Euro Quest - Settlers of Catan Tournament
Get your Ritters ready, there's a Settlers tournament again at EQ 2011...9th year
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Designer: Klaus Teuber
Publisher: Kosmos
Mayfair Games
Boardgamegeek Info: Settlers of Catan
Spiel des Jahres (German game of the year) 1995
1st Place - Deutscher SpielePreis 1995
GameMaster(s)
GM: Brian Reynolds, Ass't GM: Mike Brazinski

Schedule
Demo 8:00 PM Friday
H1 8:30 PM - 10:00 PM Friday
H2 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM Saturday
H3 10:30 PM - 12 midnight Saturday
E1 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Sunday
E2 (if needed) 12 noon - 1:30 PM Sunday

Please see the full schedule here.

Plaques
The top two finishers in the final will receive a plaque.

Event Description

Special tournament rules:
  1. Victory point cards in your hand at the end of the game do count towards your final scoring for the purpose of determining 2nd/3rd/4th place in the game.
  2. You can only win on your own turn.
  3. To speed the preliminary heats up a little bit, we will use the "Essen Start" during setup players place 1 settlement and then 1 city (however you do not get double starting resources for your city). There is then a third placement round in which players each place a single extra road (so your final setup consists of one settlement, one city, and three roads).
  4. In the preliminary and semi-finals, sevens are rerolled during the first two rounds, BUT only after checking the hand limit. The seven card hand limit is always checked (and resources discarded if appropriate) even if the seven is then rerolled. If the robber is moved with a Soldier card during the first two rounds, no further sevens are rerolled -- the robber is in play.


Rules Clarifications:
  1. Development cards may be played before you roll.
  2. If every player cannot get a resource of a particular type because there aren't enough resources cards of that type, no player gets any. (Make sure there are exactly 19 of each resource card in your set before beginning play)
  3. There is no distinction between the "Trade" and Build" phases of the game.
  4. The limit of one development card per turn does not apply to victory point cards
  5. You cannot trade a player a resource "for nothing".
  6. No single trade can include the same resource on both sides -- that is, you cannot trade "a wood" for "a wood and a sheep."
  7. You may, if possible, make a series of legal trades that has the net result of trading "something for nothing," but you must make each trade one by one with the resources actually changing hands, and either player is allowed to stop at any point.


Preliminary Rounds:
  1. Before setting up the game---highest two-die roll selects their position (first, second, third, fourth), then the next highest roll, etc. Further die rolls may be required to resolve ties.
  2. For the first heat, seating is entirely random. For the second and third heat, ranking will determine who plays against whom.
  3. We will try to keep all boards at four players, with three-player boards only where absolutely necessary.
  4. See special rules 7 and 8 above for setup and "seven" rules.


Semi-Final:
  1. If there are 35+ players, there will be a semi-final round of 4 boards with the winner of each board advancing to the finals. OR with fewer than 35 entrants there will only be a semi-final if there are more than 4 players with two preliminary round wins, and the semi-final will be 2 boards with the first and second place from each board advancing to the finals.
  2. Semi-final rounds are 4 players per board.
  3. Preferred format for semi-finals games is 120 minutes with no Essen Start. However because we are formally scheduled for 90 minutes we will accommodate those players who need a 90 minute round (e.g. who also want to play in the 7 Wonders H3 round) with an Essen Start. GM reserves the right to group players needing 90 minute rounds together at the same board(s). Please inform the GM before the round begins if you need a 90 minute round; games begun without Essen Start will not be adjudicated until the 120 minute mark.
  4. Semi-Finals will be seeded in order of:
    1. Two Wins
    2. One Win, ranked by best second result ranked by Tournament Points
    3. Best Non-Win second place finish, ranked by Tournament Points
  5. Tournament Points will be computed as follows:
    1. First place Tournament Score is 1000 points
    2. For second through fourth place, Tournament Score is computed as:
      1. Your points times 100, plus
      2. The number of players with fewer Victory Points times 10, plus
      3. The number of unplayed development cards remaining in your hand
  6. Before setting up the game---highest two-die roll selects their position (first, second, third, fourth), then the next highest roll, etc. Further die rolls may be required to resolve ties.
  7. Setup will be "normal Settlers rules" in the semi-finals: two settlements at start
    + EXCEPTION: boards designated by the GM as 90 minute boards will use the Essen Start (place a settlement and then a city; do not collect double resources for the city during startup; a third placement round of a single road)
  8. In all semi-finals games, sevens are rerolled during the first two rounds, BUT only after checking the hand limit. The seven card hand limit is always checked (and resources discarded if appropriate) even if the seven is then rerolled. If the robber is moved with a Soldier card during the first two rounds, no further sevens are rerolled -- the robber is in play.


Final:
  1. There are four seats in the Final.
  2. Choice of starting position is based on each player's overall ranking thru the semi-finals.
  3. For the finals we revert to the straight Settlers rules as follows:
    1. Players place settlements (not cities) in both setup rounds.
    2. No re-rolling of sevens in any circumstances


Tie Breakers:
  1. Victory points in settlements and cities.
  2. (Finals & Semis only) Number of roads, plus number of already-played soldiers & VP cards, plus number of unplayed development cards in hand.
  3. (Finals & Semis only) Number of resources left in hand

    For the purpose of ranking players in the tournament according to "closest percentage to first," your official score in a game shall be the total number of victory points you received in that game divided by the total number of victory points scored by all players in the game -- the quotient then expressed as a percentage. If a three-player game add 8 points to the divisor.



Game Set-up clarifications:
  1. Tile placement: Random order
    1. Shuffle all the land tiles together.
    2. Deal one row of five.
    3. Deal two rows of four, one on each side of the row of five.
    4. Deal two rows of three, one on each side of the rows of four.
    5. Shuffle the harbor hexes and deal them with the ports facing the "long axis" alternately with ocean hexes. Start at the "point" of the board nearest the person holding the harbor hexes and deal clockwise around the board.
  2. Number placement:
    1. There are 18 numbers used: one #1, one #2 and two each #3 through #11
    2. Numbers placed in A-B-C format as described: Pick a starting land hex on one of the "points" of the game board's hex shape, roll onece die and count that number of point-of-the-hex's clockwise to find the starting tile. This is the "A" tile (unless it's the desert in which case move one tile counterclockwise). Place the "A" number on it and continue placing the number chips in alphabetical order in a counterclockwise pattern, skipping over the desert, until you reach the middle tile.
  3. Development Card verification:
    1. There should be 25 Development Cards: 14 Soldiers, 6 Resource Cards (2 each Road Building, Year of Plenty, and Monopoly), and 5 Victory Points.
    2. b. Shuffle the cards together well.
  4. Player Set-up:
    1. Player 1 places a Settlement and road, then clockwise players 2 through 4.
    2. Player 4 places a city (settlement in semi-finals and finals when Essen Start is not being used) and road and collects one resource from each adjacent hex, then counter-clockwise players 3 through 1.
    3. In preliminary "Essen Start" rounds only, player 1 places one road, then clockwise players 2 through 4.
    4. Player 1 begins the actual turns.