THE LOST MAPS

FOUR KINGDOMS

Sets Needed

Base Set
Base 5/6 Player
Seafarers
Seafarers 5/6 Player
+ jungle tiles

Recommended for
4 players
(click here for 6 player map)

Game Instructions
  • Victory: 11 Victory Points
  • Rules: Standard and as shown

This is an interesting setup in which all four players start on their own identical little island. (No more complaining about not getting good starting placements!)

Rules:

Start the Robber off the board – he will become activated once someone rolls a 7 or plays a Knight Card. Start the Pirate as shown.

Jungle Rules:

See detailed rules for the Jungle hex here.

Initial Placements:

Each player starts off on his or her own island. The island ownership should correspond with the seating order around the table. Roll the dice to see who places first – select your initial two placements as in the original game (this matters much less since you are on your own island, but your decisions may be based off of other players’ decisions on their islands). The player who rolled highest also starts the game off.

Bonus VP:

During the game a player may receive 1 Victory Point for invading a foreign island (placing a settlement on it). Theoretically a player could earn up to 3 Bonus VP for settling on all 3 foreign islands.

2, 11, 12: You will notice there are no 2’s, 11’s, or 12’s on the board. If you roll one of these numbers, nothing happens. You do not get to re-roll.

Additional Notes:

In this board, everyone gets Equal Opportunity. Virtually everyone is going to place on the 6-9-10, though for the second placement you may see a split between the 8-9-4 and the 8-9-5. The islands were originally designed as exact clones, but were updated to instead be symmetrical mirror images of one another, thus giving no player any starting advantage whatsoever. (Special thanks to James Wolfpacker for the suggestion!)

It takes a little while to get used to the fact that everyone has almost identical hands. If you aren’t getting wheat, no one else is either. Because of this equal footing, it’s interesting to watch the different tactical routes people select, and how the rankings start to shift. Trade can still be very important. For example if everyone on the board has tons of Lumber and Sheep, but you all want Brick… You can trade clumps of resources to help both parties reach a 4:1 trade with the bank (or 3:1).

The Robber is also a swing factor, and the fact that there’s also a Pirate to move means that the Robber can more easily be left on the leading player. You might consider removing the Robber from the game (and leave just the Pirate); however, this could cause some unusual consequences later in the game (see below).

A very interesting aspect we didn’t anticipate was the inability to pick up resources that were owed to you. Later in the game, there were times when a 9 was rolled, but because there weren’t enough ore cards to go around, no one was able to draw any (as the rules dictate). This provided another use for the Robber – you might place him on someone’s 9 just so that you would be able to pick up ore next time it was rolled.

Credit: Fan map by Preston of Catan Maps, with suggestions by James Wolfpacker. Render by Jasper.

These maps are made available as a free resource for Catan players. They may not be reproduced for commercial purposes nor distributed on commercial sites. If you believe any map infringes a copyright you own, it will be removed immediately until the matter is resolved.

If you have a question about these maps and/or rules, please contact us. We welcome any feedback, suggestions or corrections.

Index of Maps

Hexes/Resources

The Found Scenarios

The Found Scenarios

As well as maps, also check out different scenarios that you can add to your game. This page has a collection of official and fan-made add-ons that have been found online or included imany of the Catan Collector favourites.