Risk of Catan

Updated 10/8/13
Changelog:
* (v2.33) Minor edits and clarifications.
* (v2.32) Removed trading of dev cards.
* Reduced victory condition to 15 victory points.
* Removed anti-Robber mechanics.
* (v2.31) Re-implemented sneak attack and road control.
* Removed knight card redeployment.
* Added endgame clarification
* (v2.30) Removed 5-6 player variant, as the gameplay simply took too long.
* Changed starting tiles to conform to standard Seafarers set.
* Removed control-breaking ability from robber.
* Removed sneak attack ability, replaced with knight card redeployment.
* Removed trading of harbor tokens, as it was easily abused.
* (v2.29) Removed rule allowing trade of used development cards.
* Added instructions for number tokens.
* Added clarification for gold tiles.

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Risk of Catan v2.31 Beta by Kru5h

Unless otherwise specified, use Seafarers of Catan rules.

Unless otherwise specified, use Risk rules for armies and battles.

15 Victory points [Usually 2 to 3 hours]

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Materials:

If you only own Catan + Seafarers, you don't need to count -- Simply use every tile, frame piece, rounded harbor token, and number token provided. You may be 1 or 2 number tokens short, but your set should come with a few blanks to make your own. If you own several Catan sets, extensions, and expansions, the number of exact pieces is outlined below.

25 Resource hexes, 5 of each type.

3 Desert hexes

2 Gold hexes

19 Water hexes

10 Harbor tokens: 1 of each resource, 5 generic.

You will also need the Risk armies and Risk battle dice.

Risk map and Risk cards are not needed.

Color matchings:

Catan orange = Risk yellow armies

Catan white = Risk gray armies

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Board Setup:

Divide hexes into two shuffled decks:

Red deck: 15 hexes; 3 of each resource.

Orange deck: 34 hexes; 2 of each resource, 3 Desert, 2 Gold, 19 Water.

Recommended board setup - https://i.imgur.com/ZeGS2.png

The red areas will become the primary landmasses, while the orange areas will be randomly generated mixtures of lakes, oceans, islands, straights, peninsulas, deserts, and gold tiles. (Starting settlements will be placed anywhere, however. The red areas are simply to guarantee sufficient starting land.)

There are no harbors placed on the board at start. You can earn harbors through gameplay.

Number tokens representing 6/8 may not be placed on tiles adjacent to each other, nor may they be placed on gold tiles.

You may shift number tokens around until all players are satisfied with the distribution.

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Rule exceptions:

No bonus victory points or chits for settling a new island.

The single robber token acts as both the robber and pirate. Can be placed on either land or sea and acts accordingly.

Your second settlement (placed at start of game) becomes a city at no extra cost. You still only get one of each resource when you originally place it at the start.

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Rule Relaxations:

You may trade unfairly, bribe, pay tribute, and generally negotiate any kind of political agreement.

You may play "victory point" development cards at any time (on your turn) during the game to increase your troop production, or choose to save them for a sneaky win.

Any agreement made for the current turn is not breakable. For example, if you promise not to attack a player this turn in exchange for resources, you may not break that agreement and attack.

You may agree to share your roads with another player for the purposes of transporting troops for a redeployment or sneak attack. A player can use their own roads in combination with multiple other player's road networks as needed, but stipulations may be added by the road owners.

You may choose to forfeit a battle, removing all of your remaining troops in the battle from the board and not rolling any dice. You may only do this if attacked or attacking, however. You cannot simply remove your troops and leave an unoccupied territory.

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Placing starting armies:

For each starting settlement/city, after placing your road/ship you also place one army on an adjacent unoccupied hex.

If all nearby hexes are occupied, you may battle for the territory. However, the army placed first is on defense.

After all settlements are placed, starting with the second player, all players take turns placing armies on unoccupied hexes, including the desert tile (but not water tiles) until all land tiles are occupied. As per Risk rules, army placement follows a simple loop: 2nd player, 3rd player, 4th player, 1st player, 2nd player, etc. Don't "snake back" like you do for settlement/city placement.

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Harbors:

Any settlement or city placed adjacent to water gets a harbor of the player's choice, as long as it is still available. (Including starting settlements/cities.)

The harbor choices are first-come first-serve. If the harbor you want is already taken, you may only choose from the remaining ones.

Harbors are placed in the middle of the water hex, pointing toward the settlement or city it belongs to.

You may have only one harbor per settlement or city.

There is only allowed to be one harbor per water hex.

Yes, harbors may be placed in "lakes" that are unconnected to the ocean.

The robber/pirate placed on a water hex prevents use of any harbor located there.

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Territory occupation vs control:

Definition: Occupy

You are said to occupy a territory (hex) if you have at least one standing army in the hex.

Definition: Control

You are said to control a territory (hex) if you have a number of armies equal to or greater than the number of pips on the territory's number token. For example, the Catan chit labeled "6" has 5 pips under the number, so you need five or more armies on that territory to fully control it. The Catan chit labeled "11" only requires 2 armies to control it. Deserts, and lands labeled "2" and "12" are controlled by any single army.

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Controlling settlements/cities:

You control an enemy settlement or city when you control all adjacent land territories.

The controlling player gets the victory points, resources, and harbors as if they had built it, but it remains the original color. The original player loses the victory points, resource gathering, and use of the harbor until it is freed.

In the event of a robber being placed adjacent to a controlled settlement or city, only the person who currently controls it can be stolen from.

The original building player can still build armies from the settlement/city to try to free itself. The armies are placed on one adjacent hex of the original players choice, they are immediately on offense, and cannot retreat anywhere.

If the controlling player loses control of any hex via battle or any other means, then control returns to the original owner until it is recaptured.

Note that all adjacent territories need to be controlled by the same player to have control of the settlement or city. You may maintain control of a settlement/city even if one enemy controls 2 of your home territories and another enemy player controls your 3rd home territory.

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Controlling roads:

You control an enemy road when you control all land territories that have that road as an edge.

Controlling another player's road does not affect longest road.

Captured roads prevent the transport of troops, unless the controlling player agrees to allow it through negotiation or trade.

You cannot use captured roads to extend your trade route, or build settlements. Road control only affects troop movement.

Roads can be freed via battle.

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Buying and recruiting armies:

To buy armies, during the building phase you declare a resource type.

You receive one army per resource of that type that you pay to the bank.

You cannot change resource types until next turn.

For example, 4 armies would cost 4 ore, 4 wheat, 4 lumber, 4 brick, OR 4 sheep, but you may not mix and match.

Each turn, you are limited to buying one army per victory point that you have. For example, if you have 6 victory points, you may buy up to 6 armies that turn.

You receive one free army each time a Catan number is rolled for a territory you control, even off-turn. (If the robber is on that hex, you do not receive a free army.)

Armies are placed anywhere that you already have troops.

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Army movement and battle:

Armies are placed on hexes, they move, attack, and defend according to Risk battle rules.

Armies may also move along any of your uncaptured trading routes to any enemy territory that touches the road/shipping route, including the endpoints of the road/shipping route. This is considered a "sneak attack", and you may only do one sneak attack per turn.

Armies cannot move along a sea route if there is an adjacent pirate.

Sneak attacking armies cannot retreat.

If one or more of your road segments are controlled by another player, you can move into a controlled hex, battle until you break control and free the road, and then continue your sneak attack with your remaining troops. You can also negotiate with the controlling player to allow you temporary safe passage.

At the end of your turn, you may redeploy as many troops as you desire from one hex to any other hex, as long as there is a complete path of supply lines and trade routes connecting them.

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Elimination and Endgame

Occasionally, players may be eliminated from the game, but this does not happen every game.

If a player needs to leave the game, they are simply eliminated as if they were defeated in combat.

A player is eliminated when they do not have control over any settlements or cities.

An eliminated player leaves all of their troops on the board, acting as defenders of the territories until they are defeated. They do not get any bonuses for controlling territories and cannot be moved. Any player may roll defense dice for the removed player.

An eliminated player's resource cards are returned to the resource bank.

All of the eliminated player's development cards are shuffled back into the development card deck.

First player to 15 or more points (on their turn) wins. In the event that multiple players meet or exceed 15 points, the first player to still have 15 or more during their turn is declared the winner.