Catan, released in 1995 as The Settlers of Catan and formally shortened in 2010 internationally (between the 2nd and 3rd international editions) and 2015 with the English 5th edition. To many gamers, this is the game that started the modern board gaming craze. The fully modular board promised near-infinite replayability, with its design leading to very close games, meaning that any player can remain in contention to win until the very end.

Although the game did not use a consistent color scheme initially, since the English 3rd edition, the base game has used red as its color code.

Scenarios

Although scenarios as a concept were not introduced until the release of Seafarers, there are scenarios that were intended to play with just the base game, or two copies of the base game.

• “The First Island” - This is the retronym used to denote the base game in the Guide, named due to its use in the video game Catan: The First Island.
• The Seven-Point No Development Card Game
• “Islands of Catan”
• “Seas for the Poor” by Gerald Siek
• “Big Island”
• “Peanut Island”
• “Catan-Plus” by Finn and Gero Goroncy
• Stobie’s Variable Board Layout by Thomas A. Stobie, with contributions by Vin Bartone

Parts List

The base game includes the following parts:

• Hexes
  • 3 Hills
  • 4 Fields
  • 4 Forest
  • 3 Mountains
  • 4 Pasture
  • 1 Desert
  • 9 Ocean (English 1st-3rd editions, 1st international edition)
  • 4 3:1 Harbor (English 1st-3rd editions, 1st international edition)
  • 1 Brick Harbor (English 1st-3rd editions, 1st international edition)
  • 1 Grain Harbor (English 1st-3rd editions, 1st international edition)
  • 1 Lumber Harbor (English 1st-3rd editions, 1st international edition)
  • 1 Ore Harbor (English 1st-3rd editions, 1st international edition)
  • 1 Wool Harbor (English 1st-3rd editions, 1st international edition)
• Frame pieces
  • 6 frame pieces (1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6, 6-1)
• Harbor markers
  • 4 3:1 Harbors (English 4th-5th editions)
  • 1 Brick Harbor (English 4th-5th editions)
  • 1 Grain Harbor (English 4th-5th editions)
  • 1 Lumber Harbor (English 4th-5th editions)
  • 1 Ore Harbor (English 4th-5th editions)
  • 1 Wool Harbor (English 4th-5th editions)
• Player Pieces
  • 15 Roads per player
  • 5 Settlements per player
  • 4 Cities per player
• Miscellaneous Player Assets
  • 1 Building Cost Card per player
• Number Tokens
  • 1 - 2 (B)
  • 2 - 3 (D, Q)
  • 2 - 4 (J, N)
  • 2 - 5 (A, O)
  • 2 - 6 (C, P)
  • 2 - 8 (E, K)
  • 2 - 9 (G, M)
  • 2 - 10 (F, L)
  • 2 - 11 (I, R)
  • 2 - 12 (H)
• Dice
  • 1 yellow die (English 4th-6th editions, 2nd-4th international editions)
  • 1 red die (English 4th-6th editions, 2nd-4th international editions)
  • 2 dice of unspecified color (English 1st-3rd editions, 1st international edition)
• 2 card trays for resource and development cards (English 6th edition, all international editions)
• 1 Robber
• 1 Largest Army scoring bonus
• 1 Longest Route scoring bonus
• Resource Cards
  • 19 Brick
  • 19 Grain
  • 19 Lumber
  • 19 Ore
  • 19 Wool
• 1 Development Card deck (25 cards)

The base game extension includes the following:

• Hexes
  • 2 Hills
  • 2 Fields
  • 2 Forest
  • 2 Mountains
  • 2 Pasture
  • 1 Desert
  • 2 Ocean (English 3rd edition, 1st international edition)
  • 1 3:1 Harbor (English 3rd edition, 1st international edition)
  • 1 Wool Harbor (English 3rd edition, 1st international edition)
• Frame pieces
  • 2 1-hex frame extension pieces (English 4th-6th editions, 2nd-4th international editions)
  • 1 1-hex frame extension piece with pre-printed 3:1 harbor (English 4th-6th editions, 2nd-4th international editions)
  • 1 1-hex frame extension piece with pre-printed Wool harbor (English 4th-6th editions, 2nd-4th international editions)
• Player Pieces
  • 15 Roads per player
  • 5 Settlements per player
  • 4 Cities per player
• Miscellaneous Player Assets
  • 1 Building Cost Card per player
• Number Tokens
  • 2 - 2 (A, Zb)
  • 3 - 3 (E, L, Za)
  • 3 - 4 (C, N, U)
  • 3 - 5 (B, T, W)
  • 3 - 6 (D, K, Zc)
  • 3 - 8 (G, M, U)
  • 3 - 9 (F, V, X)
  • 3 - 10 (J, P, S)
  • 3 - 11 (I, Q, H)
  • 3 - 12 (R, Y)
• Resource Cards
  • 5 Brick
  • 5 Grain
  • 5 Lumber
  • 5 Ore
  • 5 Wool
• 1 Development Card deck (9 cards)
• 1 set of 2 Paired Player Markers (English 6th edition, 4th International edition only), with figure stands

Notes

• The English 1st and 2nd editions do not use the now-standard player colors of red, blue, orange, and white. The base game extension was only released after the release of the English 3rd edition.
• Notably, the English 2nd edition used different player colors than that of the 1st edition, to encourage select scenarios supporting 8-player play that can be used with a 1st edition base game and a 2nd edition base game.
• As with the other extensions, the color of the 6th player is brown prior to the English 6th edition and 4th international edition, and purple afterwards.
• In some international editions, the building cost cards included in the base game extension are of a different size and shape than those of the base game proper.
• Number tokens in international sets use the lowercase letter i instead of the uppercase letter I to avoid confusion with the number 1.
• Some select English 5th edition and 3rd international edition sets will use the Paired Player Turn rule, and thus include the Paired Player markers