Sanders of Catan

Playing the award-winning game like a true Socialist

Improving on perfection

Klaus Teuber’s (Settlers of) Catan is an award-winning strategy board game loved by millions. However, a game of Catan can run long and can be one-sided from the outset. In order to address these minor shortcomings, Sanders of Catan was developed.

Sanders of Catan aims to make the game faster and encourage parity among the players, regardless of experience, board, or dice.

Sanders of Catan is compatible with the Catan 5-6 Player Extension pack.

Rules

Sanders of Catan is played with a standard Catan game with a few altered rules.

Resources

Players acquire resources more rapidly in Sanders of Catan.

1. At the beginning of each turn, a player rolls the dice
2. The roll activates all of the tiles on the board with a chip with the same number
3. Next, the roll activates all of the resources of the same type that were activated in the previous step
4. Players that have a building on an active resource draw the appropriate number of resource cards from the deck in a clock-wise manner from the roller

Example

Bobby rolls an eight. On the game board, one wood and one wheat tile have a chip with the number eight. That means all of the wood tiles and all of the wheat tiles on the board yield resources. Bobby has a settlement on an wood tile which bears a chip with a 3, and a city on a wheat tile which bears a chip with a 9. Since both of those resources were activated by his roll, Bobby will draw one wood and two wheat resource cards.

The Taxman

The gray robber piece is renamed “The Taxman” and remains on the Desert tile for the duration of the game. When a player rolls a 7:

1. All players count the number of resource cards in their hand
2. The player with the most cards (i.e. the “richest” player) selects half of his or her cards to forfeit, rounded down
3. The forfeited cards are shuffled and placed face-down on the table
4. The other players take turns drawing from the forfeited pile in a clock-wise manner until the pile is exhausted
5. When drawing a card from the forfeit pile, players say “Feel the Bern” to the forfeiter

Example

Mindie rolls a seven. Bobby counts the cards in his hand and finds that he has eleven, the most at the table. He selects five (5) cards from his hand to forfeit to the Taxman, shuffles them, and places them in a pile. The other players at the table take turns drawing cards and telling Bobby to “Feel the Bern.”

Attribution

“Sanders of Catan” was coined by Carl Parkin. The rules were fine tuned by Carl and his wife Tayler with the help of Sean and Anne McPherson.

Sanders of Catan was inspired by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2016 Presidential campaign. Sanders of Catan is not (yet) endorsed by Sen. Sanders.