Is it possible to play colonizers from the phone. Colonizers (board game). Features in the board game Colonizers

As you remember, most recently immortal desktop classics# 1 I admitted the game ... This board I'm playing in recent times to get a valuable skill of a tough player =) For now, it's a little frustrating that the meeples on the field decide a lot during the final counting ... But today I won't talk about Carcassonne , or rather, I'll talk about another game that is often mentioned in conjunction with him, namely Colonizers .

Yes, yes, very often, when they ask what is the best place to start playing board games, they answer that it is better Carcassonne and Colonizers there is nothing (well, practically nothing). I've already covered the first game, so let's take a closer look at the second Great Game.

A bit of history

Board game The settlers of Catan (or Colonizers , as the game was called in Russia) appeared in the distant 1995th year. Invented by a German dentist Klaus Teuber . Colonizers - not Teuber's first game, but it was she who brought the author world fame. The game has collected a lot tabletop awards and has sold over 22 million copies worldwide. I just can't imagine this wild figure!

Colonizers are unique primarily in that they are associated with the worldwide spread of the term "German board game" or simply "Eurogame". These games are not necessarily invented by the Germans, but they differ from other games by an economic model with resource management, thematicity, social function, a low role of randomness, no players dropping out of the game, and often language independence. It certainly cannot be said that Colonizers were the progenitor of the genre of German board games, but it was this game that made Eurogames popular all over the world.

Therefore, due to all these facts Colonizers can be safely considered a mastodon from the world of board games.

Colonizers from Hobby world

The game was released in Russia in 2002. Then the publishing house was engaged in it Hobby games , which quickly changed its name to Smart , and a little later, after the merger with the publishing house Fantasy world , it became called Hobby world ... So we can say that Colonizers (like Carcassonne ) are the hallmark of the HW publishing house.

By the way, there were some problems with the name of the game not so long ago. In the world the game is called The settlers of catan (or abbreviated Catan ), in Russia the name was translated as Colonizers ... But recently, the parent publisher, which owns the game, made a decision to have the same name in all languages ​​- Catan ... Therefore, this is what is written on my localized box. And it will be so in the future, although you will see a different name on the boxes of old Russian editions. It makes no difference to me what the game is called. I call her Colonizers, Catan, and even sometimes Satan, as one friend of mine likes to say. In this review, I will use both names.

In my collection Catan is an updated (most recent) version of the game with new arts. The game looks bright, fresh and modern. Personally, I consider the picture from the box of the game to be one of the best and most memorable pictures of board games.

Opening the box, you will find a stack of cardboard sheets from which you need to squeeze out field tokens, sea frames, memos and numbered tokens. Under the sheets you will find a deck of cards, 2 bags of plastic figures and cubes, and 2 rule books.

Previously, I only played the original German version published by the publisher Kosmos , which differs from the Russian version by the presence of a convenient organizer and card holder. Unfortunately, all this stuff is not in the Russian version, so now my preparation for the game takes a little longer than I'm used to.

I have no particular complaints about the quality of the game. The only thing, it seemed to me that either the sea frame is too small, or the hexes are too big, but the field is going very, very close. If it was possible to slightly reduce the size of the hexes, it would be cool.

We populate a desert island

The plot of the game lies in the fact that we find ourselves on the uninhabited island of Katan, on which we have to develop the territory, extract raw materials, lay roads, build cities, fight robbers and conduct trade.

Basic " actor»Games - a large playing field, which is assembled from hexes of land and sea frames. The island of Katan itself is divided into 19 pieces, each of which is a kind of landscape - pasture, forest, arable land, hill, mountains. There is a small desert in the center of the island.

In each new game, the field will be formed randomly, which increases the replayability of the game.

During the preparation of the game, a token with a number is placed on each hex, which is needed so that players can receive resources from the lands.

Each player starts the game with two settlements and two roads. Settlement figures are placed on the tops of the hexes, and roads are placed on the edges. Each settlement is worth 1 victory point. To win the game, all you need to do is score 10 VP. How do I get them? I'll tell you now.

The main activity in the game is construction. Players build roads, settlements, and cities. Roads are not worth points, but building the longest road will earn you 2 VP. Settlements, as I noted, are worth 1 VP. Cities - 2 VP.

To build something, you need to spend resources. Resources are obtained very simply - at the beginning of his turn, the player rolls 2 dice, which determines which hexes will work and bring income (their number coincides with the number dropped out on the dice). All players whose settlements or cities are adjacent to activated hexes receive one (if the settlement triggered) or two (if the city triggered) resources. The forest gives wood, pastures - wool, arable land - grain, hills - clay, mountains - ore. When a player needs to get a resource, he simply takes a card with the corresponding resource into his hand. It is worth noting that players do not see what resources their rivals have.

If during the roll of the dice you get the number 7, then this means that you have activated the rogues (there are no numbers 7 on the terrain hexes). Rogues force all players with more than seven cards in their hand to discard half of their cards to the reserve. Next, the active player moves the rogue figure to any hex, after which the player can draw one raw material card from the hand of another player whose settlement or city borders on the hex. on which the robbers stand. If then the hex on which the robbers are standing is triggered, then it does not bring resources to any of the players.

The phase of obtaining resources is called the phase of collecting raw materials. The next phase is trading.

Sometimes players lack some specific resources, but there is a surplus of other resources. Bargaining is great for these situations. You can make trades either with a reserve. or with the players. Bargaining with a reserve is simple - any resource can be obtained by discarding 4 cards of another resource (but only one!). If you build settlements in the harbor, you can get access to a better exchange rate (3: 1 or even 2: 1). But the most interesting thing is to bargain with other players. Only an active player can trade, other players cannot bargain with each other. The active player declares that he is ready to trade one thing and wants another. For example, I trade sheep for wood. The players themselves agree with each other at what rate they are ready to make an exchange (1: 1, 2: 1, 3: 1, etc.).

After the bidding, the player proceeds to the third phase - the construction phase.

For example, you can build a road (clay + wood). The road is laid on the paths between the hexes. The road must adjoin your other road or your settlement or city. It is impossible to lay roads from other people's buildings. When a player lays out a fifth road in the same chain, he may draw a special card that is worth 2 victory points. This card can be taken by another player only if he builds a chain of 6 roads. Further from 7, 8, 9, etc.

The settlement costs wood + clay + wool + grain. It can be built at an intersection, to which the player's road adjoins, provided that there are no settlements or cities at the neighboring intersections.

The settlement can be rebuilt into a city. To do this, you need to pay 3 ores and 2 grains. Place a city figurine in place of any settlement figurine. The city is worth 2 VP and, if the hex is triggered, it gives 2 resources.

Also, during the construction phase, the player can purchase a development card, which costs ore + wool + grain. Development cards are the only cards that are face down. Knights can be caught in these cards (move the rogue figures to the field and bring 2 VP if the player has more knights than other players, starting from 3), breakthroughs (cards with special conditions) and victory points (they can be kept hidden so that opponents do not know how close you are to victory).

As soon as a player scores 10 or more victory points, he is declared the winner.

Are the classics that good?

Many years ago, I was pretty bad about everything old. The old music did not evoke emotions, the films seemed funny, and the only thing that was not outdated for me was art. And then somehow I listened to the band's album The smiths , which was recorded in 1984, and I realized how wrong I was, because this album, like the music, turned out to be eternal. So I came to the conclusion that the old does not mean bad.

How to relate to games that came out a long time ago, but the 21st century is already in the yard and new games are one more beautiful than the other? Of course, you can admire and praise the conventional Scythe , but it should be noted that the old Catan tries in every possible way to keep up with modern games... Take at least appearance games. Wonderful box, good components, bright field - I would never say Katan is 22 years old. The graphic designers are working hard to keep Katan up-to-date with the beautiful modern desktops, and the latest redesign has gone a long way towards helping the game. When I unpacked the board, I didn't even have a thought in my head that the game was old.

In my opinion, Katana has 1 thing that betrays his age. A feature of many games from the 90s and partly 00s is the high role of randomness. At the time, predictability was not an advantage of the game. That is why in old games you can often find cubes and cards or tiles that accidentally come into your hand, on which the main gameplay is built. It is now fashionable to scold the game for randomness, because a victory due to banal luck is not considered a worthy victory. And earlier this was just the thrill that all players are equal before fortune. You, of course, partially calculate your actions and hope that your plans will come true, but this will happen only under a certain set of circumstances. In Katana, players roll dice to gain resources. It is the hexagons that will tell you whether you get the resources or not. If you get it, you can bargain and engage in construction. If you don't, you won't be able to do anything and will wait until you finally get lucky with the numbers. In modern board games, they try to get rid of this in the early stages of game development. Even if the player is unlucky with the dice, he should be able to do something useful on his turn. In Katana, on their turn, all players, except you, can receive resources, and you will have to sadly pass and pass the move to another player.

But not in vain Colonizers called a gateway. If someone does not understand this term, then I will explain that gateway is a game with which it is good to start getting acquainted with board games. In my opinion, Katan is perfect for exploring board games. Why? It is for the same reason that chance plays a high role. It is very bad for a beginner when he, not knowing all the intricacies of the game, cannot perform the most effective actions, which is why he has to play the role of a laggard. For a beginner in Katana, it is enough to know that the initial formation on the field is very important to get maximum profit... The most frequently dropped numbers on the dice are the numbers 6 and 8. They are even marked in red so that players will pay attention to the hexes with these numbers. The player's task is to place profitably at the start and then build roads and settlements so as to gain access to new "tasty" hexes. Agree, this is an understandable and uncomplicated strategy for a beginner. If the player takes the places correctly, fortune will do the rest for him.

What should be done in this game to get maximum comfort? At the stage of preparing the game, place your settlements at the junction of 3 lands. And it is desirable that at least one hex was with a 6 or 8. You also need to try to get access to all five resources or to such a resource that will be lacking in the game (for example, only one player out of four has access to the resource).

But even if, according to the probability theory, 6 and 8 fall out on two dice more often, sometimes it turns out that these numbers fall out the least often during the whole game =) So do not assume that the king will be the one who takes places near the "trump" hexes.

Due to the high randomness of the dice, Katan can be played by people of all ages and backgrounds. Children, adults, grandparents - anyone. There is very little text in the game. Even if it is on the map, then even without reading what is written there, you can guess what the map gives. Klaus Teuber tried to make the game as clear as possible.

Okay, we've figured out what his age reveals in Katana. But I want to focus on one very interesting moment, which is in this game and which made it truly unique for its time. This is her sociality. Namely trade. Klaus Teuber in his game allowed the players not to blindly follow the written rules, but to create their own rules and offer their own conditions. Do you have a lot of grain? Yes, you can sell it to the bank, but you can offer grain to other players. And this is such a game in the game, because players are suddenly distracted from the hexes on the field and begin to engage in controversy about bidding. For a '95 game, this was a big step forward because the game took on a social connotation. Players do not just automatically take resources from the piles and exchange them for figures, which are then placed on the field, but they communicate, argue, bargain, and joke. Now you buy 1 wool for 3 clays, and then you exchange 1 clay for 2 woods. And this is not spelled out in the rules! You are the masters of your game.

V Colonizers difficult to play with those who love miscalculation. This game can brutalize you for several rounds during which you cannot do anything worthwhile. Therefore, when I play this game, I always try to just relax and enjoy the bright colors of the game and throwing dice.

I like the following points in the game:

• unpredictability of the move and complete immersion in the game. Before someone rolls the dice, no one knows if you will get anything or not. It's great that even in other people's moves you have something to do. You have no time to poke around in your phone while another player is walking, since cubes can bring you raw materials, after which you can profitably exchange them for something else, more useful. Everything that happens in the game affects any player in some way. Whether it's getting resources, attacking robbers, trading or losing a road map;
• attack of robbers. Holding a lot of cards in your hands is very dangerous, because at any moment you can lose half of the resources that could have been spent on something valuable. The game encourages players to spend raw materials as often as possible. Plus, dropping the number 7 is always fun. It's nice to see how the opponent has only 7 cards instead of 14 cards. Serve you, greedy!
• simple gameplay. In the game, you can spend resources on only 4 things - roads, settlements, cities and development cards. You do not need to monitor additional 10 parameters to maintain the economic balance of your system. Construction in Colonizers simple, but it works 100%;
• trading with other players is always interesting and unpredictable. Of course, the exchange does not always happen, but bargaining is very pleasant;
• absence game currency, which would complicate the gameplay. It's even strange to hear that in economic game no money, but it's for the best. Truth;
• virtually any construction of a new element on the board will result in victory points. You start with two points in your pocket, and all other actions will only increase their number. It is simply impossible to reduce them. Only forward!
• for the cards of the knights and the road, there is always a fierce struggle between the players. Even if you did not originally intend to build the longest road, you still have to pay attention to it, because additional 2 points is a pretty serious advantage in the game;
• the game does not fade over time. It is bright, juicy and visually attractive. Excellent design is a definite plus of the game.

Since I have already talked about the pros, it is worth mentioning the cons. Honestly, I can't say that u Colonizers there are pronounced disadvantages, for which I am ready to scold her. But there are 100% ambiguous points. For some, these are serious drawbacks, for others, little things:

• the high role of chance and the inability to slow down the leader. Yes, in this game you can sit for a long time without resources, which means that you will not be able to build anything and will not move closer to victory. This is most often due to poor placement of starting settlements. But it happens that the cubes do not want to please you with their numbers. If the rivals build 2-3 additional settlements and have a couple of cities, while you can't even lay roads, then the game, most likely, you have already merged. You can catch up with the leaders only if you suddenly began to overflow resources, and rivals, on the contrary, begin to experience a deficit of them;
• it's hard to know who is in the lead. It seems, on the one hand, points can be counted by settlements, cities and road cards and knights. But there are also development cards in which victory points can also be hidden. And these cards are always hidden from prying eyes. Therefore, it is difficult to say who is one step away from victory, who is two steps away, and who is three. Usually, the end of the game begins to peck when one of the players begins to frequently recount their settlements and cities. Sometimes it happens that you play calmly for yourself, try to finish building cities and win in 3 moves, and suddenly one of the players puts 3-4 development cards with victory points on the table and unexpectedly ends the game;
• towards the end of the game, trade between players dies down. Who wants to trade with another player if they are likely to win soon? That's right, nobody. At the beginning of the game, you want to build something as quickly as possible, so you actively exchange sheep for grain, and clay for stone. And towards the end of the game you start to wonder whether it is worth doing it by helping someone else;
• v Colonizers cannot be played together. It's not bad, it's just a fact. 3-4 players - please. Two players - play a different game;
• no matter how differently the playing field is assembled, it does not give much replayability. If in Colonizers play often, the game will quickly get bored.

As you can see, there is something to praise Katan for, but there is also something to scold.

Supplements

Of course, such popular game, what Katan became, could not do without all sorts of additions and alternative versions... On this moment To base game you can buy many different additional boxes, many of which are available in Russian.

Expansion for 5-6 players - the name speaks for itself.

Merchants and barbarians (+ separate expansion for 5-6 players) - in this add-on you will find 5 large-scale scenarios in which the population of the island of Katan will develop a network of roads and settlements, trade with the Bedouins of the deserts and fend off impudent barbarians. New terrain hexes, rule additions, and superior plastic components.

Sailors (+ separate expansion for 5-6 players) - in this add-on you need to build ships and get new raw materials - gold. Also in the box are 9 new adventure scenarios.

Cities and knights (+ separate expansion for 5-6 players) - in this additional stage, barbarians raid cities and settlements. Players will have to hire knights who will fight off the raids of the barbarians. Also in this game you can build new cultural and commercial buildings.

Colonizers. Europe - an independent game in which, instead of the Catan Island, players will be able to populate the territory of Europe.

Colonizers. America Is an independent game in which you can populate North America.

Pioneers and Pirates - expansion, in which there are 5 new scenarios full of sea travel, trade and battles with pirates.

Princes of Katana - a gorgeous independent dueling game, which I have already done earlier.

Colonizers Junior - an independent game for young players.

All these games are available in Russian thanks to the publishing house Hobby world .

Colonizers vs Carcassonne

I don't know how it happened that these two games are very often mentioned in the same bundle. Maybe because XB developed both games at the same time, and they became the main games of the publisher (not counting Munchkin ), who helped him get back on his feet. I am more than sure that if you go to a board game store and ask a game for a beginner, then you will be offered either Carcassonne , or Colonizers , or both together. Nevertheless, the games are still different. I will try to compare these board games and tell you about my attitude towards each of them.

Carcassonne cheaper is the first advantage of the game. Very often, beginners do not want to spend a lot of money to buy a board game, so they should not be intimidated by high cost games. Carcassonne costs half the price Colonizers .

V Carcassonne the game prepares for the start faster. Just shuffle the tiles, find the starting tile and you're ready to play. V Colonizers you need to prepare the field, carry out the procedure for arranging the starting positions, and only after that the first player can begin to roll the dice.

Carcassonne plays faster. Literally 20-30 minutes and you have already played. And on Colonizers takes 60-90 minutes.

V Carcassonne you can play equally cool with two, three and four. V Colonizers you cannot play together.

But Colonizers create the feeling of a full-fledged board game. There is a large beautiful playing field, cubes, cards, figures, trade, construction, robbery. Many novice players are afraid of all-card games because they do not look like what is usually shown in pictures with board games. Beginners love the scale in games and the ability to roll the dice. I remember how I took a friend to the board games club for the first time, and she asked me: “Will there be games where you can throw dice? I like it the most! " Colonizers skillfully create the atmosphere of a large board. I came to the world of board games through completely different games, but when after Carcassonne I saw Colonizers , then immediately noted that this game is more interesting to me, since you can do more of all sorts of cool things in it.

Colonizers , IMHO, are more like Eurogame. This game has economy, hoarding, construction. Carcassonne more puzzle game.

After the first batch of Carcassonne I gave the game 6 points and was not eager to study the game further. Colonizers I was rated at 7 points, and I wanted to play them more. True, over time I raised the grade Carcassonne to 9, because the game suddenly opened up to me from the other side. It so happens that now I appreciate fast mobile games, which bring a lot of pleasure and in which there is something to think about. But this does not mean that Katan has deteriorated over time. For me, Katan is good game, when you want something simpler and there are newcomers at the table who have never played complex Eurogames.

Both games are great for beginners, but if you need something cheaper and faster, then this Carcassonne , and if you need a simple beautiful European game, then this Colonizers .

A game for all time

As well as Carcassonne , Colonizers do not spoil the place in the collection of a real board gamer. This is a good classic, which is sometimes a pleasure to play for seasoned board gamers and must be played with those who want to get acquainted with board games. Over time, the game may get bored, you will have new favorite board games that will be more difficult and interesting, but this will not make the classics of the genre worse. And it is always a pleasure to return to it from time to time in order to once again populate the wondrous island of Katan faster than anyone else, which has been attracting all board gamers for more than 20 years.

The board game Colonizers by Klaus Teuber was first published in 1995 and only a year later managed to win the most prestigious awards in the world, and today the game has been translated into 30 languages ​​and sold over a million copies worldwide.

Anchored off an uncharted island and stepped ashore, you made two discoveries. First, it is quite rich in natural resources, and second, you are not alone here. In parallel with you, several more colonizers arrived here. This is where the expansion of Catan Island begins.

19 hexes with different types landscape
4 forests, 3 pastures, 4 arable lands, 3 hills, 3 mountains, 1 desert
6 shores with harbors
95 resource cards, 19 each (wood, wool, grain, clay, ore)
25 development cards
14 Knight Cards
6 Breakout Cards
5 Victory Point Cards
4 building price cards
1 map The longest tract
1 card The largest army
figurines of white, blue, red and orange colors (4 cities, 5 settlements and 15 roads)
1 rogue figurine
18 numbered tokens
2 cubes

The game goes up to the usual victory ten points. You get 1 point for each settlement you build and two points for the city you build. Also, a victory point can be accidentally caught when buying development cards. Additionally, you can get two points for the longest path and for the largest army. By folding the field, you have the opportunity to show your creative nature and arrange the hexes as you like.

Regarding the numbers in the rules of the board game Colonizers, there are also recommendations, the main thing is that sixes and eights do not lie nearby. Decisive in this board game are cubes, if you are not friends with them, it will be more difficult to win. In order not to remain for several turns without the arrival of resources, you need to occupy hexes with numbers, the probability of which is higher.

Do everything to win

When laying the second settlement at the beginning of the game, you should pay attention to the initial bonus that it will give you and the possible ways to the ports. Buying development cards, you confidently move towards victory. In addition to cards with different points, you have a chance to build roads, take a couple of resources, or even take one resource from all players. By increasing your army, you protect your settlements from random sevens and other knights, and you also get a chance to get a card for the largest army, which is, after all, two victory points. The ability to negotiate will probably be the most demanded skill that you can apply at the gaming table, since with the correct placement of settlements, which resource will not have a role for you to change. The exchange process itself will be much more important.

The game is designed for 3-4 players, but there are extensions up to 5-6. Colonizers can be played by anyone, even a person far from board games. The creator succeeded in an extremely balanced game, moderately deep and at the same time with easy-to-understand rules. Experienced players have the opportunity to increase the strategic difficulty of the game with the help of some, such as the City and the Knights. Colonizers is a great game to explore the world of board games. Given the nature of the field, it is fun to play over and over again. It should be in the arsenal of every self-respecting player.

Board game rules Colonizers

Nowadays, buying land is an expensive pleasure and not everyone can afford it. There are also lands that do not belong to any state at all, such as Antarctica. But it is too cold there and whoever wants to live there. We offer you to take possession of a whole island called Katan from the cult tabletop strategy Colonizers, created by Klaus Teuber. This is an excellent economic strategy game that was published in 1994 and is on its heels in popularity. It is one of the best-selling strategies in the world, and all because it suits everyone, its rules are clear and simple.

We master the island of Katan

Before us is the island of Catan, it consists of 19 areas - hexes, on which you have to establish your colonial state. Moreover, each new game you will have a new, unique landscape. Here it will be necessary to extract resources and use them to build roads, build settlements and cities, improve them, exchange resources with each other, and also raise your army. For all this, victory points are given and the one who scores 10 will be considered the winner. In the board game Colonizers there is also an element of luck: everything is dominated by dice, which can fall out in different ways, and robbers, who can attack quite suddenly. Get together for a game with three or four and you can forget about everything for 1.5-2 hours.

First, let's build the island itself from sea frames and hexes, then distribute numbered tokens, place them next to the field, letters up. Then we put them in alphabetical order from any corner of the field in a counterclockwise spiral. We turn over all the tokens. You can immediately see that some of the numbers on them are printed in a larger font and painted in red, which means that, according to the theory of probability, they fall out on the dice more often. We put special cards next to the field: The Longest Path and The Largest Army. Let's take a map of the price of buildings. Next, we lay out five decks of raw materials on the table, and next to it is a shuffled deck of development cards face down. We take tokens of roads, settlements and cities of our chosen color (if the game is on threesome, then the red chips are not involved). At any crossroads of the field we put two roads and two settlements, this is done as follows: first, each player places one settlement with a road in a circle, up to the last player. The latter puts two at once, and then back. Remember, according to the rules of the Colonizers board game, the road must necessarily adjoin the settlement.

This is how we get our first two victory points, one for each settlement, as well as our first income: hexes on the borders of which settlements are located give their resources. Forests provide timber, arable land brings grain, clay is dug in the hills, wool is sheared in the pasture, and ore is mined in the mountains. It is very important to stand on the necessary resources, because the start of the game greatly depends on the initial placement, for example, if you did not stand on the resource tree with a frequently dropping number, you will have a hard time in the game. Only the desert in the center does not give anything, the robbers token initially lives in it.

First move

When everything is ready to play, it's time for the first move. According to the rules of the Colonizers board game, the oldest player makes the first move, he rolls the dice and starts collecting raw materials. The amount dropped out indicates those hexes that will bring resources to the colonizers, provided that their settlements and cities are located on these borders. Each settlement brings one resource card from the income hexagon, and the city brings two. With the help of raw materials, we will strive to build new facilities, develop old ones and try to come to dominate the entire island. When there are enough resources, you can start building. What is the price indicated in the price card. Just pay with resource cards for the object, return them to the reserve and build. Your success depends on how competently the roads and settlements are laid.

Roads in the Colonizers are laid from your settlements. On each path, only one road token can be laid, and it can go out from any intersection to which a previously built road adjoins and on which there is no opponent's city and settlement. If you manage to build five roads in a row and there are no other people's objects, then you will receive a special map Longest tract and two victory points, but if someone builds a path longer, then there is nothing to do and the card will have to be passed to a competitor. To build a settlement, you must pay a tariff and build at any intersection that your road approaches. The rule of distance must be observed, all neighboring intersections must be free from any villages and towns. We get one victory point for the settlement. To build a city on the island, you need to turn your settlement into it. Such pumping costs a lot, but the city gives 2 victory points and twice as many resources.

At some point in the game, you can find in yourself the surplus of one and the lack of another resource, in order to fix this, it is necessary to trade. There are two types of trade, domestic and overseas. During the internal process, tell your competitors what you need and what you offer. Use your charm and bargaining skills and try to bargain yourself the best deal. At the same time, in your ho, rivals can trade with you and only with you. With overseas trade, you can exchange resources 2: 1 or 3: 1 if you have a settlement in the harbor. If there are no such settlements, you can use the most predatory 4: 1 rate.

Development cards

To progress in the Colonizers board game, you need to buy development cards. They can be played at any time on your turn, but not immediately after you buy them. Cards of medieval breakthroughs in science and technology provide certain bonuses. Follow the instructions in such a card and remove it from the game. You can also be led and you buy a card with a victory point.

Robbers

If someone rolls a 7, then according to the rules of the Colonizer, he interferes in the game Rogue and a uniform robbery begins. Firstly, no one receives raw materials, and secondly, all competitors who have more than 7 raw material cards lose half of them. With odd numbers, everything is rounded down, for example, out of 9 cards, you will have to give 4. Then the player must move the rogue to any other hex, after which he chooses whom to rob from among those who are on this hex and blindly takes one raw material card from the victim. The seized plot itself does not bring anything until the robber leaves for another territory.

Knight card

Among the development cards in the board game is the Knight. He gives the right on his turn to move the rogue to any other hex and loot competitors in his own style. The played knight card is placed in front of them on the table. If you are the first to place the third knight on the table, you will receive a special card The largest army and 2 victory points to boot. But this card will only be yours until someone gathers a bigger army.

oia: placement and resources

If you've already read the rules, you should know how the constellation works. You place all land cards face down, then face down all sea cards as well as all ports, and shuffle each pile separately. Then you collect land from cards and surround it with sea and port cards. And the final touch is that you turn over all of these cards and place the number tokens on the land hexes. Let's take a closer look at the hexes and think about what kind of strategy can be applied here.

1. Land types. You have 4 hexes of each type that produce sheep's wool and grain, as well as 3 hexes of ore and bricks. In addition, there is, but we are not interested in it yet.

2. Port hexes. You have one for each resource. Ports allow you to swap your resources of the corresponding type for any other at a 2 to 1 rate. You also have several universal ports that allow you to swap any resource for another, but at a 3 to 1 ratio.

3. Numbers. Each time you roll game dice, the numbers on them add up and cause all hexes with that number to produce resources. It turns out that you can get the numbers 2 and 12 in only one way, and the rest of the numbers will occur twice as often. The exception is the number 7, because, as you know, when a 7 is rolled, something very bad happens. Since seven is a special number, this means that the best throws on the game table will be the numbers 6 and 8.

At the beginning, you can only place two settlements on the playing field, so you will need to choose a better place for them. Here are a few strategies that may help you (but still not 100% guaranteed).

1. Look at the field and notice how many players keep you company at the table. If you go first and play with two more players, try to immediately take the "nicest" spot that the rest of the players following you will definitely occupy. What are the criteria for "good" places I will describe below.

2. If you go third and play three, this means that you can arrange two settlements in a row. Take advantage of this. Place the second settlement where you have the most resources. If you have not found two good places, or if you do not like one of them, then look at what resources other players lack, and put your second settlement in such a way as to appropriate these types of resources for yourself.

3. Try not to place a settlement on port or sea hexes. This will mean that your settlement will have only two winning numbers, and maybe even one. Follow this advice, but don't forget the ports as well. If you find yourself in the vicinity of a 2 to 1 port and you know for sure that it will be useful to you, then do not miss to build a settlement near the port to use it.

Summing up:

A "good" place includes the following features. It has the numbers 6 or 8, 9 or 5, and 4 or 10, except in the rare case when 6 and 8 are combined with 5 AND 9. It will be nice, but not necessarily, if there are three different resources at this point. 3 and 11 are worse than 4 and 10, however, this drawback is covered by the presence three different resources. If you go first, choose a place for a settlement to your liking, but first look at where the ports are located with prices 2 to 1 and which of them may be useful to you in the future.

The "next good" place has the numbers 9 and 5 and possibly 4 or 10.

As a rule, you usually want to get as many resources of all five types as possible, so if you can get all types of resources with your two settlements, then everything is ok. If you build two settlements in a row, then everything is fine and you can move on.

1. The reaction of your opponents is very important. Find some way to influence them. If one of the players buys two cards, you need to hurry up and buy three. Always imagine that their cards are knights. If you have three knights in your hand, start playing them. And there is no need to be ashamed of anyone. At this time, it would be useful to use the services of the port at a rate of 2 to 1. Shovel resources! Get them wherever you can. Throw all your eggs in one basket if you start to lose. Thus, if your numbers fall on the dice, you have a real chance to be in time before everyone else. But if you and your opponents go head to head, then every move can be a defeat for you.

2. Be resourceful. Consider this situation. You want to buy a city. You have one grain and two ores. You have many cards and four wool that you can trade. You have a city on a grain hex 6 and an ore hex 8. What resource will you buy? Of course, the grain! Now, if we roll 8, we can build a city. If you buy ore and roll 6, you still won't have enough ore, but the waste grain will be full of bins.

3. Make purchases when you have. This is especially useful for a set of cards. Constantly buy something if you can, except for ... expensive. Do not build highways unless you need it for some reason (especially if you have a port with a brick or a tree).

End of the game. Winning strategy

So, the game is already in full swing and is nearing completion at an increasing rate. Each settlement or city you build is getting easier and easier as you have more resources and / or more options for winning rolls. I mean, don't let your opponents know that you are close to winning. Otherwise, they will do their best to stop you. Here are some tips to help you:

1. If I am one or two roads away from the longest road and have 7 or fewer victory points (which means I still won’t win even if I finish building the road now), then I will not build it. If I do this, then I have 9 victory points and increased attention from my opponents. I'd rather build a settlement at the end of this road. For the settlement, I will definitely get a victory point that no one will take from me. But the longest road can be surpassed by my opponents. It is best to build it with 9 or 10 points on hand.

2. Development cards are always good. If you've followed my mid-game strategy, you probably have the cards in hand. As with the roads, try to keep one knight's distance from the largest army, however, of course, you should have a winning knight on hand. Stick to your normal plans until you reach 8 victory points.

3. Winning with development cards would be pretty good, because the enemy doesn't know about them. Your opponents cannot see how many victory points you actually have. It is always helpful to have one or two cards of this type in your hand. Of course, you shouldn't play them until victory is near.

Somewhere in the middle of the sea lies the beautiful island of Catan. In the forests, a local resident extracts wood, shears wool from sheep in the fields, extracts clay in the hills ... And then there are competing colonialists striving to occupy the best lands! However, on such a small island far from the metropolis, the winner is the one who knows how to find mutual language with neighbors. This is perhaps the main beauty of the game: the player will have to find a balance between competition and diplomacy in order to win. Colonizers are a classic board game, played by the whole world, but to understand why it is so good, you need to open the box and play a game.

The process of the game

At the beginning of the game, a playing field is formed from a set of hexagonal dice. Chips with numbers are laid out on them. On their turn, each player extracts raw materials, builds new cities and roads, and trades to get the missing resources. Success in the extraction of raw materials is determined by a roll of dice - the two numbers dropped out determine which of the deposits will bring income. If the player has a settlement near them, he is in luck.

Trading can take place between players (and then your diplomacy skills come into play) or between the player and the metropolis (this is less profitable, but it does not depend on how harmful opponents you got). Another way to get raw materials is to play as a rogue and rob another player with a successful die roll. Raw materials are needed in order to build new settlements, cities, roads, fight back, engage in development - and ultimately collect ten victory points and win the game.

• There are two kinds of instructions attached to the game - short rules games and a more detailed almanac of the colonizer. He will save from situations when different players they understood what was written differently.
• The island map is made up of hexagonal cardboard pieces with different resources depicted on different sides. Thus, the playing field can be folded differently each time to make the game easier, more difficult or more unpredictable.

Who is the game for

• For a company of 3-4 people from 10 years old,
• For those who like not only to test their luck by throwing a die, but also to engage in diplomacy,
• But first of all - for those who like to think about a development strategy.

Set composition

• Game pieces of four colors (cities, towns and roads),
• 2 hex dice,
• 22 hexes of land and sea,
• 95 Raw Cards,
• 25 development cards,
• 4 construction cards,
• 2 special cards,
• 18 numbered tokens,
• Rogue token,
• The rules of the game and the Colonizer's Almanac.

Board game

Number of players
3 to 6

Party time
From 60 minutes

Difficulty of the game
Average

Colonizers is a strategy board game created by German game developer Klaus Teuber and released in 1995 in Germany. Winner of such prestigious gaming awards as: Spiel des Jahres (1995), Deutscher Spiele Preis (1995), Origins Awards (1996). Basic version is intended for 3-4 players, but it is possible to expand the number of possible participants to 6 with the help of the expanded edition “Colonizers: Expansion for 5-6 players”.

Process and purpose in the board game Colonizers

• The game gives you a chance to feel like a pioneer in the development of uncharted lands.
• For development, it is very important to extract 5 types of resources: Wool, Grain, Wood, Bricks and Ore.
• They are required for the construction of 3 types of infrastructure: Road, Settlement, City. Plus, they are important when purchasing Development cards.
• The goal of each player is to collect Victory Points. Points are awarded for the construction of residential settlements, for development victory cards, as well as for outstanding achievements such as the longest road and the largest army of knights.

Features in the board game Colonizers

The map consists of hexagonal sectors. The player is given the opportunity to independently create the landscape of the map. It enhances both diversity gameplay and the number of possible development strategies.

The game offers six scenarios for the game, which will add variety to the classic gameplay, setting unusual conditions for both the gameplay and the victory.

Has the following additions as to basic set game, and to its extended version:

• Colonizers: Sailors. Adds new cards "Land" and "Sea", ships (play the role of roads on the water, pirate fleet (play the role of Rogues on the water)). Offers 9 unique game scenarios.
• Colonizers: Cities and Knights. Seriously expands the possibilities in the game. Adds new types of goods (paper, cloth, coins) and Development cards, knight tokens, the ability to develop and strengthen the city.
• Colonizers: Merchants and Barbarians. The development of trade (caravans and carts), the expansion of your army of knights, the ability to build bridges, the threat of barbarian attacks. Offers 9 new game scenarios.
• Colonizers: Pioneers and Pirates. Development of the marine fleet (sailors and merchant frigates, villages with an expanded port). The opportunity to explore new lands by colonists. Fight pirates on their territory. 5 new scenarios for the game.

Has variations of the game:

• Colonizers. Fast card game- pocket version without a card, with a reduced set of game cards for easy play on the road;
• Colonizers Junior - a simplified version for easy play with children. There is a pirate!
• Colonizers: Europe is a version of the game where the territory of all of Europe acts as a platform for the game. The entourage of the game is shifted from research to business and trade.
• Colonizers. America - version classic game in the United States.

And also more whole line independent variations, adapted for certain groups of people (for religious believers - "Colonizers of Canaan", "Colonizers of Zarahelm" ("Book of Mormon")), "Catan in space", "Conquest of the Roman Empire" and others

Board game Colonizers: rules of the game

Preparing for the game Colonizers

• First, a map of the island is created by randomly positioning land cards (there are six types of land). The finished island is surrounded on all sides by “sea” cards, which are of two types: port and, in fact, sea. "Ports" should not touch each other.
• Then, all “Sushi” cards (except “Desert”) are assigned in any order a token with a quantitative number (from 2 to 12).
• A Rogue figurine is placed in the "Desert".
• The Desert card can also be replaced with the Jungle card. In this case, a token with a number is also assigned to the card.
• Each player is given two roads and two settlements of the same color.
• Decks with resource cards are laid out. The deck with Development cards is laid out face down.
• The first move is determined by rolling two dice and comparing the amount drawn.

Game progress

At the beginning, all players, starting with the first one, place one settlement and one adjoining road on the map of the island in turn. The last player alternates between two settlement-road pairs. Further, counterclockwise, the rest of the players also place one more settlement and one road. From every second settlement, the player receives a card for each resource, the area with which is adjacent to this settlement.

Collection of raw materials. Each player's first action is to roll two dice. The amount of points dropped indicates the area with the given number on the token. From these areas, all players whose settlements are built on the same territory receive one card each, and for the city - two cards of the corresponding resources (if the deck of this resource runs out of cards, then the player does not get resources). Resources are also not given to players if Rogues are active.

Rogue

If the player rolls the number 7, then Rogues come into play.

• In this case, none of the players receives resources.
• Those players who have more than seven total resources in their hands discard half of all their resources back to their decks. If the player has an odd number of resources on hand, the number is rounded down.
• The walking player moves the Rogue figure to any Land hex, except Desert.

One resource card is taken from an opponent who has a settlement or a city bordering the location of the Rogues, without looking.
Also, if the number of terrain on which the Rogues are located falls on the dice, then the players bordering this hex do not receive resources from this terrain.

Jungle

When a number with a number corresponding to a given location falls out, all players whose bordering cities and settlements make Discoveries (settlement = 1 discovery, city = 2). There are no separate tokens for Discovery, therefore, by agreement, any small items act as them.
The role of the Discovery is to replace the missing resource when trading. You can use up to 3 Discoveries at a time.
Development cards do not apply to openings. They also cannot be stolen by Rogues.

• "Road" = "Wood" + "Bricks";
• Settlement = Wood + Bricks + Wool + Grain;
• "City" = two "Grain" cards + three "Ore" cards;
• Development Card = Wool + Grain + Ore.

Also, the player must have a token corresponding to the planned building.
v Location on the map suitable for the conditions for the construction of a particular facility.
For each building, the terrain card must meet the following requirements:

• "Road". It should be built on the free edge of the "Land" card. It must adjoin a settlement, city or existing road.
• "Settlement". They are erected at the intersection of 3 hexagons "Land", if there is a connection with other settlements of the player through the road system. It is necessary to have an area free of other cities and settlements on the map. It is also necessary that there are no buildings on the adjacent edges of the "Sushi" cards.
• "Town". The player's existing Settlements can be developed into a City.

Trade. The next thing a player can do is trade. Trade is the exchange of resources or the purchase of Development cards.
Resources. The player has several ways to exchange. Each has its own exchange rates.

• Bank. Exchanges in a ratio of 4: 1
• General purpose port. Exchange rate 3: 1 (the location of the village or city is required at the intersection of three cards, one of which is the “Port” card).
• Dedicated port. The exchange rate is 2: 1 (the location of the settlement or city is required at the intersection of three cards, one of which is the “Port” card).
• Other players. Prices are determined by agreement by the players themselves.

A trade offer, in addition to the walking player, can be made by all other players, but only to the currently playing participant. The player himself during the turn can trade with everyone.

Development Cards. Purchased at a fixed price: Wool + Grain + Ore. There is no limitation in quantity. They are bought blindly (the deck with development cards is face down). You can only use one card per turn (with the exception of the “Victory Points” cards). After use, the cards are saved with the player until the end of the game.

Types of cards that can be dropped:

• "Knight". Allows you to rearrange the Rogue token by general rules for this token (the player also receives one resource card from each of those players whose residential buildings are adjacent to the rogue's new location).

After using the "Knight", the card with him is kept by the player. After collecting a set of three "Knights", the player receives a special card "The largest army", which awards 2 victory points. It remains with the player until the moment someone else gathers a large army.

• "Breakthrough. Monopoly". A player of his choice receives all the cards of the same type of resources that other players have in their hands.
• "Breakthrough. Road construction ". The right to build two roads for free is given.
• "Breakthrough. Invention". The player has a free hand and a choice of two resource cards.
• "Victory point". Each card adds 1 point to the player's score.

End of the game

After one of the players scores 10 points, the game ends.
Points are awarded for the following achievements.