Introduction

The “Era of Gold” Theme Game is played with the Theme Set of that name plus the basic cards I introduced in my previous blog post. In the fictitious history of Catan, the environment of this set belongs to the Middle Ages and thus chronologically follows the “Era of Turmoil” set. The set intensifies the struggle for the Trade Advantage, and the resource “gold” gains importance, among others due to another Toll Bridge, the Mint, and the Gold Cache. Also, players who build their trading empire with trade fleets must be wary of Pirate Ships. This time, I’ll accompany the introduction of the new cards of the set with a little story.

The Story of Someone Who Went Forth to Find the Gold Cache

It was a sticky hot summer evening. My wife and I sat relaxed on our patio and played the “Princes of Catan” card game. Each of us had already assembled a sizable principality with our cards. We were, so to speak, the Prince and the Princess of our respective empires.
On my last turn, I had played the Pirate Ship and thus sent my wife’s trade fleet to the bottom of the sea. As a result, the Trade Advantage and the associated victory point were mine.
As befits a princess, my wife kept her composure and triumphantly played the hero Candamir on her turn. Candamir was a little stronger than the hero Osmund in my principality, and so she obtained the Strength Advantage.

Gudrun, Terror of the Seas — For each of your Pirate Ships, your opponent must give you up to 2 gold.

I had expected more from Osmund anyway. Where was the event “Gift for the Prince” that was supposed to get me much-needed gold from Osmund?
The phone rang. My wife quickly placed the Gold Cache adjacent to one of her regions and went to the living room. “Could you please bring a beer for the Prince when you come back?” I shouted after her.

I yawned and looked at my hand of cards. “Gudrun, Terror of the Seas” and “Reiner the Herald” made a good couple. Particularly the Gudrun card fascinated me.

Reiner the Herald — Play this card before your die roll and determine the event Celebration. You receive 1 additional resource for the Celebration.

Not so much because of the bold-looking, attractive pirate woman imperiously sitting at the prow of her ship but because of the waves her ship cleaved so effortlessly. How nice it would be to escape the mugginess of the evening, dive into the gentle waves and take a refreshing swim, I thought, gradually losing myself in the depth of the card. I became drowsy and submerged myself, deeper and deeper …

I surfaced spurting water. I was floating in a refreshing, slightly choppy sea, right next to Gudrun’s ship. She had become real and gave me a frosty stare.
„Hoist him up, boys! Another castaway who wants a seat on our rowing benches.”
Actually, I would rather have enjoyed the refreshing swim a little longer, but the men whose strong arms pulled me aboard had no consideration for it.
Gudrun planted herself in front of me. “What are you doing here, baldy?”
Slightly unsettled because of her irreverent form of addressing me, I stammered, “I was about to, um, play you …”
Her stare became a bit frostier still. “Didn’t you know that all those who ever wanted to play with me ended up as food for sharks? Throw him back overboard, boys!”
I didn’t want what was obviously a dream to turn into a bloody nightmare, so I hastily shouted, “Stop! I am your Prince!”
Gudrun looked at me in disbelief and then roared with laughter.   “You claim to be my Prince? Nobody has seen him yet, but you definitely don’t look like a prince. Now go ahead and throw him overboard, boys!”
“Nooooo! I know where the Princess’s Gold Cache is.” A better argument didn’t occur to me at that moment.
But it worked. Gudrun’s eyes filled with greed, and she eyeballed me with revived interest. “Well then.

Pirate Ship — Your opponent must remove 1 trade ship of his choice from his principality and place it on the discard pile. Event Plentiful Harvest: You receive 1 gold.

After all, I’m not going to benefit if the sharks eat you. I give you two days. But don’t think you can trick me. My faithful companion Reiner will accompany you. Show him where the Gold Cache is, and you are free to go. Or else …”
Reiner, a well-shaped young man with curly black hair, appeared next to Gudrun. He gave her a delighted look and then, clearly less delighted, looked into my direction and demonstratively played with his knife.

A Pirate Ship – which couldn’t neglect the opportunity to capture a trade ship along the way – brought Reiner and me to the Princess’s Harbor.

Harbor — As long as at least 3 trade ships are placed in your principality, the Harbor is worth 1 victory point.

It looked lonely and deserted. Hardly surprising – after all, my Pirate Ships had meanwhile sunk the Princess’s entire trade fleet. Since then, she always got the short end of the stick when the trade ships started a race.
Grumpily, Reiner brushed back one of his thick black curls. “So, where do we go?” It seemed that being temporarily separated from his adored pirate lady didn’t quite improve his mood.
On our way, I already had frantically tried to remember where the Princess, that is, my wife, had placed the Gold Cache card before getting up to answer the phone. Adjacent to her mountains? Or next to her pastures? I simply couldn’t recall. So I bravely confessed, “I can’t remember exactly, but we can ask, or?”
Reiner stared at me, disgruntled. “I knew from the start that you were taking Gudrun for a ride to save your neck.” He pulled out his knife.

Gift for the Prince — Each player receives 1 gold for each unit with at least 1 strength point.

In this very moment, something whizzed through the air and, with a thump, landed directly in front of my feet. Reiner stood with his mouth open and first gazed at the sky and then at the egg-sized lump of gold that had missed me by a hair. I picked it up and read the card attached to the lump. “Gift for the Prince,” it said, and “With best regards from your faithful Osmund.”
Ha! Finally the eagerly awaited event had occurred. Without a word, I handed Reiner the card. Thunderstruck, he fell to his knees and stammered, his head bent, “My Prince, I ask your forgiveness.”
“Rise!” I ordered him with newly found princely authority.
He got up and looked at me in despair. “Please have mercy with me, my Prince. If I don’t tell Gudrun where the Gold Cache is, she will never again allow me near her. Can’t we just pretend that nothing happened and look for the hiding place anyway?”
I actually liked the idea of continuing to roam Catan for a while and have a closer look at the buildings and settlers I only knew from the cards.

Trade Master — You immediately receive 2 resources of your choice from your opponent. Requires: Merchant Guild.

I gave him a comradely pat on his shoulder. “Sure, that’s what we’ll do. Let’s just ask our way.”
Filled with gratitude, Reiner once again fell to his knees and beamed at me. “Then why don’t we start right away and ask that rich merchant over there at the corner!”
The rich merchant turned out to be a Trade Master offering a choice of fine merchandise.
“Greetings, Master,” I began. “Do you know how to get to the Princess’s Gold Cache?”
“Do I look like I would give away my Princess’s best kept secret?”
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Reiner barged in. “You look like it only depended on the right price.”

Staple House — If you build the Staple House, you immediately receive 2 resources of your choice. Requires: Merchant Guild

„Correct, my young friend. If I were too honorable, I hardly had succeeded in becoming a Trade Master. So, if you bring me 5 sacks of salt, I’ll give you a hint.”
“But from where could we get 5 sacks of salt?” I interjected.
“From where? From the Salt Silo, of course.”

On our way to the Salt Silo we passed by the Staple House. Servants were diligently unloading sacks from a merchant cart and carrying them into the building.

Merchant — Take up to 2 resources of your choice from your opponent and give him 1 resource of your choice in return. Requires: 3 commerce points or city.

Somber-faced, the Merchant was standing next to his cart and harshly said, “Well, do you also want to get rich exploiting a poor merchant’s predicament?”
Like all Merchants visiting the city, he was forced to offer his goods to the citizens at reduced prices in the Staple House. Only after a day had passed, he was allowed to continue his journey, usually with a strongly diminished supply of goods.
“Could you perhaps spare a few sacks of salt?” Reiner optimistically asked.
„Bah! The servant of the Salt Silo just snagged the 10 sacks I had – for 2 gold coins a sack. Just imagine! I normally get 4 gold coins for it.”

Salt Silo — Each of your trade ships is worth 1 more commerce point.

The servant of the silo had put up his stall directly in front of the Salt Silo. “Would you like to buy salt, gentlemen? Suuuper low prices today! Only 10 gold coins a sack.”
“That’s extortion!” ranted Reiner. “You wrangled each sack for just 2 gold coins from the Merchant.”
“By order of the Princess!“ said the servant in his defense. “Her two trade ships are making additional profit with the salt. So we hardly can give the salt away here, can we?”
“But the two ships were captured,” I interjected.

Trading Base — The Marketplace and the Harbor receive a second commerce point.

“So much the worse, then the sack costs 30 gold coins as of now.”
Reiner’s face blushed with anger, and he fingered the handle of his knife.
“Never mind,” I whispered to my furious companion. “I have an idea. Let’s pay a visit to the Trading Base.”
The basement of the Trading Base was built of solid stone. We knocked at a heavy door that looked as if they originally had forgotten to build one and later temporarily inserted one into the crudely hammered breach in the wall. The man who opened looked like a twin brother of our Trade Master and probably was. He eyed us with distrust.
As a precaution, I put my foot in the door. “Master, we’d like to offer you a deal. As you know, salt is a scarce good, and this white gold currently costs 30 gold coins a sack.” I lowered my voice and pretended to be glancing around to see whether there were unwelcome witnesses to our conversation. “People say that the price will soon reach 50 gold coins because of the captured trade ships. What would you say if I offered you 5 sacks for 29 gold coins each?”
The Trade Master’s twin brother had taken the bait, and during the haggling that followed he did great credit to his brother. We finally agreed on 125 gold coins, 25 coins a sack. We sealed our deal with a commercial contract.
After we had left the Trading Base, Reiner took me aside. “But my Prince, we don’t have any salt for sale.”
“Ever heard something about short selling? No, impossible. Just wait and see, Reiner. We practically have the salt in our pockets.”

Moneylender — If you have the trade advantage and the event Trade is rolled on the event die, you may take 2 resources of your choice from your opponent.

Our next stop was the Moneylender. He lived in a small, inconspicuous house huddled against the city wall as if seeking protection. We joined the line of waiting citizens. When it finally was our turn, we were received by two heavily armed guards that escorted us to the Moneylender’s parlor. Actually, it rather looked like a shabby chamber, which made me ask him why a Moneylender who apparently had abundant means at his disposal would live in such humble dwellings.
The Moneylender smiled knowingly. “More substance than style. It protects me from thieving riffraff. What can I do for you, gentlemen?”
“I’d like to propose a deal, Moneylender. You give us 100 gold coins, and at nightfall you’ll get 125 gold coins back.”
“What kind of collateral can you provide?”
Reiner was fingering his knife again. This time, however, he seemed to ponder whether his most prized possession might be acceptable collateral.
“If we had collateral, we wouldn’t be standing here. But I have a surefire business model.” I leaned across and whispered my plan into his ear.
The Moneylender grinned. “Who would ever think of something like that? It’s a deal! Here, take your 100 gold coins.”
“And now?” Reiner asked me, uncomprehending.
“Aren’t you a herald?”
“Yes.”

Mint — Once per each of your turns, you may use the Mint to trade 1 gold for 1 other resource of your choice.

“Good, then go and do your duty now. Run through the streets and announce that the Princess has launched two new trade ships. Because of this great event, she’s organizing a feast for all citizens. Meanwhile, I’ll visit the Mint and trade my lump of gold for coins. Afterwards, we meet again in front of the Salt Silo.”
“But it’s a lie. What if the Princess gets wind of it?”
“No, she won’t. She’s talking on the pho … well, it doesn’t matter. Believe me, by the time someone realizes that we’ve spread a rumor our deal is in the bag.”

When we met again at the Salt Silo, I had traded my lump of gold for 11 gold coins and Reiner had shouted himself hoarse, obviously with success: from all quarters, people were flocking towards the festival grounds. Also the servant of the Salt Silo was about to close his stall.
“Hey, wait a moment! We’d like to buy your salt. 10 sacks for exactly 100 gold coins. Since the Princess has launched two new ships, the price per sack should be at 10 gold coins again.”
The servant opened his mouth, probably to voice an objection.
“And on top of it,” I continued, “you receive a commission of 10 gold coins.”
“So you can really go for it at the feast,” said Reiner and gave him a wink and a nod.
That seemed to finally convince the servant. He closed his mouth, took the gold coins and handed us 10 sacks of salt.
We delivered five sacks of salt at the Trading Base and collected the 125 gold coins as agreed. We brought the 125 gold coins to the Moneylender, who rejoiced over the profitable deal. There were still 5 sacks of salt and 1 gold coin left for us. We went to the Trade Master.

Merchant Guild (1x) — Money can't buy you happiness. But taking it away from others can.

“Here are your 5 sacks of salt, Master. Now we’ve complied with our part of the agreement.”
The Trade Master received his salt and whispered his hint into my ear. Afterwards he also gave me a letter of recommendation. I thanked him and shook his hand. Then we headed for the Merchant Guild.
Reiner walked along beside me in a pensive mood. “Wasn’t that fraud, my Prince?”
“Why? The small Merchant at least didn’t incur a loss. All the others made good money: the servant of the Salt Silo obtained a profit of 8 gold per sack and a decent bribe on top of it. The Moneylender collected 25 % interest, and the Trade Master and his twin brother now have the salt monopoly and will surely sell their sacks at a high profit.”
“So we didn’t harm anybody?”
“Well, come to think of it, we did. The baker will resent the price of the salt and be forced to sell his bread at a higher price. And the prices for pickled herrings and salt meat will surely surge too.”
“So once again the losers are ordinary people,” Reiner concluded.
“That’s probably right,” I answered thoughtfully and was relieved that I seemed to be only dreaming and thus wouldn’t have to deal with a guilty conscience after waking up.

Brigands — You may take as many resources of the same type from your opponent as 1 of your regions can accommomodate. Requires: Strength advantage.

A Merchant Caravan stood in front of the Merchant Guild. We gave the Trade Master’s recommendation letter to the leader of the caravan and were allowed to board one of the wagons and go with them. The Merchant Caravan would travel directly to the Gold Cache, to get the gold the Princess intended to pay for the lumber and wool required for a new trade ship.
On our way, I noticed the Princess’s lush grain fields. Sadly, mine were withered at the moment.  It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to have my Brigands carry out a raid soon.

Gold Cache — The Gold Cache may also be used to store the gold you received. When the event Brigand Attack is rolled, the gold in the cache is neither counted nor stolen. Requires: Hero with at least 1 strength point.

The Merchant Caravan had arrived at the Princess’s Gold Cache. Since I would soon part with Reiner, I gave him my last gold coin. “Use it to buy something nice for your Gudrun.”
“Thank you, my Prince. You are very generous.” Reiner sighed. “Sometimes I think that we are all cards in a huge game. We are shuffled, end up in random stacks and have no bearing on what is being done with us. I only wish I would land with Gudrun in the same stack more often.” He smirked. “Preferably very closely together.”
“I can arrange that,” I laughed. “I’m your Prince, after all.”

“Hello my Prince. Wake up! Here’s your beer.” I awoke from my dream, rubbed my eyes and gave my wife a grateful look. Then I took a deep pull at the bottle. I had earned it.

Notes Regarding the Theme Set

In general, the following rules addendum applies to all Theme Games:
In the middle between the two players, 5 expansion stacks are placed face down next to the center cards, 3 consisting of the basic cards and 2 of the Theme Set cards. In addition, there is an open stack containing cards which – like the center cards – are “built” directly, meaning that the players don’t have to add them to their hand first. In the Theme Game “The Era of Gold,” the open expansion card stack is formed by the two Merchant Guilds. The player who has reached 12 victory points at the end of his turn is the winner.

The “rule of ’7′” applies neither to the Theme Games nor to the Duel of the Princes nor to the Tournament Game. Action cards can always be played if potentially existing conditions are met.
Probably in mid-July, I’ll tell you about The Era of Turmoil.

P.S.: For the card “Reiner the Herald,” the illustrator Michael Menzel used  a photo from Dr. Reiner Düren’s youth for reference. Together with Peter Gustav Bartschat, Dr. Reiner Düren wrote the Encyclopædia Catanica. During the past years, both of them accompanied the development of the Card Game with help and advice, and they are currently participating in the editorial work on the redeveloped Catan Card Game.

Klaus Teuber

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Follow-up comments on my last blog posts as well as comments in various forums repeatedly expressed concerns that the revised Card Game might become deprived of its depth, in favor of being easier to play and more “appropriate for the public.”
Well, all those of you who fear for the complexity of the new version may rest assured. The Tournament version will continue to exist and, therefore, also the possibility to assemble one’s own deck from a variety of cards.

Maybe in my previous blog posts I didn’t express clearly enough that the simplification mainly consists in the fact that it facilitates an easier understanding of the rules. Therefore, the “Introductory Game” is an important component of the new rules system. It only takes 20 to 30 minutes to play and familiarizes the players with the basic game rules. However, it does not replace the old Basic Game. Although the Introductory Game is already an exciting race for 7 victory points, the manifold possibilities of the Card Game are not fully exploited here.

After 2 or 3 Introductory Games, the players should be ready for the three Theme Sets with their additional rules, which are also included in the game box.

A Theme Game requires the cards of the Introductory Game plus the cards of a Theme Set. As far as complexity and game depth are concerned, a Theme Game is on a par with the old Basic Game. However, each of the three Theme Games is clearly more theme-related, and the duration of the game is also shorter.

But more about this in my next blog posts. Today, dear reader, I would like to introduce the Introductory Game to you. It is titled “The First Catanians,” and the card motifs suggest that the Catanians haven’t prospered much yet.

As in the old Basic Game, the stacks containing the center cards Settlement, Road, City, and Region and the Event cards are placed in between the players. In addition, there are 3 stacks containing 12 Expansion cards each. I already presented the illustration of the new center cards in the section “Catanian Fog” of my last blog post. This time, I’m presenting the new cards and the rule changes that apply to the Introductory Game and the Theme Games alike:

Regions

We have redistributed the numbers on the regions. Before, it could happen that identical numbers on forest and hills regions allowed the player with the black coat of arms rapid expansion via roads and settlements, while his opponent’s wool and gold regions were bursting at the seams. The new distribution makes everything a little fairer. The numbers on brick and lumber now correspond to the numbers on grain and ore. And there’s good news for all gold fans: due to the increased demand for gold, we have reinforced the Region card stack with a fourth gold region.

Expansion Cards – Buildings

The “resource-doubling cards” such as the Foundry, Grain Mill, Brick Factory, Lumber Camp, and the Weaver’s Shop are carried over from the old Basic Game, retaining their function but in some cases having new names.

The old Toll Station became a Toll Bridge. We had a long discussion whether the card should keep its commerce point. Finally, the toll lobby prevailed and successfully defended its commerce point. However, the storekeepers were less successful. Their supplications were in vain – their storage facilities were stripped of their commerce point. As usual, the monks kept a low profile and thus survived the reform unscathed. After praying the Our Father a couple of times, they even gained a little advantage for their Abbey. More about this when the Event card “Productive Year” is presented.

The Expansion cards of the Introductory Game don’t include city expansions and, therefore, no Town Hall that would give the princes the privilege to pay only one resource for choosing a card from an Expansion card stack. This function is now carried out by the Parish Hall, the card that regulates the structures of a village community and thus makes it easier for the prince to follow through with his plans.

The function of the Marketplace is new. It had always bothered me to see my opponent build his third settlement before I could do so, while I was lagging behind with my resource income. If you build a Marketplace in the new version of the game, you receive an additional resource each time a number is rolled of which more appear on your opponent’s Region cards than on your own Region Cards. You may choose a resource your opponent has received too.

The Marketplace strengthens the concentration strategy. The players have more time to expand their principality before expanding via settlements and roads. The Marketplace also counteracts the possibility for a player to take the lead early on, a possibility which later – combining the advantage of having built more settlements with favorable dice rolls – could make him unbeatable.

Expansion Cards – Units – Trade Ships

Taking into account the humble beginnings of the settling of Catan, the Trade Fleets became Trade Ships. Similar to the situation before, there is one Trade Ship for each resource. The Great Trade Fleet is also still part of the game but now is called Large Trade Ship.

Expansion Cards – Units – Heroes

Until now, the male component in the form of heavily armed knights in armor predominated the Card Game. This predominance doesn’t correspond to reality, because women and men always participate equally in the development of a community. Therefore, we replaced the word “knight” with “hero,” a term that applies to both genders. The strength remains unaffected – and strength doesn’t just refer to plain muscle power but also includes intellectual flexibility and the influence this flexibility has on the strength of a community. The tournament points were replaced with skill points. We defined skill as all the abilities to endure contests or delight one’s fellow men. The skill of prevailing in an exhibition fight is on an equal footing with talents such as telling an electrifying story, singing a captivating song, or beautifully playing the harp. The harp thus became the symbol for a hero’s skill and the die roll event “Celebration.”

Those who have read the novel “Die Siedler von Catan” (The Settlers of Catan) by Ms. Gablé will easily recognize the depicted heroes as the protagonists of the novel – the first Catanians.

Expansion Cards – Action Cards

The Action cards of the Introductory Game can all be played without requirements. The Merchant Caravan is the new version of the old Caravan, the Alchemist was substituted with Brigitta the Seer (another character from Rebecca Gablés novel), and the rather modern-sounding Land Reform is now called Relocation. The Scout remained unchanged.
The Goldsmith is a new card. For three gold, the Goldsmith hands over two resources of the player’s choice.

You might be worried now about the “mean” Action cards of the old Basic Game, such as Spy, Arsonist, or Brigands. Don’t fret, dear reader, the reform did not devour its children. These fiends continue to exist in the Theme Sets, although they are hiding behind new names.

Event Cards

The new name for the former Event card “Progress” is “Invention.”
The Productive Year not only provides the regions adjacent to Storage Facilities with an additional resource but also the regions adjacent to an Abbey.
The Fraternal Feud (formerly Conflict) and the Feud (formerly Raid) allow the player who has the Strength Advantage to make his opponent’s life as a gamer a bit more difficult. But since each of these cards exists only once, the damage is not excessive.

The Yule corresponds to the old Year End – but there are two important changes:

1. When the Yule is drawn, the card stack is shuffled and a new card is drawn immediately.
2. Shuffling of the card stack: Except for the Yule, all cards are shuffled face down. Three cards are placed face down. Then the Yule is placed on top of them, and the remaining Event cards are placed on top of the Yule.

These rule changes make the Event card stack more predictable, and it no longer happens that the Yule is drawn repeatedly and no event occurs.

Two new constructive Event cards help to make the game a bit faster yet:

If the Traveling Merchant visits the principalities, each player may buy any one resource of his choice for one gold – up to two times. Happy the player who hasn’t spent his gold yet and is able to strike a lucrative bargain. When the Event card “Trade Ships Race” is played, the player with the most Trade Ships receives any one resource of his choice.

There are also two innovations regarding the die roll event “Tournament.” First of all, the Tournament is now called Celebration, acknowledging the fact that not only weapons are wielded but people now also sing songs and play instruments. Secondly, both players each receive any one resource of their choice when the Celebration is rolled. Only if his heroes have more skill points than the heroes of his opponent, a prince receives one resource of his choice all by himself.

Production and Event

Even though the old rule stipulated that the result of the Event die should be resolved before resolving the result of the Production die, hardly anyone adhered to it. In the new Princes of Catan version, therefore, we followed intuitive behavior and inverted the order. The players collect their production first and then resolve the event. The only exception: if the Brigand Attack is rolled, the robber strikes before the production is distributed. To make sure the players don’t overlook this detail, the club is red.

Trade Advantage and Strength Advantage

“What, in addition to my 3 commerce points I must have built a city to get the Windmill token? Then I’ve played this the wrong way for years.”
I can’t tell you how often I have heard or read this phrase during the past years. As it seems, the requirement to have a city was hard to understand or went in one eye and out the other. So we bowed to reality, very much like good politicians, and dropped the requirement to have a city. Instead, we reduced the number of commerce points a little, thus making it more difficult to reach 3 commerce points.
In a matching fashion, a player obtains the Strength Advantage if he has placed heroes that show a total of 3 strength points.

Replenishing One’s Hand and Swapping a Card

The modification: First, the player draws or discards cards so as to adjust his hand to the allowed limit.
Afterwards, the player may swap a card. To this end, he discards a card; then he pays either one or two resources to select a card from a stack, or he draws the top card from a stack for free.

Conclusion

In terms of difficulty, the Introductory Game is certainly not a “heavyweight.” It has less – and also simpler – rules than the previous Card Game. The aggressive Action cards are left out too. Compared to the old Card Game, the Introductory Game thus offers beginners much easier and less frustrating access to the world of the Catan Card Game. And if, after the Introductory Game, people want more – they are cordially invited to explore the advantages of the University in the predominantly peaceful Theme Game “The Era of Progress” or, in “The Era of Turmoil,” to attack their opponent with the Traitor and Arsonist or take away his resources by means of the Voyage of Plunder or the Brigands.

In my next blog post, I will present the cards and rules of the first Theme Game “The Era of Gold.”

Klaus Teuber

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In 1997, the “Tournament Set for the Card Game” was published as the first Card Game expansion. My inspiration for this expansion came from “Magic, the Gathering,” during the mid-nineties a cult game in Germany. Although the rules of the two games are totally different, they do have one thing in common: both games can be expanded by means of new cards.
I liked the concept of Magic, where each player assembles his own deck from a selection of cards to compete against his opponent. I adopted this concept for the Tournament Set I wanted to develop especially for ambitious gamers: the players no longer replenish their hand with cards from shared stacks but from their own stacks, which they assemble from the cards of the Basic Game and the cards of the Tournament Set before the actual game begins.
Now, with one’s own card stacks, it was much more effective to pursue a certain strategy. However, each player needed a Basic Game and a Tournament Set to ensure a satisfactory selection of cards for the respective strategy.
I didn’t adopt Magic’s trading card concept. A player who – in Magic and in all other trading card games that came after it – wants to get new cards must buy so-called “booster packs,” which are small expansions containing randomly integrated cards. These small expansions include more common and less common cards. If a player wants less common cards, that is, good cards, he has no choice but to purchase some booster packs to get those cards.
Of course, a lot of money can be made with a trading card game, but I thought that the concept didn’t go well with Catan, and I also was a little afraid that I would be compelled to continuously invent more cards to fill the small booster packs with new cards.

The Tournament Set for the Card Game

Therefore, the Catan Card Game did not become a trading card game. The tournament fun didn’t come cheap, though – after all, each player needed his own Basic Game and his own Tournament Set. Although a corresponding note in big letters was showing on the back of the Tournament Set box, many buyers overlooked it and were understandably disappointed that the Tournament Set in combination with their Basic Game wasn’t enough.

Dissatisfied gamers are an anathema to every game author, and the publisher Kosmos wasn’t happy about the complaints arriving every day either. Therefore, I came up with a variant that allowed playing the Tournament Set with only one Basic Game: the expanded Basic Game was born. Already in the second edition, this variant was integrated into the rules of the Tournament Set. A third edition was not published because the Tournament Set paved the way for individual Theme Sets.
With each Theme Set, an expanded Basic Game – that is, a Basic Game with additional, theme-related cards – was possible. At the same time, each Theme Set offered ambitious Tournament Game players the possibility to use additional cards for developing new strategies or decks.
The Theme Sets appearing in October of 1998 were called Wizards and Dragons, Politics and Intrigue, Trade and Change, Science and Progress, and Knights and Merchants. They comprised the cards of the Tournament Set as well as new cards whose basic ideas people had sent to Kosmos in the context of an ideas competition.

The Theme Sets (1998)

This ideas competition developed into a giant project for me that kept me busy for almost nine months. Over a thousand letters came in, and some contained novel ideas. Now the task was to integrate those ideas with the already existent cards and my own ideas about the theme-related sets.

Testing isn't such a dry affair after all. - Testing the game with my older son Guido (1998)

When the prototypes of the new Theme Sets were ready, I mainly tested them within the circle of my family and with members of the Kosmos staff. At the time, I also received support from Brigitte and Wolfgang Ditt who tested the new sets and provided valuable tips and suggestions. As is the case with tests, shortcomings came to light. Cards were rejected or modified and changed over to other Theme Sets. Then the testing, rejecting, and modifying continued, and later there was more testing…

When the Theme Sets finally were done, I heaved a sigh that probably could be heard beyond the walls of our house. I was relieved to have concluded the work, but I was also satisfied with the new Theme Sets and hoped the gamers would be too.

Since the Theme Sets sold very well, I assumed that people liked them. In 2001, the company USM published a PC version of the Card Game – including a small expansion called “Tournament Cards 2002″ – and simultaneously created an Internet platform that enabled players to compete in the Tournament Game online. Every once in a while, I also played there and soon found out that some cards were actually too strong, while other cards were almost never used in a game.

Originally, I hadn’t planned on developing another expansion for the Card Game, but somehow I couldn’t stop thinking about the shortcomings regarding the interplay of the cards when playing in Tournament mode.

Barbarians & Traders (2003)

In 2003, therefore, the sixth Theme Set was published. It was called Barbarians and Traders. On the one hand, with the theme of this set I wanted to seize the idea from the Board Game expansion “Cities & Knights,” where the players jointly defend themselves against the invading barbarians. On the other hand, there were – as mentioned before – some cards in the old sets that allowed for overly powerful decks and other cards that were irrelevant. In combination with a minor reform of the old cards, the new Theme Set was meant to reduce the potential of overly strong deck strategies and strengthen the variety of strategic directions of decks.
After I had created the first prototype, I asked some experienced Tournament players I had met when playing on the Internet or at the Catan weekends in Bilstein, Germany, to help me test the game. At this point – given the great variety of existing cards and their possible applications in the Tournament Game – I no longer thought myself capable of keeping track of all eventualities or recognizing all possible shortcomings of the cards.

After six months of intensive collaboration, my previous prototype had changed its appearance. The basic idea had survived, but some of my cards had been eliminated, and my fellow testers’ card ideas had found their way into the set instead – an example of this being the Scribes Offices, a card the card gamer community can hardly do without nowadays. The testing team had become a development team. (More information about the development team can be found here under “Barb. & Handelsherren” – German language only.)

In the meantime, the annual sales figures were declining considerably. Sebastian Rapp, meanwhile responsible for Catan at Kosmos, and I agreed that the Tournament Game was the culmination of the Card Game – but nevertheless reached only a relatively small number of gamers. Therefore, the next new set, titled “Artisans and Benefactors” and published in 2007, focused on the expanded Basic Game.

Artisans & Benefactors (2007)

For this set too, I presented a prototype whose central theme was the satisfaction of the subjects to the well-tried development team established in 2003. Once more, a very constructive development phase ensued. The end result was a set mainly suitable for gamers who found the Tournament Game too elaborate and time-consuming and who wanted an exciting expansion for their Basic Game, but it also contained cards that were interesting for Tournament players. The set actually received very good reviews, and many gamers rated it the best Theme Set for the expanded Basic Game.

However, the new Theme Set unfortunately couldn’t stop the sales figures from declining. Unlike the Board Game, which year after year shows rather constant sales figures, the Card Game sales dropped considerably each year. It was foreseeable that Kosmos sooner or later would have to remove the Card Game from their game portfolio. So, at the end of 2008, the question was what to do next. Two possibilities were discussed: either to let the Card Game die or to revive it.
I agreed with Kosmos that a revival shouldn’t just concern the graphic art but should also include a revision of the game’s content. The fact that it was more and more difficult for the Card Game to win friends surely had its reasons.

In my next blog post I will specify those reasons and describe my thought process that laid the ground for the revision of the Card Game.

Klaus Teuber

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