The Settlers of Catan is an extremely fun board game for 3 to 4 players, which was invented by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in Germany as Die Siedler von Catan and then released in the United States by Mayfair Games. Mayfair Games went out of business in January, 1997. In an effort to preserve what Mayfair had published on its website about The Settlers of Catan, I'm mirroring it here.

I apologize for all of the dead links -- I blinked and 2 years went by -- so I'll be cleaning them up as fast as I can.

Late Breaking News

• Play Settlers-by-Email
  Ronald Camstra is running a Settlers-by-Email list. Currently he only has client software for MS-Windows, which means I won't be playing anytime soon, but it sounds interesting.
• Gnocatan
  Dave Cole (dave@dccs.com.au) is developing an implementation of the Settlers of Catan called Gnocatan. Gnocatan is written in C for Linux/Unix systems that are running GNOME, the GNU Network Object Model Environment. Dave is releasing the source code under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
• Mayfair is back(?!?)
  Apparently Mayfair Games has redesigned their website and is selling their games again. Go figure. Their recent new releases page lists Settlers, the Settlers Card Game, and the Seafarers expansion.

Old News

At the 1997 GAMA Trade Show, it was announced that Iron Crown Enterprises has purchased Mayfair's train games and European imported boardgames (ie: The Settlers of Catan). Mayfair's RPGs and trading card games are still looking for a buyer.

The Game Cabinet had this to say about the buyout.

My own contributions

• Create Random Maps
  I'm working on creating an AI that can play Settlers; here's some of the results.

Mayfair's Rules and Variants

• Mayfair's Rules
  I'm given to understand that Mayfair modified the original rules for playability.
• Variant list #1
  Thomas A. Stobie, S.F.O. created some variants for 2-4 players.
• Variant list #2
  Mayfair developed these variants for 3-8 players, including several ways to combine 2 sets.
• Variant list #3
  Jean-Yves and Florence Colin developed this variant for 2 players.

Web Resources in English

• Mayfair's Website
  While it lasts...
• An article on Mayfair's closing
  From Model Retailer magazine's April 1997 issue.
• Trevor Dewey's Die Siedler page
  Trevor's strongly in favor of the original German version, but he has covered the strategy and tactics of the game quite thoroughly.
• A review of The Settlers of Catan
  By Jocelyn Becker, courtesy of The Games Cabinet.
• German Rules Translation
  Courtesy of The Games Cabinet.
• A shorter Rules Translation
  Courtesy of The Games Cabinet.
• The Sailor's Expansion Set
  A review of an upcoming expansion for Settlers that includes new land types and ships. The review also has pictures of the board and pieces.
• Settlers of Catan Gallery
  Stephen Walsh has done much of the artwork for the English releases of the Settlers of Catan.

Web Resources in German

• Die Siedler von Catan
  The original German version website ... in German.
• Gerald Siek's Settlers of Catan page
  This page is still under construction, but has several pictures of the German board and pieces.