Catan Tournament

tournament rules

• The tournament will take place over two days with an initial round and a final. All participants will play at least two games of The Settlers of Catan (two on day one) those progressing to the final will play an extra 1-2 games depending on the number of participants.
• Players generally may not abandon a game once it has started, except for emergencies.
• On day one, people will be randomly assigned to three or four-person games. Efforts will be made to keep participants from playing the same people in both rounds. On day two groups will be chosen based on rankings from day one.
• Each round every group will be using the same board setup, chosen ahead of time to minimize the chances of first-player advantage or fourth-player disadvantage.
• Players will score points based on their position in the game:
  • In a four-player game, first place will receive 5 points, second place will receive 4 points, third place will receive 2 points, and fourth place will receiver 1 point.
  • In a three-player game, first place will receive 5 points, second place will receive 3 points, and third place will receive 1 point.
  • In the event of a tie after first place, all players in the tie receive the points for the higher position.
• Each player will also receive a number of lead points equal to the difference of their score from the second place player’s score. Thus the first place player will generally get positive points, the second place player gets 0 points, other places would generally get negative points.
• For purposes of tournament rank, participants are ranked first by their total tournament points, then by their lead points.

Game Play

• First player will be determined by die roll.
• Game play will proceed according to official The Settlers of Catan rules with the following exception: If a 7 is rolled in the first two rounds of play, it will be rerolled once. The purpose of this rule is to help prevent a player from getting randomly hosed too early in the game.
• Specific rules we would like to note:
  1. Robber/7’s
     1. When a 7 is rolled, all players discard if they are over 7 cards. Then the Robber is moved.
     2. The Robber must be moved when a 7 is rolled and can be placed back on the desert.
     3. The person moving the robber must steal a card from a player adjacent to the robber if possible. (They can move the robber so they can’t steal, but they can’t choose not to steal if there is someone adjacent to the placement.)
     4. Once the player has placed the robber, they can not change their mind (because they see a better placement, or want to steal from someone else).
  2. Trading
     1. Trading and building are separate phases – but you can trade alternately with the bank and with other players. No trading can be done after the player starts building.
     2. All trades must be single actions (i.e. you can’t call a trade of 3 bricks for a grain, get the 3 bricks, and then use a 2:1 brick port to make the grain to give it back). That would have to be done as two trades. One to get the bricks, the second to trade the grain back.
     3. All trades between two players must involve at least one card from each player.
     4. Trades must be done publicly (showing which cards were traded).
  3. Development Cards
     1. A player may buy as many cards as they want in a turn.
     2. The only cards that may be played the turn they are purchased are VP cards. It is suggested that cards just purchased be kept in a separate pile until the player’s turn is over.
     3. Other than VP cards, only one card may be played on a player’s turn.
     4. Cards can be played before or after the dice are rolled.
     5. No card may be played out of turn (except VP cards after someone else has declared victory).
  4. Winning
     1. You can only win on your own turn.