Customer Reviews

Seafarers of Catan

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3 star:		(1)
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If you're reading this, you no doubt are already a fan of Settlers of Catan. You're deliberating, trying to decide if you want to shell out more $ for this expansion. "Is it worth it?", you ask.

As one Settlers fan to another, allow me to encourage you. Yes, it is definitely worth it!

Seafarers adds additional water and land tiles, as well as an additional land type: Gold Field. Gold field works like every other resource, except that when the number comes up you get to pick *any* resource card.

The game also includes little ships, of four colors. These ships function just like roads, and can be joined to roads through a settlement. You use them to explore from the mainland of Catan in search of additional lands (and additional resources).

The rulebook contains several scenarios, accomadating 3 or 4 players. Some scenarios start with all lands revealed, other scenarios include an exploration element. In these scenarios, only the mainland is revealed: the surrounding seas and the other land tiles are placed face down. These are turned over when a ship reaches them, revealing either a sea, in which case exploration must continue, or a land, in which case the discovering player gets one card of that land's resource.

You can see that one of the best things about Settlers, the random board setup, is made even better by hiding the concealing the nature of the unexplored tiles.

My only complaint is that the rulebook, which contains diagrams of specific tile layouts for each scenario, is printed in such a way that it is hard to read. The text is understood easilly enough, but the board layouts are dark and indistinct.

But this complaint is minor, and with practice is easilly remedied. Seafarers is a terrific expansion that makes the already great game of Settlers even better.

The Settlers of Catan is a fantastic game, and it would seem that in the board game world that means that a sequel was inevitable. So, eventually the Seafarers of Catan (Kosmos and Mayfair Games, 1997 - Klaus Teuber) was released. It was a fitting expansion, and so simple were the add-on rules, that I almost always include it in with the base game. The game offers very few more choices with the expansion included, and the amount of scenarios included with the book are excellent; some of them are truly fun! The Seafarers expansion adds a number of things to the base game, including...

1.) Gold Fields: These are basically "wild" hexes that produce whatever resource the player wants if they have a settlement or a city bordering them. This makes the gold fields very valuable, with everyone wanting a piece of the action. The scenarios counter this by putting gold fields in hard to reach places, with less than an optimal number on them, like a "3". Still, it doesn't stop me from trying to get to them!

2.) Water Hexes: As well as adding in some additional hexes of each of the five resources (and the gold hexes), twelve water hexes are added to the game. When combined with the fourteen edge pieces that hold all the hexes together, one can create many maps - many with more than one island. When using the water hexes, players usually start with their first two settlements on one island, and then must expand to the other islands. The edge pieces hold the board together in a large rectangle, keeping the tiles from sliding around on the table. Cities and Knights also comes with a frame; but it's more of a hexagonal one, allowing only the setup from the basic game - so I prefer the Seafarers one more.

3.) Ships: Players expand in the seas with ship pieces. Each player receives fifteen ship pieces in their color at the beginning of the game. Ships cost one wool and one lumber to build (this raises the value of wool). Ships are placed between two water hexes and act similar to roads. In fact, the Longest Road (Now called the Longest Trade Route) now includes ships as well as roads. The first ship must be built next to a settlement on the shore, and then can be placed adjacent to other ships. Ships can also move, if they are the last ship in an "open" shipping lane (does not connect two cities). Players may move one ship per turn, to a location that they could have built. This makes ships sound more exciting than they really are - in reality, they aren't moved that often. But either way, the ships are a big improvement, and they are the only way to get to other islands. Players are allowed to start with a ship instead of a road if one of their starting settlements is on the coastline. Ships are the crux of the game (that IS why it's called "seafarers"); and while they don't add much in terms of complexity, they add one more option for players to explore and make games more interesting.

4.) Special Victory Points: Some scenarios award special victory points - tokens included with the game. Many times this occurs when a player lands on a new island. This allows a scenario to dictate a change in strategy and a bit of variety to the game.

5.) Pirate Ship: A pirate ship is added to the game and is the counterpoint to the Robber. Whenever a player rolls a "7", they may move the pirate ship instead of the Robber, placing the Pirate on any ocean hex. The player then can steal one resource from one of the players who has a ship adjacent to that hex. New ships can't be placed next to the Pirate, giving even more reason to move him. Either way, it seems that the Robber is moved a lot less in games involving the Pirate. This actually increases the power of the Robber, and the game can get slightly nastier. If the Robber is stifling the production of your best cities/settlements for dozens of turns, it can get rather annoying. Players must think even more carefully when moving the Robber/Pirate, and Soldier cards become that much more useful.

6.) Scenarios: There are eleven scenarios included with the book, some of them rather good, others good for maybe one play or two. Either way, if a player would get tired of these scenarios, there is plenty more available on the internet. The first scenario, "New Shores", can be played many times, as it's basically the generic setup for Seafarers. The last two scenarios require multiple sets of the basic Settlers, so I'm not sure how often they'll come into play.

Seafarers offers a lot of variety to Settlers without adding very many rules - probably the best epitaph an expansion can have. I won't say that it's necessary; indeed, one can play Settlers many times without the expansion and never miss it. But I doubt that you would return to basic Settlers after trying Seafarers - especially when you see the variety it includes. I'm certainly glad I picked the expansion up; Settlers fans will enjoy it greatly.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games."
(...)

Seafarers is a wonderful expansion, in that it adds new material to Settlers of Catan without destroying the wonderful game that it is. The ability to build ships as ocean-bound roads and "sail" to far away islands is great, and fits perfectly within the fictional world of Catan. You won't stop playing the original game, but rather you'll probably prefer a nice mix of original Settlers and Seafarers.

Seafarers simultaneously adds some wonderful balance to Settlers while destroying one of its strengths - the 5 resources are now fully balanced, and victory can come from many strategies. Wool is now an important resource, roads and ships are necessary through the very end of the game, and gold adds an important "super resource" element to the game. But the nature of Seafarers "ocean/island" maps means that most games require a pre-established scenario instead of a random map. While the scenarios are beautiful and very ingenius, playing them a few times makes them too familiar. I wish Mayfair would release more scenarios for people who own this expansion, because otherwise it is money well spent.

If you're trying to decide between Seafarers and Cities and Knights, let me help you! Both are great and have a very important place!!!

Seafarers is an excellent add on to Settlers of Catan because it give you a huge number of new possible board setups. It comes with a book full of a few - which is hard to use since the diagrams are in black and white and you can't make things out very easily but once you get the concept that doesn't really matter. You can make up your own board layouts. ...The new parts could be used with the origial game or Seafarers but would kind of work better with the larger board of Seafarers.

Basically, Seafarers gives you lots of new ways to setup the board and doesn't change much else. Cities and Knights is much more complex and changes a lot of things. Both have their place - and can be used together, but you can't really compare the two and say that one is better in my opionon. I would actually suggest that those who don't see the value of Seafarers haven't played enough or haven't tried new and creative boards setups...

Being a big fan of Settlers of Catan, of course I had to rush out and get the add-on! It adds just a little more to the original Settlers game and allows players to venture out across sea and explore distant islands. Now instead of just traveling via road, players can also construct ships to travel the sea. The appeal of this add-on is that it gives the players a bit more options in play and more area to venture out to. It doesn't really change the strategy of the game.

The instructions include several board layout suggestions that players can copy if they chose. Personally, I like the options that allow some randomness to the layouts because that is the aspect that I found so appealing in the Settlers of Catan game: the fact that the board is never the same.

My word of warning is that Seafarers of Catan does add length to the play time. I find our games typically last about 2 hours. Of course, there is the expansion pack to the Seafarers game as well. Man I would have loved to have created this game! They sure are making some serious bucks with all the expansions and add-ons!

The Catan Games are worth the money that you put into them. It is an exciting game that changes every time you set it up, both by plan and by chance. Our 9 year old plays at times by herself and at times with her dad to learn better strategy. This is THE game we play whenever we have time to play.
Catan, itself, is a great game with the strategy of planning and building. Adding the ships and islands through Seafarers only bumps up the strategy of the game which adds more excitement and opportunities. The best part...no matter the game, it generally takes about 2 hours to finish. Not like Civilizations which is an all day game!

This is an expansion for the Settlers Of Catan game and offers some new dimensions to the fascinating game.

With Seafarers, players have the ability to travel by sea to other islands instead of just being confined to the main island of Catan.

As with the original game, the actual board changes with each game played. Unlike the original, there are different island setups. With the additional islands, there are scenarios where players not only need a power base, but also a certain presence among the islands.

Seafarers adds new dimensions to Settlers of Catan, and thus it also adds a little to the length of the game (although some scenarios are faster than others), but the fun remains the same as in the original.

I am a major fan of Settlers of Catan, both the board and card game, as well as of Cities and Knights of Catan. The entire series is excellent, but of all of the variations, this is the one I like the least. I find that all it really accomplishes is slowing things down a good bit. With four players, the board can get crowded and players can be choked off when playing the original version, and this fixes that. So it does have that advantage. It also has various scenarios to play, so it does have that going for it. It's a good game, but not the pick of the lot.

I am an avid gamer, who worked for a game publisher for 3+ years (Wizards of the Coast--makers of Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, etc). Settlers is simply one of the most entertaining board games I have ever played--and I know games. It is easy to learn, wickedly deep with strategy and has great social elements including haggling, shifting alliances, etc. Mayfair Games, the Publisher, is well known for translating classic German board games into English. It will be a treasure on your game shelf!

Intro
Seafarers Of Catan is the game expansion to Settlers Of Catan, as such it does require Settlers Of Catan for its pieces, tiles, number tokens, cards, game rules, and knowledge of gameplay that provide the basis and foundation for the additional pieces (e.g. ship pieces, more number tokens) and gameplay elements that you'll find in Seafarers.

New elements
The learning curve to go from a Settlers newbie to learning to play Settlers is much higher than for someone who already knows how to play Settlers trying to learn the extra elements that make up Seafarers. As such, there isn't a lot pick up. In brief, these extra elements comprise of:
-edge/frame pieces - snap these together like jigsaw puzzle pieces to form a solid frame/border. Then fill in the frame for a tight fitting, rectangular board
-harbor tokens - used in lieu of the sea tiles with printed harbors on them. Since some land tiles right next to the border can have ports, the new harbor tokens can be placed on the borders whereas the old sea port tiles could not.
-ships - sheep are used instead of brick/clay to make these. You can move them one per turn which can save resources in having to make a new set of ships, but unlike roads, ships are vulnerable to the pirate
-pirate - The "sea robber". Restricts movement of ships and allows stealing of a card from those ships' owners, like robbing from a settlement.
-Special Victory Point tokens - these are awarded depending on the scenario. Usually when a settlement is built onto remote islands not initially settled by you.
-Gold fields - Provides one gold resource which is immediately traded for any one of the other standard resources
-changes needed where ships are concerned - Longest Trade Route is just a fancy term for "Longest Road consisting of roads AND ships", road building development card can mix and match building 2 roads or ships, ships can be built instead of roads during initial settlement placements on the shore, while soldier cards and 7s may invoke the pirate instead now.


Scenarios and Gameplay
One thing players notice right away is how much space some of the scenarios take. Unlike board games like Monopoly where the board is relatively small and Settlers Of Catan where at least the size of the layout is fixed, board sizes vary to where they're as small as 19.5"x23.5" but as large as 32"x23.5". 26"x23.5" is the single piece of area you need to accommodate all but one of the scenarios, and improvise by keeping players' own cards and the bank's cards on a side table or tray. Having the frame edges helps because at the very least, you can create the empty frame first to gauge how it things will fit without wasting A LOT of time filling in the hex tiles. Most of these scenarios are larger than the Settlers Of Catan layout, some of them require the tiles and number tokens be set up exactly as shown which adds time compared to a random setup, and scenarios are typically 12 to 13 point games, so that makes games even longer. All of these add to longer game from setup to endgame. Longer games also mean you're likely to place less games per session. These extra "headaches" aside, they're worth putting up with to get your game on. The manual lists out what components you need, diagrams of the scenarios (my copy is a recent edition in full color which takes the alot guesswork out of what some of the black and white tiles would've been), and suggestions on setting up. As far as the groups of scenarios themselves:
1) New Shores - basically the Settlers Of Catan island with a few smaller islands besides it. Provides the familiarity of the original with option to explore the islands and bask in new Seafarers gameplay
2) The Four Islands - These layouts force settlements into more close quarters than in Settlers Of Catan (that in which got pretty cramped sometimes). Exploration is definitely encouraged, as islands are small and building to foreign islands provides special victory points as well as new ground to build and reap resources
3) Oceans - Half of map contains initially unrevealed tiles, which get revealed and assigned a number token (for land tiles) as the player explores them. Encourages sea exploration since mainland is cramped
4) Into The Desert - Similar to #1, but the main island is smaller and non random in its tile and token layout
5) A New World - Completely random position of tiles and tokens, with harbor positions chosen by players
6) The Great Crossing - players connect settlements from one island to any settlement on the other island with ships for points.
7) Greater Catan - Enormous sized map that requires 2 copies of Settlers Of Catan create. Tokens get reassigned from mainland to the smaller islands when needed. This is an 18 point game that uses 8 city pieces.

Except for #2 and #3, the other maps with larger landmasses, expanding out to sea isn't always an advantage. Sometimes, players who just stick with building within the mainland will win before other players who expanded can reap significant rewards from the sea (e.g. settling on gold fields, obtaining bonus victory points, or even production from extra, standard land tiles), so despite what the name "Seafarers" might imply, emphasis is still on sound strategy and not blindly building out to sea because it's "the" thing to do.

Some of the scenarios have no randomness to what tile goes where and what number token goes on top of it. The harbors will also always be in predetermined spots, but at least the type of harbor that goes there is still random. These will lose some favor with Settlers fans that were into the sheer randomness of the tiles and tokens, but at least there are plenty of other scenarios which do offer higher levels of randomness