Settlers of the Stone Age
Encyclopedia
The Settlers of the Stone Age is a German board game, heavily based on The Settlers of Catan
, with a stone age
theme. It is a member of the Catan series of games, and as such it is created by Klaus Teuber
and published by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games
in English.
, Asia
, Australia
, and the Americas
.
Gameplay is similar to Catan in that resources are collected in the same manner, but that is how the similarities end. To expand, players must use their resources to create explorers, then use resources to move the explorers to a new location, where, for an additional cost in resources, the explorers are turned into new settlements. A player has a limited supply of settlements, and if the supply is exhausted, one settlement must be disbanded to make room for the new settlement.
Resources may also be spent on developing technologies in one of four different paths, each of which has their own benefits. The first player to reach the highest level in any given technology is awarded victory points.
Scattered throughout the board are exploration markers, which may be uncovered if a player has the sufficient levels of technology and has an explorer that moves past the marker. Exploration markers may grant victory points, cause desertification
in Africa (where hexes cease to become productive), or allow the player to move either one of the game's two robber figures: the neanderthal
and the sabre-toothed tiger.
The Settlers of Catan
The Settlers of Catan is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber and first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag as Die Siedler von Catan. Players assume the roles of settlers, each attempting to build and develop their settlement while trading and acquiring resources...
, with a stone age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
theme. It is a member of the Catan series of games, and as such it is created by Klaus Teuber
Klaus Teuber
Klaus Teuber is a German designer of board games. He won the Spiel des Jahres award four times, for The Settlers of Catan, Barbarossa, Drunter und Drüber and Adel Verpflichtet. He retired from his profession as a dental technician to become a full-time game designer in 1999. , he lives in ...
and published by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games
Mayfair Games
Mayfair Games is a publisher of board, card, and roleplaying games. They also license German-style board games and publish them in English throughout the world...
in English.
Gameplay
The game is played upon a fixed board representing a map of the world. Each player is in control of a separate tribe, and the tribes have, at the start of the game, colonized the entire continent of Africa. Players seek to gain victory points by settling in the four other major areas around the board: EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
.
Gameplay is similar to Catan in that resources are collected in the same manner, but that is how the similarities end. To expand, players must use their resources to create explorers, then use resources to move the explorers to a new location, where, for an additional cost in resources, the explorers are turned into new settlements. A player has a limited supply of settlements, and if the supply is exhausted, one settlement must be disbanded to make room for the new settlement.
Resources may also be spent on developing technologies in one of four different paths, each of which has their own benefits. The first player to reach the highest level in any given technology is awarded victory points.
Scattered throughout the board are exploration markers, which may be uncovered if a player has the sufficient levels of technology and has an explorer that moves past the marker. Exploration markers may grant victory points, cause desertification
Desertification
Desertification is the degradation of land in drylands. Caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities, desertification is one of the most significant global environmental problems.-Definitions:...
in Africa (where hexes cease to become productive), or allow the player to move either one of the game's two robber figures: the neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
and the sabre-toothed tiger.