Dice Rolling

Game description from the publisher:

The Rivals for Catan: Age of Enlightenment contains three expansion sets (125 Cards Total) for The Rivals for Catan (released in Germany as Die Fürsten von Catan). These theme sets – "The Era of Explorers", "The Era of Sages", and "The Era of Prosperity" – offer new variety for the base game and bring new elements into play.

• In The Era of Explorers, players set sail from Catan to explore the world and discover new lands. Your explorer harbor serves as the starting point for your exploration of nine adjacent sea cards. Pirates, islanders, and shipwrecks await across the waters. Embark on missions and try to be the best explorer. Ship tokens chart your position. Victory awaits the most skilled and intrepid sailor!

• In The Era of Sages, the wisdom of many and varied sages – a currency in its own way – gives you the opportunity to influence the strength and frequency of events. Fend off famines, deflect attacks, and promote peace. Connect with nature and balance prudence, power, foresight, and vigilance in your struggle for Catan!

• In The Era of Prosperity, you strive to be a good prince and govern wisely, in order to build schools and a hospital – and even promote the arts. Raise your people's spirits and spur expansion. But beware as discontent dooms prosperity!

The Rivals for Catan: Age of Darkness, a 90-card expansion for The Rivals for Catan, includes three separate theme sets that can be used with the base game:

• The Era of Intrigue – You will witness the confrontation of followers of new and old beliefs and take part to determine Catan's spiritual balance. "Religious Dispute" causes both players to lose cards; Churches and Temples minimize losses; Temple cards strengthen your access to your own draw stacks. Church cards lure opposing heroes and earn gold. With a Church and a Temple, you may build the Great Thing stead and end the conflict.

• The Era of Merchant Princes – Using the "Commercial Harbor" and the "Merchant's Residences", decisive buildings in the struggle for trade advantage, players try to control Catan's commerce. "Maritime Trade Monopolies" and the "Master Merchants" enhance trade ships. "The Shipbuilder" reduces the building costs of ships. Dominate trade using clever card combinations!

• The Era of Barbarians – Use Castles, Border Fortresses, the Strategist, the Caravel, and new heroes to fend off both the barbarian attacks and your rival's efforts to dominate your holdings.

The Rivals for Catan is a reimplementation of Catan Card Game.

The Rivals for Catan was released in German in September of 2010, on the 15th anniversary of the original card game. An English edition was released in the fourth quarter of 2010. The designer of the game, Klaus Teuber, has stated that he completely reworked many of the original card game's mechanics to make it easier for newcomers to play the game.

Each player portrays a prince for Catan, developing their individual provinces and competing to build a more successful province than the other. The basic mode of play is similar to the original Catan Card Game, where players expand their provinces by building settlements connected by roads. Players may also build expansions in their settlements that aid them in various ways, or upgrade their settlements to cities to allow more expansions to be built. They build these additions by using resources that they accumulate each turn, which are determined by the roll of a die. Cards are drawn on each turn to replenish the players' hands. The players may also use action cards that directly affect either their own province or their opponent's province.

The Rivals for Catan features a reduced pool of cards, without the more aggressive style of action cards found in the original Catan Card Game. Therefore, all action cards will be able to be used from the beginning of the game unlike in the original card game.

Ways to Play:
The Introductory Game focuses on the basics of the card game, featuring gameplay that is more appropriate for newcomers. This game is played to 7 victory points and includes 36 Expansion Cards in four stacks. This play style should take beginner players 25 to 30 minutes to play.

Three Theme Games add more rules, expansions, and aggressive cards. These Theme Games may be played individually or combined to play a variant called "The Duel of the Princes." Each Theme Game adds 24 Expansion and Event Cards to the cards from the Introductory Game, which are placed in two stacks separately from the cards from the Introductory Game. When playing a Theme Game, playtime should be around 45 to 60 minutes.

As with the original Catan Card Game, players can also play the Tournament Game, in which each player chooses specific cards to build their deck ahead of time from which they draw from during the game.

Theme:
The theme of The Rivals for Catan is no longer restricted only to the feudal era of the Middle Ages like the original Catan Card Game. The Introductory Game portrays the very early years of the world of Catan, while each Theme Game takes place in progressively later eras. These eras are known as "The Era of Gold," "The Era of Turmoil," and "The Era of Progress."

Belongs to the Catan Series.

From the publisher:

"At the start of each round, six cards are lined up between the players with each card corresponding to the numbers 1-6 on a die. The cards show sailors of different nationalities or special actions with which the players can influence the die results or enlarge their team. The player take turns rolling dice and assigning one of them to a card until a player wants to get out and start shanghaiing, at which point the cards are distributed to whoever has more dice on their side."

At the end of the game, the stronger nationality score victory points equal to the value of the weaker team. Having a monopoly causes you to score the value of your own team.

Expanded by:

Shanghaien: Extrakarte 1
Shanghaien: Extrakarte 2
Shanghaien: Extrakarte 3

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)

Monolith is a fast-paced, confrontational, and exciting worker placement game that will reward players who make use of thoughtful and creative gameplay strategies. No two games will play the same as changing Fate and Rune cards are introduced to create a variable game board offering phenomenal replayability. Players will be executing exciting combinations and managing valuable resources, all while cautiously engaging other players.

To begin the game, the game board is seeded with five Starting Rune cards, six Rune cards at random, and one randomly-drawn Fate card. Once the first player is determined, they gain the powerful Primus Token and randomly determine the placement of the starting "Round 1" card, while all other players receive one Skill card or one gem.

Players then take turns placing or socketing one die at a time onto a Rune card of their choice, yielding Skill and Power cards, gems or victory points, and they can even attack other players. After all dice have been placed, the cards on the board are resolved in sequential order. As each die is removed, the effect of that placement is resolved. This sequence makes for exciting combinations and rewards strategic play.

All resources of the game are finite, so players need to play carefully in order to avoid wasting placements. The game ends after five rounds or immediately if any player reaches Victory on the Score Track.