Catan: Seafarers
The main feature of this expansion is the addition of ships, gold fields, and the pirate to the game, allowing play between multiple islands.
Since being able to choose any resource type allows more building power, gold rivers are often either marked with number token of only 2 or 3 dots and/or are far away from starting positions to offset this.
[1] Some scenarios have extra rules encompassing the concept of exploration, which is done by having the hex tiles placed face down.
Other attributes also set each map apart, for example, restrictions on the placement of initial settlements, whether tiles are distributed randomly, the number of victory points needed to win, and special victory point awards, usually for building on islands across the sea.
The scenarios between the older editions of Seafarers and the newest are generally incompatible, knowing the different frames included with the game.
In this scenario, the map is split up into four islands of roughly equal size and resource distribution.
The board starts off with a portion of the map left blank: when players expand into the blank region, terrain hexes are drawn at random from a supply and placed in the empty space, and, if a land hex is "discovered", a number token may be assigned.
As the name of the scenario implies, expanding through the desert into these smaller strips of land, or by sea to the outlying islands, award bonus victory points.
The Forgotten Tribe, originally titled Friendly Neighbors, was a downloadable scenario (but only in the German language) which was incorporated into newer editions of Seafarers.
Introduced in the newer editions, Cloth for Catan continues the adventures with the Forgotten Tribe.
Players begin with settlements on the outside of the map, but may build ships to reach the Forgotten Tribe's islands, which are in the center.
The Pirate Island had previously been available as a downloadable scenario (but only in German) suitable for the older editions.
Players win resources if they are able to fend off the pirate attack (which depends on the number rolled by the dice, as well as the number of warships in the defending player's possession; warships are created from using Knight cards on existing ships), but lose resources if they are unsuccessful.
Maritime expansion is only permitted by building a settlement at the waypoint, however, this increases the chances of a pirate attack.
Due to the sheer amounts of equipment needed, two copies of Settlers and Seafarers are required to set up this scenario.
This scenario uses an entirely random map, and players are encouraged to try and create a tile layout that plays well.
