A Review for the German Impaired
Introduction
I do not speak German. The material I present here was learned through translation software, a German dictonary, intuition, a knowledge of the rules of the board game, and trial and error. This article is both to give my impressions of the game and provide a guide that would better allow English players to play this game. I have no doubt that in some places I have misunderstood something, but on the whole I feel that this information would be useful.The first obvioius question is, "What is Catan die erste Insel?" Catan die erste Insel (hereafter referred to as Catan) is a CD-ROM Window program produced by Ravensburger, a German game company. This game allows you to play Klaus Teuber's Die Siedler von Catan and Die Seefahrer, which are known as The Settlers of Catan and The Seafarers of Catan to English speakers.
Game Overview
This games follows the usual conventions of CD-ROM games. So, if you either love of hate CD-ROM implementations of board games in general, you would most likely have a similar opinion about Catan. Personally, I tend to get annoyed with these games, and this game shares some of those annoying characteristics, but overall I enjoy the game.Catan is not the only implementation of Die Siedler avaialble. There is also an MS-DOS game that is distributed as freeware. So, I will sometimes compare Catan against the PC game to help you decide which one you'd prefer. I prefer the truer simulation style of Catan, but can see why some people may prefer the faster play and ability to make your own scenarios that is present in the DOS game.
As with many CD-ROM games, various fixes and enhancements have been added since the release of the game. The version on the CD-ROM is 1.001. The latest patch at the Ravensburder web site will update the game to 1.59. I highly recommend anyone who has this program to download the lastest patch. To get the patch, go to the Ravensburger web site. Click on "Catan Website" to enter the site. Now press the plus sign next to "Support." This will open three items, the bottom of which is "Patch." Click on "Patch" to reach the patch screen.
I suspect that there are many who have no plans to hand over 109DM (that's about $52, including shipping to the U.S. and taxes) without having some idea how it plays. You can download a demo that demonstrates the interface and allows you to play the basic game tutorials and the basic game (the latter with a five VP limit). The demo is 56 Megabytes, so I only recommend it if you either have a lot of time or a high-speed link.
Implementation
Sets Implemented
Both Catan and the DOS game implement only the basic set and Seafarers (plus their six player expansions). Neither implements Cities & Knights or the Historical Scenarios. Catan does implement several special scenarios that have been posted at the offical web sites.The Rules
On the while, Catan is faithful to the rules of the board game. There are a few deviations from the rules that I have noticed.- Players are allowed to alternate between trading and building. I presume that this is to either accomodate those players who come from clubs who use that as a house rule, or to make keeping track of your resources during your turn a bit easier. In the board game, if you have a huge number of resource cards (for example, you just played a Monopoly on grain and now have 18 grain cards to deal with), you can lay them in front of you in a manner that allows you to figure out what you want to do with everything. It's rather difficult to do this on the computer, but the job is managable if you go back and forth between trading and building. The computer players seem to do all their trades before building, so I prefer to only take advantage of the difference under sitautions like the above.
- A player is allowed to win during the special building phase. According to the documentation, this variation is with the permission of Klaus Teuber. This variation is only pertinent for five and six player games.
- You are allowed to build more than fifteen roads (and I presume, ships). The game does enforce the five settlement limit and four city limit (though some scenarios have a higher city limit).
- The DOS game also allows you to go back and forth between trading and building.
- The DOS game does not implement the special building phase in large games at all. Instead, they increase the maximum hand size when there are more than four players.
- The DOS games also allows you to build more than fifteen roads and ships. It also imposes no limit on the number of cities. It does enforce the five settlement rule.
- The DOS game does not allow you to play a card until after you roll the dice. As such, you are not able to play a Ritter (Soldier) card to move the robber from your most productive site before you roll the dice.
- In the DOS game, a harbor affects any settlements built adjacent to it, rather than only settlements built at one of two specific points.
Scenarios
Catan implements all of the Seafarers scenarios, except for A New World (a scenario where you just mix several land and ocean tiles and randomly generate a map). The game also implements several scenarios I have seen at either the German web site or the Mayfair web site.The DOS game does not implement any special rules for unusual scenarios. It does allow a player to gain a single bonus victory points for founding a settlement on an unknown island, but does not allow variable bonuses such as used in the The Four Islands. The DOS game also has a limited map size that does not allow most of the Seafarers scenarios to fit. As such, the only Seafarers scenario that can be faithfully represented in the DOS game is the three player version of Into the Desert (which, ironically, has yet to be implemented by anyone).
What the DOS game does include is a scenario editor, where you can develop your own scenarios, as long as they don't require any special rules or a large amount of map space. This is the only point where I feel the DOS game is better than Catan.
Start Menu
When you start the game, you are presented with a movie describing the land of Catan. Well, that's what it seems to be about based on the pictures, since I can't understand anything the narrator is saying. Press the left mouse button to end the movie.You are then presented with an opening screen giving the name of the game and the company. Just click on the left mouse button (after the hourglass turns into a hand) to enter the start menu.
The start menu includes five choices:
| German Name | Translation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Catan spielen | Play Catan | Play the game (go to the Main Menu) |
| Einstellungen | Adjustment | Adjust the game settings |
| Catan online | Catan online | Go to the wab site (in German, of course) |
| Credits | Credits | Scroll through the credits |
| Spiel beenden | Exit Game | Exit the game |
If you choose to adjust the game settings, you will be presented with another menu where you may select what to adjust.
| German Name | Translation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Spieler wählen | Select Player | Select a player persona |
| Grafikeinstellungen | Graphics Adjustment | Adjust the game settings |
| Sound unk Musik | Sound and Music | Select Sound and Music options |
| Zurück | Back | Return to the top menu |
The graphics adjustment area allows you to turn off the opening movie and the videos. So if you get tired of them, this is where you want to go.
Main Menu
The first time you choose the play option in a single session, you will be presented with the Select Player screen. If you ever return to the top menu and choose to play again, the game will assume you wanted to keep the same player you selected before. After you have selected a player, you will be presented with the main menu.The main menu provides you with the opportunity to select what type of game you wish to play. The choices are listed in the table below.
| German Name | Translation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Einführung | Tutorials | Four scenarios to teach you the game |
| Kampagne | Campaign | A twelve scenario campaign |
| Einzelnes Szenario | Individual Scenarios | Pre-defined scenarios played outside the campaign |
| Variables Spiel | Variable Play | Games with variable setups |
| Netzwerkspiel | Network Games | Games playes over a computer network |
| Partyspiel | Group Games | Games played by more than one person using the same computer |
| Helden von Catan | Heroes of Catan | High Score Screen for won games |
This review will concentrade of the first four choices. I have yet to figure out just what to do for a network game and I think the computer interface is awkward for a multi-player game (besides, if you have others about who want to play, the board game is a much better option).
The final entry (Helden von Catan) is your high score screen. Your score for a game is placed here whenever you win a game (assuming your score is in the top ten). I do not know what formula they use to determine the scores.
The Game Interface
You generally interact with the program thought the icons at the bottom of the screen. When you want to interact with the map, you simply click the appropriate intersection or hex. When you want to accept or refuse a trade, you press one of the buttons that appears below the player.The game icons are presented on a series of panels based on function. I will describe each of these panels starting from the left and moving to the right. Each of the other players have an abbreviated version of the panel.
Development Card Panel
The first panel is the Development Card Panel. This shows all of the development cards that you currently have in your hand. You may cycle through the cards by using the arrows that appear below the cards. If a card is brightly lit, then it may be played; otherwise it may not be played. You may only play one card each turn and may not play a card on the turn it was drawn. To play a card, just bring up the card you want and double click on it.The number of cards held by other players is indicated on the lower right of the oppoennt's display. If you see a bag in that location (which is the case at the start of the game), click on the bag to show the number of cards.
Victory Point Panel
The second panel is the Victory Point Panel. The number of lit stars indicates your current victory point total. The total number of stars indicates the number of victory points required to win the game. Your victory point total includes any victory points earned from development cards. Your opponents' vicotry point totals are prominently listed on their displays. Those totals do not include any points from development cards.If you click on the large starts below your victory point total, you will see a detailed list of the game status. This lists each player and the number of settlements they have, the number of cities they have, the number of knight cards each has played (with a shield next to the player with the largest army card), the longest road each player has (with a shield next to the player with the longest road card), and the number of victory points (only your total includes will includes Development Card victory points). Some scenarios include an additional column based on the scenario rules.
Action Panel
The third panel is the Action Panel. This includes four icons you use during the course of your turn. Each icon is bright when you can legally take the action. When it is your turn, a shield appears just aboce the border between the Victory Point Panel and the Action Panel.The die is used to roll the dice at the start of your turn. At the start of your turn, you can only play a card or roll the dice. Once you prss the die icon, the game will roll the dice and implement the results. If you rolled a 7, the game will ask you to click on a hex to indicate where you wish to place the robber (if you indicate a land hex) or the pirate ship (if you indicate an ocean hex during a scenario that includes ships).
The hand is used to initiate a trade. You may trade with any player during your turn. You may also trade with the active play during another player's turn. When you press the hand, you open the Trade Panel, where you place the resources you are offering to give and the resources you wish to receive in return. To the right if the Trade Panel is the bank trade panel, where you can trade with the back according to the harbors that you control.
The hammer is used to build something. When you press the hammer, the game will list icons for all items that are available in the game. The items that you can legally build are lit. Normally, I only use the hammer to buy cards or special scenario items, as I find it easier to click on the target intersection, which also brings up a list of what I can build there. Note that the lighting is based on special rules and resource availability and not on whether or not you can actually place the item anywhere.
The arrow is used to end your turn.
Resource Panel
The Resource Panel keeps track of your current resources. Each icon in the resource panel indicates one resource of that type. When the trade panel is open, you may drag resources between the two panels to select what items you wish to trade. Remember that if you ever have more than seven resources in the Resource Panel when a seven is rolled, you lose hald of your resources. the program will ask you to select a nubmer of resources for discard.The bag icon at the lower right of each opponent's panel indicates the number of resources that opponent current has. If you see a card icon instead of a bag there, you can click on the card to retore the bag icon.
Message Panel
Below the Resource Panel is the Message Panel.View Panel
The View panel allows you to affect the game view. There are a total of six icons here (yes, I know it looks as if you have to differnt panels there, but they are closely realted enough for me to treat them as one panel).The window icon allows you to alter the display of the characters. This is best seen by clicking on the window a few times and seeing its effect.
The globe icon displays a small version of the game map to the left of the Development Card panel. When you click on a part of the small map, the main map is moved so that the point you clicked is at the center of the display. This can be useful in larger scenarios.
The magnifier with a cross allows you to zoom in on the area in the center if the display. This way, you can view what is happening with the settlers about the map. You may also use this icon to undo the zoom out option. I rarely use this icon.
The other magnifier allows you to zoom out to get a wider view of the map. You may also used this icon to undo the zoom in option. When I start a scenario, I generally hit the zoom out button immediately and play the game from there. The only disadvantage I have seen with playing from the zoom out position is that the robber graphic tends to hide the number of any hex that is behind it. I have found that most maps are able to fit on the screen when I use this option (six player Greater Catan scenarios are the main exception to this).
The plot icon allows you to display game statistics. This will display a window where you may select the graph you want to see through a series if icons. These allow you to view the number of times each number was rolled, how many resources each player has gained, the number of victory points each player has had as the game progressed, and the number of times each player has moved the robber (either through rolling a seven or playing a Knight card).
The exit icon allows you to either pause or exit the game (the pause option was not in the original version, but is included in the patch).
Player Picture
Above the plot icon is a picture of the player. Each player is dressed in colors that correspond to that player's pieces on the board. The only real information here are the shields to the left and right of the player. If the left shield is lit, then that player has the Longest Road card; if the right shield is lit, then that player has the Largest Army card.Remap Button
In Individual and Campaign scenarios, the far right panel is empty. If you are playing a Variable Play scenario, then a button with a question mark appears there. If you press that button, the game will ask if you really want to regenreate the map. If you say cloose "Ja," the current game would be terminated and a new map will be generated. Be careful how many times you do this in one session, as I have found that if I do it too often, I tend to crash my computer.
Page created by: catan@raleyd.com
This page was last modified on 19 June 2000