Mistake?

nnjed — 2008-04-12T00:32:41+00:00

I just purchased a 4th edition version of Catan Seafarers: 5-6 Player Extension and found that the rules and scenarios book is filled with art from the previous versions of the game. I'm thinking this might be an old rule book because the copyright in the back is for 2006 as opposed to 2007 for the other books in my set. I am just wondering if this is a mistake and the wrong rule-book somehow got shipped with the box. Can anyone who has just purchased a 4th edition Seafarers extension please let me know if your rule book features the new art or the old art?

It's not too big a problem because obviously you can still work out where things go, but there is an issue with the edge pieces because the book does not illustrate how the edge pieces should be connected like it did with the main Seafarers extension. Also, when you're paying the price that they ask for this extension, you would expect that they would have updated the rule book. Seems a bit lazy...

Thread: Danish rules with scenarios

scandragon — 2008-03-13T06:49:37+00:00

It appears Danspil has decided to halt sale of this very pack..
This means you can play the basic game and c&k with 6 players, but not seafarers.

Now to me it's not that big a problem, I'll just buy the extra ships somewhere.. What is a problem though, is that I need the scenarios detailed in the rulebook (or rule sheet?) in danish.

Does anyone have this, and is willing to help me out?
Best option would be if anyone had the chance to download it from Danspil (they have all rulebooks from current games for download in case you loose it) before they removed it.

Please help me out on this one..

edit:
Newsflash
There has never been a 5-6 player supplement for Seafarers in Denmark..
This kindof annoys me even more, since Seafarers rulebook mentions Great Catan, but also mentions that the scenario is in the rulebook for 5-6 players supplement..

If anyone could scan the english rulebook, I will attempt to translate it myself..

Thread: Re: What should have come with this game box...

scandragon — 2008-03-05T06:59:53+00:00

Well since I work on creating big scenarios, I purchased 2 basic game boxes..
Originally I planned on simply using the wodden pieces to create an 8-player expansion, but with the size of my scenarios, and the fact that in some of them, only 2 players start on each "mainland" (Read; Catan and Xalan) the players would never meet up with each other..

I do agree with you, there should have been more board expanders.. But that's easily remedied, if you have 2 seafarers (or regularly play with someone who has seafarers) since you can use the H-G and D-C pieces, making the board 4 hexes wider (and the X and X-X pieces making it 5 hexes longer)

The largest frame with one seafarers is too small for 2 basic games and 1 seafarers expansion.. I always end up with 7 spare hexes.. Imagine putting the 5-6 player hexes on top of that..

As I said, I agree with you, this should have been in the box.. But to me, ofcourse it doesn't matter (I just ordered 2 basic game and 2 seafarers 5-6 player boxes.. Next thing is to order an extra Seafarers and then naturally Cities and Knights.. I don't use C&K expansion in my scenarios, except for one part.. The new trading resources for my own additions to the game.. I realised too late, there were only 6 of each in the 5-6 player box

Well to make a long story short.. I agree with you..

Thread: Re: Y no 5/6 player version of New Shores?

pertm — 2008-02-15T09:59:50+00:00

It would be great if somebody could post how the set up is for New Shores

Thread: Re: 5&6 seafarers scenario

ackmondual — 2008-02-08T06:39:24+00:00

OzGamer wrote:
Where you have "Three Islands" and "Four Islands" in the 3-4 player, you have "Five Islands" and "Six Islands" in the 5-6 player rules.

If you don't want to play five or six player Seafarers anyway, the scenarios won't convince you.

I'm a big fan of Seafarers and prefer playing it to the basic game, but I would think that not getting the 5-6 player Seafarers is a viable option, as I would often opt for the base game with more than four people.

Also, there's no "The Three Islands" in Seafarers. The 3 and 4 player versions are The Four Islands III and The Four Islands IV respectively

Thread: Re: Y no 5/6 player version of New Shores?

bobm174 — 2008-01-11T09:51:27+00:00

Yes, that is correct.

Bob

Thread: Re: Y no 5/6 player version of New Shores?

ackmondual — 2008-01-08T14:47:23+00:00

bobm174 wrote:

I have the 4th edition of the 5/6 player expansion.
That one does have a 5/6 player version of New Shores.

I don't have the instruction manual in front of me but I am assuming you are talking about the one that has the standard 5/6 player set up with a few small islands surrounding.

Bob

Interesting. Just to double check, it IS a 5/6p version of New Shores and NOT Greater Catan VI?

Thread: Re: Y no 5/6 player version of New Shores?

bobm174 — 2008-01-08T12:57:38+00:00

I have the 4th edition of the 5/6 player expansion.
That one does have a 5/6 player version of New Shores.

I don't have the instruction manual in front of me but I am assuming you are talking about the one that has the standard 5/6 player set up with a few small islands surrounding.

Bob

Thread: Y no 5/6 player version of New Shores?

ackmondual — 2008-01-04T04:39:27+00:00

Can anyone explain or otherwise surmise why there was never a 5/6 player version of New Shores? The largest frame, for Greater Catan VI CAN fit the oblong, 5/6 player Settlers extension island, but still have enough space for some islands to the side. My guess is that the desingers would've wanted more and larger side islands to match Greater Catan IV's stature, or perhaps gameplay might not be as intact. Any thoughts?

Thread: tips on setting aside enough space to play the extension

ackmondual — 2007-12-17T07:07:54+00:00

For those of you who are organized, lucky, patient, wealthy, and/or ambitious enough to play 5/6 player games of Seafarers Of Catan, here is some info on getting a table larger enough for that.

Use the following key/"table" as a guide to how much space is needed before hand (say, to relay to a host for the games) for each scenario. These measurements list what's required for the board ONLY! You'll want a larger area on all sides if players will also be putting other things on the table, such as cards, pieces, bank cards/pieces, drinks, snack plates, napkins, and personal items like keys or cellphones.

NOTE: Since, the "across" measurement is the same for ALL of these scenarios, namely at 23.5", it's only listed once to keep the list easy to read

Five Islands V - 29" down 23.5" across
Six Islands VI - 32" down
Oceans V - 32" across
Oceans VI - 32" across
Into The Desert V - 32" across
Into The Desert VI - 35.5" across
New World V - 29" across
New World VI - 32" across
Great Crossing VI - 29" across
Greater Catan VI - 35.5" across

List by measurements (again, the "across" measurement left out since it's all the same at 23.5" across)
29" down
Five Islands V
New World V
Great Crossing VI

32" down
Six Islands VI
Oceans V
Oceans VI
Into The Desert V
New World VI

35.5" down
Into The Desert VI
Greater Catan VI

ADDITIONAL TIPS:
--For convenience keep a ruler or tape measure inside the box as a measuring aid. While a 25' tape measure is overkill, finding a 5' tape measure should be inexpensive, small, and light enough for the box. Walmart may have something like this. My recommended measuring device is one of those 39" tape measures that IKEA gives out for free. SOOO practical
--if you don't have anything to measure the table, don't worry! You can still assemble the empty frame first and compare it visually, potentially saving ALOT of time from assembling the "guts" of the board, only to realize it won't fit

--consider playing two 3 player games instead of a single 6 player game if you're finding the larger map won't fit on any of your tables, but you do have 2 smaller tables for two 3 player games.

--consider getting some TV trays, night stands, taller boxes, or mini tables if you're low on space. While it's ideal that the board NOT be split up, the bank, players' resource cards, development cards, and pieces can be kept elsewhere to make more room for the board
--consider using 2 tables to lay out the map if it's available
--if the 2 tables previously mentioned are NOT level, find something to loft one of them (block of wood, board, ceramic bowl)
--get trays or cups to keep bits/pieces nicely organized, or at the very least, not strewn over a wider area.
--make sure the table is reasonably flat. With some bumps you could still make due

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Aingeru — 2007-11-15T19:48:55+00:00

4th Mayfair Boxfront

Thread: Re: What do you get in the box?

mjfassio — 2007-10-29T06:22:57+00:00

Seafarers of Catan:
* 14 edge pieces
* 24 hexagons:
o 12 water
o 2 gold fields
o 3 deserts
o 1 farmland
o 1 forest
o 1 pasture
o 2 mountains
o 2 hills
* 8 victory point chits
* 10 numbered chits
* 12 harbor tokens
* 60 wooden ships in 4 colors (Red, White, Blue, Orange)
* 1 pirate ship (black)

Seafarers of Catan 5-6 player expansion:
* 30 wooden ships (15 in each of two colors)
* 8 ocean hex tiles
* 1 gold field hex tile
* 6 victory point tokens
* 10 exciting new scenarios

Hope this helps. Also there is going to be a 4th edition released for both Settlers and Seafarers so I would do some research and see if the new edition is more than a facelift for the line.

Thread: What do you get in the box?

sklar — 2007-10-29T05:39:26+00:00

I've been looking into picking up Seafarers with the 5-6 player expansion (I regularly play 6 player Settlers in my gaming group), but I've heard it might not be worth the money. Can someone give me a list of what is included in the box for both Seafarers and the 5-6 player expansion?

Thanks,
Matthew Sklar

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Benzebub — 2007-09-27T19:07:46+00:00

Game end ~ 6 player behemoth, played with Cities and Knights, too!

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henk.rolleman — 2007-05-10T22:32:37+00:00

Dutch Edition

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Get Earthworm — 2007-05-04T10:02:05+00:00

6-player game in action. It takes Time!

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markoppenheim — 2007-03-27T20:54:33+00:00

Settlers of the UK! Invading France was a winning strategy

Thread: Re: Seafarers of Catan Expansion scenarios?

Great Dane — 2007-02-22T17:36:24+00:00

The 5-6 player Seafahrer scenarios are obviously balanced for play with 5 or 6 players - that is after all why they were made.

You will find all the necessary info in the box.

Thread: Seafarers of Catan Expansion scenarios?

nerix — 2007-02-22T15:07:04+00:00

Hi everyone,
I've tried to find scenarios for this expansion on Google, but couldn't find any. Does anyone know, where to get this info? Somebody said, that they are almost similar with standart seafarers maps, but what about additional lands and number tokens? Aren't new maps balanced for the better gaming with exact land and token placements?

Thank you

Thread: Re: Fastest ever!

Rappak — 2007-01-05T18:40:50+00:00

That is correct, only one development card could be played at a time, and after the turn that you picked it up and only on your turn. I have a feeling that other rules were broken but since I can't see the board/wasn't there, I can't say anything more.

Edit: Upon thinking, the only exception to this rule is the hidden victory points that can be played at any time.

Thread: Re: Fastest ever!

jentinma — 2007-01-05T18:18:44+00:00

I'm pretty sure you can only play one development card per turn. That would have a) probably plocked building the cities on the second turn and b) forced a delay in the largest army until at least turn 4, if not later.

Thread: Fastest ever!

adamjon858 — 2007-01-05T16:32:53+00:00

I played Seafarers with 5 players two days ago. We played the scenario in which there are two large, long islands on either side of the map and a big open ocean in the middle. Normally this scenario plays a lot better with 6 players but we thought we'd try it with 5.

Another guy and I started on one island and the other 3 started on the island. I had a good starting location with the numbers 4,4,5,6,3,10 around with at least one of each type of resource. I quickly upgraded to both cities as I was making a ton of wheat and those on the other island were making a lot of rock and I was able to upgrade both in the first round.

I than sneakily proceeded to purchase 6 development cards without anyone noticing! They turned out to be 2 resource draw cards and 4 soldiers. I laid the 2 resource draw cards and was able to purchase 2 settlements in one turn. This brought me up to 8 points (with the addition of the largest army). I already had 4 roads in a line and the next turn I had just enough to build another road (bringing me up to 10 points). We went around about two more times and I upgraded both of the cities, laid all the soldiers, and pointed out that I had the longest road...

Case closed! And the whole game only took about 15-20 minutes.

Thread: Greater Catan with the Great River and the Event Cards

catnthehat — 2006-12-29T20:47:11+00:00

While waiting for our fifth player, we knocked off a couple of games of For Sale, and then when we had all arrived, we gathered our Catan components to decide what game to play. Our friends had a new copy of the basic Settlers still in its shrink wrap while my wife had new copies of the Great River and the Event Cards to try. The group consensus was to try for a Seafarers scenario and thumbing through the scenario book for five to six players we decided that Greater Catan looked interesting. In those earlier, innocent times we had not realised what a monster we were taking on.

Our first difficulty was setting up. Every other Seafarers scenario we had tried lists all the components you need in a little table and, deceptively, the Greater Catan scenario also includes such a table. So we carefully counted out terrain and started placing it to form the mainland (including the Great River). But with the mainland in place we realised we did not have enough pieces to place the islands. Huh? Reading the set up prose, we found the instructions to set up the mainland in accordance with the five to six player expansion. Okay. Recount. Now we have the mainland but what goes in the islands? Again, the terrain chart was not helpful but the prose said to use the terrain from the standard game, so breaking into the shrink wrapped second game, we got the board down.

Oh, by the way the scenario says it lasts three hours. A bit of a surprise when most scenarios last an hour and a half but, okay, we can finish by half past midnight. Oh, and the Great River adds two victory points to the required victory conditions so the target will be twenty, not eighteen. Maybe there is a lesson here in reading the scenarios rather than thumbing through and looking at the pictures?

While placing the initial settlement it quickly became apparent that with five players we were not all going to have equal access to the Great River. White and Red secured their spots while the rest went elsewhere for better resources. At last White was poised to start the game with only a little grumbling from Yellow about how easy Risk was to set up in comparison.

The early game was characterised by a severe shortage of sheep. Only Yellow had any chance of of getting wool so as a consequence, Yellow could extract a steep price on most trades and there was a fair bit of trading overseas at four to one as people tried to bootstrap themselves out of their starting positions. Yellow consequently suffered from the attentions of the robber until in a mid game its attention shifted to Brown who had started to open up a margin on the pack.

By now the Event Cards had made their presence felt with an earthquake disrupting a few plans and Red wondering what happened to the two (sitting behind the year end marker). There were a few calls for the return of the dice but we continued as we started.

The end of the early game was marked by Red begging White for a trade so Red could block Brown from completing a roadway across the mainland and so securing the longest road from White. After this blocking manoeuvre was completed, Brown was in an almost landlocked position with only one coastal town and with almost no roads left but with a healthy points margin on the rest. Blue and White had both started explore off shore islands, while Yellow had consolidated the pastures and had a good coastal position with a couple of ports. Red was also landlocked and looking a bit of coast to claim.

The mid game introduced the shock of number pieces leaving the mainland to start to populate the islands. Brown's and Red's positions on the mainland rapidly weakened as White and Blue exported number tokens offshore. As the mainland started to look barren, Blue started to look dangerous even though she still trailed Brown on points.

The end of the mid game was marked by a battle between Brown and White for the longest road, briefly won by Brown for eighteen points total but in the end Brown was never to win that honour again and slipped back to sixteen points, level with Blue who was exploiting her offshore empire to great effect and enjoying her largest army. At this stage we were over three hours in to the epic and lids were starting to droop.

The end game was a struggle between Blue whose largest army was unchallenged and who also briefly secured the longest road off White for a temporary high tide mark of eighteen points and Brown whose mainland empire was now largely barren and whose offshore presence could not make up the difference. Both players struggled with getting points on the board as the game crept into the morning.

In the end, four and a half hours after opening the boxes, Brown staggered home with a a victory point card revealed for twenty points. Blue was pipped by a narrowest margins, also having a hidden victory point card for a total of nineteen points and needing only a few resources to take the longest road off White for the final time. Yellow came in third with a potential challenge to the largest army hidden in his resource cards.

Greater Catan was epic in scope and relocating the number tokens opened up a whole new dimension in game play. Brutal game play, even. We never fully exploited the Great River and the Event Cards were a mixed blessing. Conclusion: maybe a shorter scenario next time?

Thread: Indirect shipping lanes question

k2k2e6 — 2006-04-02T05:44:34+00:00

In scenario 3 for Seafarers for 5-6 people, can one make multiple indirect routes to an opponents shipping lane?

For example:

I
I
I I
I J
J
J

If left right side indirect lane is made first, can one make another indirect lane like on the left?
Is it possible to make indirect lanes with multiple people's mixed ships?

If branching like this is allowed, this scenario can end quickly because one can join into a network and claim 10 indirect routes at once.

Thanks
Pawan

Thread: Re: What should have come with this game box...

Drew1365 — 2005-12-21T17:33:26+00:00

My biggest complaint about the Settlers expansions is the cost. If you want to play 5-6 player Seafarers, you need to buy four boxes, and they ain't cheap. When I look at that and consider how many other games I could buy for the same investment, I tend to stick with plain vanilla 4-player Settlers.

So reading your thoughts on what doesn't come in the box doesn't encourage me.

Tomorrow night I'll be trying 5-6 player Seafarers for the first time, courtesy of someone else, so we'll see what happens.

Thread: What should have come with this game box...

jlambertou — 2005-12-21T08:44:24+00:00

I recently purchased Seafarers and have so far only played it a couple times, with four players and with 3. So I haven't got to the huge scenarios yet. But when I first pulled it out to see how the board looks set up, I had some thoughts as to what they should have included in the 5-6 player expansion, if they wanted to give you something for your money. Feel free to agree/disagree/tweak. Not that this is really important, but perhaps it might lead to some interesting new scenarios/rules variations/customizations.

-- More expanders to make the board bigger.

I know you don't need to use the edge pieces anyway, but they make it look nice. You get 8 more ocean hexes, but the scenarios need more land, so where are you supposed to put that ocean? The easiest thing would have been two more "X" pieces to make it even longer (adding another row of 6), but they could also do something to make it wider, to add another row of ten. [looking at the frame pieces themselves, this might make it come out sort of crooked, but it could be done].

-- 2 more ships of *every* color.

This is to compensate for the bigger board and having to cover more distance.

-- 1 forest, 1 pasture, 1 farmland.

Since you only got one of each of these in Seafarers, these would round things out. And give you something besides 1 gold and 8 water hexes in a $20+ box.

So what do you think? Making this list, I'm beginning to see why they *didn't* include some of these things that I wish they did. You start getting into some issues of scale. If the board has more producing hexes, then you might need more resource cards, or more settlements to build. For example:

- 1 more city of every color
- 1 more settlement of every color

- 2 more resource cards of every type

But then you run into balance problems - like needing to increase the number of victory points by 1 or 2 to compensate for having more settlement pieces to play. But there is one scenario (Greater Catan) that already calls for each player having 8 cities, so that is nothing new. A few extra pieces would allow you to play a few larger scenarios, but stick to the regular number in the smaller ones.

Since the list just got pretty long, perhaps some of it should be added to the basic Seafarers box instead (like the extra city and settlement). There was not enough for your money in that box to start with.

When I first got Settlers, I read the reviews on this site and others, and saw people saying that Cities and Knights was a better value while Seafarers didn't give you much; so I bought C&K instead. 3 years later, I like Seafarers better, but I would have bought it sooner if not for those comments. So perhaps it would benefit Kosmos/Mayfair to beef it up a little bit (both basic Seafarers and the 5-6 expansion).

Thread: Re: 5&6 seafarers scenario

OzGamer — 2005-07-22T01:03:21+00:00

Where you have "Three Islands" and "Four Islands" in the 3-4 player, you have "Five Islands" and "Six Islands" in the 5-6 player rules.

If you don't want to play five or six player Seafarers anyway, the scenarios won't convince you.

I'm a big fan of Seafarers and prefer playing it to the basic game, but I would think that not getting the 5-6 player Seafarers is a viable option, as I would often opt for the base game with more than four people.

Thread: Re: 5&6 seafarers scenario

hakko504 — 2005-07-21T20:00:33+00:00

The scenarios of 5/6 player seefahrers are the same as in the 3/4 player version, but with new (larger) maps suitable for more players.

Thread: 5&6 seafarers scenario

Moi! — 2005-07-21T13:55:14+00:00

OK, I've the game base set, the 5&6 extension and the seafarer (for 3&4 player). Anyone know where I can download the scenario for this extension.

I'm not to weeling to pay near 25.00$ (24.99 on jogocanada.com) for this content (see below) whitout knowing what like the scenario.

30 Wooden Ships (15 In Each of 2 Colors)
8 Ocean Hex Tiles
1 Gold Field Hex Tile
6 Victory Point Tokens
10 Exciting New Scenarios

Thank in advance

Moi!

Thread: Reoes anyone have english rules for this expansion

Henkan_2001 — 2005-04-26T10:12:49+00:00

hakko504 (#478491),

Thanks!

Thread: Re:User Review

hakko504 — 2005-04-22T12:26:15+00:00

Karlsen wrote:

hakko504 wrote:
There is nothing, absolutely nothing new in here. You get what you need in order to play Seefahrers with 5 or 6 players and absolutely nothing else.

I'm not sure what else you would expect in a game called "Seafarers of Catan 5-6 Player Expansion" and a warning that you cannot play it on its own. I would expect the bits and pieces to expanded Seafarers to 5-6 players and nothing else.
Well, even though it may have sounded like I did expect more, I really didn't. I was more complaining about the fact that we need 4 boxes to play this in the first place.
At least the 5-6 exp for the basic game included a rather interesting rule change ehich is only noted here as a reminder (the extra build phase). One might have expected that there'd be more changes in the scenarios than just expanding the maps from the 3-4 player Seefahrers, but that was not the case.

As for putting expansions in separate boxes vs storing them on their own of course depends on how you want to play them. I play basic Settlers every now and then and in those cases I don't need the Seefahrers box so that's a good reason for having two (but not four) boxes in this case. As for Carc I only have one box containing everything (except die Katharer which I haven't managed to get.)

Thread: Reoes anyone have english rules for this expansion

hakko504 — 2005-04-22T07:38:23+00:00

Henkan_2001 (#478228),

While this one does have a pretty large rulebook, it turns out that the ONLY rule change is the one suggested already in the basic settlers 5&6 player expansion, i.e. the extra build phase after each players turn. Everything else is just a matter of explaining the larger maps for the scenarios from the 3&4 player version.

Thread: Re:User Review

Karlsen — 2005-04-22T01:11:48+00:00

hakko504 wrote:
There is nothing, absolutely nothing new in here. You get what you need in order to play Seefahrers with 5 or 6 players and absolutely nothing else.

I'm not sure what else you would expect in a game called "Seafarers of Catan 5-6 Player Expansion" and a warning that you cannot play it on its own. I would expect the bits and pieces to expanded Seafarers to 5-6 players and nothing else.

I recommend taking everything out of this box and putting it in the regular seefahrers box.

Which is the case for almost all game expansions. The only one I can think of that we store separately is Starfarers of Catan 5-6. Most others e.g. Carcassonne, Cosmic Encounter etc. expansions get stored with the original game assuming of course you are intending to always play with the expansion(s). Which is the reason we store the standard Settlers of Catan by itself, because the way we normally play it is 3-4 player without expansions. This is not the case for Carcassonne or Cosmic Encounter

Thread: Does anyone have english rules for this expansion

Henkan_2001 — 2005-04-21T21:59:33+00:00

Bought the product from Germany, but my German isn't that good. Does anyone have english rules for this expansion?

Thanks!

Henrik

Thread: Re:User Review

Dave Sawyer — 2005-04-21T02:08:51+00:00

I agree with your review! The shocking fact is you need 4 boxes to play seafarers with 5-6 players! Settlers, 5-6 Settlers expansion, seafarers, and 5-6 seafarers. Once your wallet recovers and you repack you'll be happy. My group loves 5-6 seafarers and we haven't gone back to land. The setup possibilities with the combined sets is much more interesting.

Thread: Session Report

mschlat — 2005-03-22T17:08:50+00:00

I got out of gaming about the time Settlers was released, so I kept on hearing about this great game, but never played it. When I recently got back into gaming (about 10 years later!), my first game of Settlers was underwhelming. While I liked the trading aspects (especially in the 5-6 player version), I didn't like the lack of geographic interaction.

Well, our group pulled out Seafarers and played the "Six Islands" scenario for six and had a blast. I did not think the addition of ships would make as large a difference, but the game felt more open in terms of exploration, but more interactive in terms of space. (In particular, I had a lot of fun trying to figure out where I would land on islands.) I also had a much better sense of the beginning, middle, and endgame.

The beginning had us fairly scattered, although Jarrett and I used the same placement strategy: place both settlements on the same island. (We camped out on the seven-hex islands, and I placed both settlements on the same hex - usually a no-no.) Tim, who was just learning the game, seperated his settlements on two different islands, but quickly worked to connect them.

Jarrett took advantage of his virtual ore monopoly to upgrade to cities quickly. We had a grain shortage for quite some time (thanks, robber!) with me pleading for grain on practically every turn. But fearing large hands, I did quite a bit of ship and road building and claimed longest road early on with no competitors.

Tom and Roger did quite a bit of ship-building, leading to a logjam near the middle of the board, with Tom's ships cutting the board in half. Roger also went development card heavy in the midgame looking for victory points.

At the end, it was Jarrett who pulled off a victory with his cities, one setttlement on an unknown island, and development card worth one victory point. I was close: I had eleven points, a hand of 6 brick and 1 grain, a 3:1 port, and thus a chance to trade in for a development card next round.

One concern: the two leaders (Jarrett and myself) were the ones who started and basically controlled the seven-hex islands. If we play the scenario again, we may have to prevent such control.

Jarrett 12/Mark 11/Tim 9/John 5/Roger 5/Tom 4

Thread: User Review

hakko504 — 2005-01-07T15:23:08+00:00

This review covers the new Kosmos edition

Another 5-6 player expansion for the Catan series. Do you need this? Probably. Is it worth the money? No.

What you get is a few more hexes (again), mostly sea. 2 sets of ships. And a rulebooklet which only describes the 5/6 player versions of the scenarios in the regular Seefahrers.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing new in here. You get what you need in order to play Seefahrers with 5 or 6 players and absolutely nothing else. It's just a way of making another box for the catan games so it looks like you have more games than you actually have. I recommend taking everything out of this box and putting it in the regular seefahrers box.

In all, as much as I want to NOT recommend this, my conclusion is that since the whole gameplay of Seefahrers is better than the regular Siedler, I still have to give this a quite good ranking, because once you get over the initial dissappointment over the meagre contents of the box, you'll find a game which still is one of the best you'll ever play. It will add time to play this with 5 or 6 players, yes, but so will the regular settlers too. And if you're playing you probably want to play the whole game and not just the basic version. So my rating stands as a 9. Value of money though is ~5/10 as opposed to the boxes for 4 players which are close to 8 (depending on what price you actually get)

Thread: User Review

OzGamer — 2004-11-22T03:46:26+00:00

Introduction

This game is an expansion to an expansion – or, strictly, an expansion to two expansions. Thus, to play the Seafarers of Catan 5-6 player expansion, one needs:

The Settlers of Catan
The Seafarers of Catan
The Settlers of Catan 5-6 player expansion

Given this fact, it is fairly safe to assume that anyone playing or contemplating playing this game will already be familiar with and fond of the Settlers of Catan system.

The Seafarers of Catan expands the Settlers of Catan game with a fifth building option - shipping lanes, a pirate roaming the seas, gold hexes that produce any resource card and a number of scenarios, which consist of board setup options and special victory conditions. My gaming group have long considered the Seafarers expansion as “completing” Settlers and only generally play the basic game to teach newbies or if there are time constraints.

The 5-6 player expansion is required for more than four people to join a game.

Note that this review is based on the Mayfair (English language) edition.

Components

The box includes a rulebook, a gold hex, some special victory point chips and fifteen ships in each of the same colours as the Settlers of Catan 5-6 player expansion. In the Mayfair edition, these are brown and green. Neither of these colours stand out from the board as well as the original four, but they are of exactly the same high quality, and a completed six player game looks quite stunning with all of the coloured pieces arrayed on it.

It has to be said that the number of components is not large for the price charged. I suppose that Mayfair’s thinking is that people who are looking for this expansion must be big fans and are prepared to pay quite a lot for what is actually in the box.

Gameplay

In this discussion, I will assume that readers are familiar with Seafarers and the Settlers 5-6 player rules.

The rules do not add anything to those from the basic game plus the prerequisite expansions, but there is a Scenarios booklet with a number of game scenarios included. These are mostly five and six player versions of the three and four player scenarios in the basic Seafarers set. Thus, for example, there are scenarios called “Five Islands” and “Six Islands” to complement “Three Islands” and “Four Islands” in the original scenarios booklet. Once you get to six player scenarios, there is a large number of hexes, number tokens and harbours to place.

The game has all of the same feeling and flavour as when played with four people, but, it has to be said, can be quite a task to set up and the play can take quite a long time. Well over two hours is not uncommon even for experienced players. This is partly because the trading can take a long time with this number, but also because the scenarios often specify twelve, thirteen, fourteen or more victory points as the victory condition.

It really is the ultimate way to play Settlers, but takes some commitment to tackle.

Conclusion

I bought this expansion when Settlers/Seafarers was the only German game our group played, and I wanted to be able to play with more people as well as completing the “set” out of pure enthusiasm. I have not regretted the decision, but I would have mixed feelings about recommending it now.

I still believe Settlers/Seafarers is best played with four players. The trading is the most balanced and manageable and the positional strategy in building roads etc is probably the tightest with four. Having said that, the game certainly still works with five or six, but you will usually not interact with everyone to the same extent, and the down time is increased slightly. This is probably generally true of five and six player games, however.

There are many good games for five or six players if that is specifically what is needed, but if you are a Settlers nut and really need the odd fix when more people are around this expansion is great to have.

Thread: Session Report

hakko504 — 2004-09-02T23:14:03+00:00

This must have been the closest finish I've ever seen:

We played the 'Six Islands' scenario on five as laid out in the new german edition of Seefahrers. The players were (in order) Birgitta, Sara, Morgan, Erik and I. We also did NOT use the special build phase as the girls thought it would be too complicated but we opted to allow 9 cards in each hand before the robber becomes nasty.

AS I write this from memory I'm not quite sure how the play developed, but when the endgame approached, both Erik, me and Birgitta left our turns with only 1p remaining for victory (12p) and rather empty hands. Sara was a bit behind with 6p and the only one really far behind. Morgan was also quite far behind with 8p - or so it seemed. Erik had some good building going but was lacking ore to build the last city needed for the victory as he had already built his 5 settlements and had the longest road. By the time it was Morgans turn Erik was getting desperate for the ore he needed and came with the suggestion to trade all his cards except those needed for the city, a giant number, including 3 clay - something Morgan was lacking. And when Morgan agreed both Birgitta and I voiced the opinion that he must be crazy to agree to something like that - until he built 3 roads and took the longest road card away from Erik... And poor Erik didn't stand a chance to get it back on his turn, so Morgan passed him as he also built a settlement and in the meantime both I and Birgitta had collected the cards we needed to win, but as I was ahead of her in turn that meant that I got the victory and Erik that was so certain he'd win ended up in 4th spot

Final score
Hakko 12p
Birgitta 11p
Morgan 11p
Erik 10p
Sara 6p

Thread: Re:

OzGamer — 2004-08-24T01:32:15+00:00

fuzzyfife (#47739),

I don't actually know, but certainly no-one in our games has tried to play a ship on an edge that ends in the "void". I think it is probably reasonable to assume that the edge you place a ship on has to have two ends to it.

I always think of the lettered boundary segments as being a component to tidy up the board, not really a part of the game.

Note that this is not based on any reading of the rules, it's just the way we play. Remember always that it's your game and you can play however you want, so long as all players agree to it. I never think of the rules as law, except in the case when players can't agree - they can be a sort of safety valve - a final court of appeal in that case.

Thread: Re:

fuzzyfife — 2004-08-02T15:30:41+00:00

Octavian (#42117),
What about on the SOLID lined pieces that fit along both the bottom and top edges of the game. They certainly look like they would support a ship and thats what we do with them.

Thread: Re:

Octavian — 2004-06-25T19:14:48+00:00

fuzzyfife (#42098),

You cannot build a boat that is entirely on an edge piece. You can build a boat that is on the edge of an edge piece.

-MMM

Thread:

fuzzyfife — 2004-06-25T18:07:45+00:00

This question has laready been submitted to the SEAFARERS of CATAN area. I was hoping that by adding it to the 5-6 player expansion title that someone might answer it. I may even ask the same question at the Settlers regular title)

After playing this game many, many times one of the players in our group noticed this rule (actually note) in the expansion rules for Seafarers under page 3, section 1; EDGE PIECES. "The edge pieces are not considered part of the board. So, you will not be able to build ships on the edge pieces"

along with a picture on Page 11 of the 5-6 player expansion rulebook showing a boat being built on what appears to be an edge piece (about 3 hexes up on left side).

We have always played that CATAN was an island and so, along the edge pieces, once a hex piece (land or water) was placed it could be used to add a road or add a boat. (And we have also played that the edge pieces that have the darkened hex lines are indeed possible build areas for a boat.) Looking at the picture on page 11 of the 5-6 player expansion rule book, this would mean that around the red piece in the upper left hand corner of the picture, either a road or a boat could be placed as long as all the other rules were followed.

Now one of our players, using the notation on page 3 of the Seafarers rulebook is claiming that we have been playing wrong the whole time and that those edges around that red piece on page 11 of the 5-6 player rulebook should not be used to build a boat, while other players are using the picture example on page 11 to say that a boat is indeed capable of being built on an EDGE piece no matter what the notation in the rules states..

It doesn't make much sense to me, if Catan is indeed an island that you couldn't build a boat around the previously described red piece but since the question arose and since there is that note in the rulebook I would like clarification from others, about what that note really means.

Thread: Re:Question

hakko504 — 2004-03-23T20:07:43+00:00

Jonny_Lenny (#31255),

1. yes, you need the roads, settlements and cities from the base game expansion

2. no, you need the roads, settlements and cities from the base game expansion

Thread: Question

Jonny_Lenny — 2004-03-23T19:54:23+00:00

some questions... ???

#1 To play "Seafarers of Catan, The - 5-6 Player Expansion" do we need the 5-6 players extension from the base game ?

#2 Can we play the base game with 5-6 players using the Seafarers extensions ?

thx
Jonny

Game: Seafarers of Catan, The - 5-6 Player Expansion

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