Mega Catan Rules

I thought I'd set our the Mega Catan rules, which in theory allows for ten players, in one convenient place:

 

To create a larger board with 4 hexes on each side, I bought another Catan set because it was cheaper than buying parts separately.

MEGA CATAN BOARD

I added hexes by type in consideration of the original small map that has more wood, wheat, and sheep. But I could only make two of those three have two hexes so I demoted sheep to the plus-one hex category. And no new desert. So Mega Catan adds to the expansion map seven new hexes: 1 sheep, 1 rock, and 1 brick; and 2 wood and 2 wheat.

I made two extra small pieces for the border--one 3:1 port border piece and one blank border piece. So there will be alternating port and blank extensions. This allows for a Catan of 4 hexes on each side, totaling 37 hexes.

Place a 3:1 small border piece between section 1 links; a blank piece between section 2 links; a 2:1 sheep piece between the 3 links; a blank piece between the 4 links; a 3:1 piece between section 5 links; and a blank piece between section 6 links.

One 3:1 harbor ship piece is also needed.

 

MEGA CATAN CIRCULAR RESOURCE CHITS

I added 7 new circular resource chits marked Zd throuh Zj. Because the expansion pack adds 10 chits with a total point value of 31, I made the 7 new chits equal 22 points. I arbitrarily assigned them numbers. From Zd as a 12, with subsequent chits 5, 3, 6, 2, 9, and 8.

 

MEGA CATAN BUILDINGS AND ROADS

I used four extra sets of cities, settlements, and roads. The buildings have roofs painted black; and the ends of the road segments painted black. Since then I've spray painted two of those sets, one pink and one light green (or mint). I had leftover paint from another project. I have two other colors, but they are red and green so of no use because they are too close to sets I already have. I'm working on the last two additional sets to make them look better.

THE TRADE AND BUILD PHASE

For any Mega Catan game of 7-10 players I modified the 5-6 player revised special building phase that provides a Trade and Build Phase special building phase. The original SBP has a Settler 1 full building and trading phase for the player whose turn it is (big poop holder), and a Settler 2 (small poop holder) special building phase limited to bank trades and builds for the player who is three players to the left of Settler 1.

The Mega Catan Trade and Build Phase has a Settler 1 full phase and a Settler 2 special phase for the player who is FOUR PLAYERS to the left of Settler 1. 

In addition, your hand is safe from the robber with 9 cards instead of 7. So the robber takes half (rounded down) when you have 10 cards in your hand instead of the 8 in the basic and expansion games.

 

SUMMARY OF ADDITIONAL PIECES

Playing Mega Catan requires the basic game, plus the expansion kit pieces, plus the following additions:

One small blank frame and one small 3:1 harbor frame (which I had to make using my copier and a cardboard base).

One 3:1 harbor piece.

Six knights, and one each of year of plenty, monopoly, road building, and victory point cards.

Six each of bricks, rocks, sheep, wheat, and wood cards.

Seven circular numbered resource chits Zd (12), Ze (5), Zf (3), Zg (6), Zh (2), Zi (9), and Zj (8).

Four sets of building pieces and building cost cards.

 

VICTORY POINTS

For victory point levels I looked at the maximum theoretical points (MTP) per player, using 13 points for buildings times the number of players, plus 5 victory points and 6 points with the harbormaster, largest army, and longest road bonuses. Then dividing that by the number of players. The MTP ran from an average of 16.7 MTP per player with 3 players to 14.8 MTP per player at 6 players. I thought of approximately 15 MTP as the minimum needed for full points required to win.

The MTP per player (with 6 VP possible) from 7 to 10 players, were 14.7, 14.5, 14.3, and 14.2 points. For 7 players that was close to 15, so maximum points to win..The 8-player was on the bubble. But erring on the side of speeding the game I established the victory points needed for victory at 10 and 11 (regular and harbor master variant) for 3-7 players; and 9 and 10 points for 8-10 players.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

I altered the longest road card to provide the holder with a generic 3:1 port equivalent. Since there is more interior, this seemed like a simple change that makes sense for a long road and helps somebody trapped away from the coast.

I also altered the desert hexes to make them Robber's Lairs. Now if you have at least one building on either or both of the desert hexes, when the 7 is rolled your settlement or city (or multiple settlements or cities) gives you one resource card of your choice from the piles. It is a benefit of knowing the robbers and is your cut of their crime. To be clear, no matter how many settlements or cities you have on desert hexes, you only get one resource card per roll of 7. 

This robber's lair bonus takes place after the normal robber rules are carried out. So first, players get rid of cards in excess of 9, then the robber is moved, and then the person who rolled the 7 takes a resource card from the target. 

After that, anybody who is allowed to take a robber benefit resource card may take one, in order, from the player who rolled the 7 and then to the left until all players with a Robber's Lair bonus have had a chance to take a card. If a resource is depleted by a player, subsequent robber bonus draws simply can't have that resource and must choose another.

When placing the resource chits, sometimes a Red high value chit can be adjacent to another Red chit depending on where the desert hexes end up. If it happens, the first chit alphabetically is moved back one hex, trading with the one before it alphabetically. If the Red is still adjacent to the other Red chit, move the second chit forward one hex. Repeat going forward alphabetically for all Red chits adjacent to another Red Chit.