Catan Tournament Rules - All Aboard EXPO 2024

by Duane Lemuel Galang September 4, 2024

by Duane Lemuel Galang Published on September 5, 2024Updated on September 6, 2024

CATAN TOURNAMENT RULES:

Reference: Catan World Championships Tournament Rules

All aBOARD EXPO is like the ultimate gathering of settlers—think Catan but in real life! It’s where gamers unite to play the games they love, build new friendships, and expand their social horizons. Just like trading sheep for wood, we’re all about creating connections and fostering friendly competition. Gaming Library’s mission? To host a tournament that’s as fun and rewarding as claiming the longest road or building the largest army. Sure, it’s a competition, but remember: just like in Catan, kindness, courtesy, and fair play are key to building a winning community!

Minimum Players: 8

Maximum Players: 40

Time Limit: 1.5 hours per round

SINGLE TOURNAMENT FORMAT:

Organizers may not end games before one player has reached 10 victory points and may not place time limits on the games themselves. If matches are running long, timed turns are encouraged.

In a preliminary round, all participants will play three games with the base Catan.

The organizer will generate a schedule that determines table and starting positions for each round. The player in first position selects color and chair first, followed by second, third, etc

After 3 games, the 4 players with the highest rankings reach the Final game. In the Final, seating is based on ranking from the Preliminary round. The players select their starting position, along with player color in order of their rank.

POINTS:

During a preliminary round, the number of victories will be used to rank players.

In case of ties, the total sum of victory points across all three games will be used as the first tiebreaker.

If ties still exist after that, the second tiebreaker will be the sum of the percentage of victory points the players reached at their three tables. If there are still any ties after that, lots will be drawn.

Example: Players A and B both win 2 games. Both get 28 victory points - so there is still a tie. Now the percentages of victory points will be calculated.

For Player A:

Game 1: A gets 10 VPs, there were 32 VPs at the table, their percentage is: 31.25%.

Game 2: A gets 8 VPs, there were 30 VPs at the table, their percentage is: 26.67%.

Game 3: A gets 10 VPs, there were 36 VPs at the table, their percentage is: 27.78%. A’s sum is: 85.70.

For Player B:

Game 1: B gets 10 VPs, there were 30 VPs at the table, so their percentage is: 33.33%.

Game 2: B gets 10 VPs, there were 33 VPs at the table, so their percentage is: 30.3%.

Game 3: B gets 8 VPs, there were 36 VPs at the table, their percentage is: 22.22%. B’s sum is 85.85.

Player B is ranked higher than Player A.

In the case of a three-player game, a fourth score will be created by averaging the other three scores (rounding any 0.4 remainder down, and any 0.5 remainder up). This average score is included into the calculation as if it were a fourth player for purposes of the percentage of points earned.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF PLAYERS

The tournament organizers set up the game boards. All Qualifier games will use the same game board layout for all players. Each game will have a new board layout.

All game materials must be kept on the table at all times, so that they are clearly visible to all players. This is especially true for development and resource cards, which must be held above the table throughout the game. All shuffling should happen above the table, including when one player is stealing from another.

The number of cards in a player’s hand is public information, and must be defined upon request.

In all games, with the exception of the Final, the starting player will act as resource banker, receiving used and distributing new resource cards to and from the supply The starting player has to announce clearly when they are handing cards to themselves or when they are paying resources to the bank.

By agreement, players may create two resource piles, and/ or collect cards on their own. If there is a disagreement as to players collecting the correct number of cards, these agreements are voided and the starting player must distribute all cards.

If the starting player is uncomfortable being the banker, the table can elect another player to be the single banker if all agree. At any time, players may ask for a Judge to handle all cards for the rest of the game. In the Final a Judge should automatically handle all cards.

Newly obtained development cards must be kept well away from the other cards the players might have in hand. If this rule is broken, the player forfeits the opportunity to play a development card until their next turn, such as Victory Point cards.

Players are responsible for verifying that they have the correct number of pieces at the beginning of the game (5 settlements, 4 cities, 15 roads). Also, all players should verify that there are 25 development cards and 19 of each resource card. In the case of an issue, the organizer should be immediately notified.

Players shall exhibit kindness, courtesy, and fair play to others during tournament games, during other tournament activities, during related event activities, and throughout the tournament and event program

ADDITIONAL AND SUPPLEMENTARY RULES

The following are areas of Catan rules that occasionally cause confusion.

These are clarifications to the standard rules. If there is any disagreement between the standard rules and these clarifications, then the clarification is considered to be the official rule.

A player’s turn begins with receiving the passed dice. Players are allowed to play any development card (for example, a Soldier / Knight card) before they roll the dice. No other actions may occur prior to the rolling of the dice.

Once the dice are rolled, the dice roll must be resolved before any other actions are taken.

Players are not allowed to build a road beyond a settlement or city of another player.

Players are allowed to upgrade a settlement to a city in the same turn it is built. To do that, the player cannot have five settlements on the board before building the settlement the player wants to upgrade.

If a player buys a development card with a victory point on it, they may immediately reveal it if it is their tenth victory point to win the game. This is only possible with development cards that have a victory point printed on it. Players are not allowed to immediately play a soldier / knight out of turn, even if this means that the player would get the largest army and win the game. The player must wait until their next turn before playing the soldier / knight.

There is no distinction between the trade and building phase.

A harbor may be used the same turn that a player builds on it.

If after rolling the dice, there are not enough resource cards of one kind to give every player, no one will receive a card of this kind. The other resource cards are handed out to the players as usual. If only one player gets resource cards and there are not enough cards of this kind in stock, they will receive all available cards of this kind.

It is not legal to intentionally show your resource cards to any other players outside of cards displayed for trade during a players trading phase. If shown, this information is public until the end of that trading phase.

A player has won if they have 10 or more victory points (although only 10 will be counted for the ranking) and it is the player’s turn. If a player does not notice that they have 10 points, the player must wait until the next turn before winning the game (assuming no earlier player wins, and the player still has 10 points).

The robber is in effect as soon as the game begins, from the first throw of the dice. There is no “grace period” before the robber is moved. The robber MAY be moved back to the desert during the game.

If a player forgets to move the robber, it will be:

a) placed on a field of the player’s choice if the player is still the active player. The active player can then, according to the rules of the basic game, draw a resource card from the hand of another player, provided that the active player hasn’t taken further actions like attempting to trade with other players.
b) placed on the desert field, if the turn is completed. No cards may be taken.

Players take a series of actions on their turn. They may build and trade in any order. An action is considered complete as soon as the player begins the next action. For example, if a player is building a road and they place the road on the board they may still reposition the road while they are in their road building action. The instant a player instigates a trade, or begins another action like building a settlement or buying a development card, their road building action is over and the road may not be moved. Likewise, a robber movement action is complete when you attempt to take a card from another player.

Cards played into the supply are spent cards. Cards spent may be used for something different than what they were originally intended for, but may not be taken back. For example, a player may trade four sheep in for a wheat, a player can decide to take brick instead as long as it is in that trading action.

If either of the dice are ever completely obscured by rolling off the table or landing in a cup/pocket/etc, reroll both dice. If a die is cocked, balance the other die on top, if it slides off, reroll both dice.

PRIZE: