Overview

Catan Geographies: Settlers of Hesse (Die Siedler von Hessen) is the first in a series of historical regional map expansions for The Settlers of Catan. It features a fixed map board depicting the German state of Hesse, with resource hexes and city positions approximating real-world geography. The game uses standard Catan components but modifies several key rules around settlement placement, road building, and trading to fit the geographic map. Players compete to be the first to reach 10 victory points through building settlements, cities, and roads on the Hesse map.

New Components

• 1 Hesse map board (replaces the standard modular Catan board)
• Requires all playing pieces and cards from base Settlers of Catan

Setup Changes

1. Use the Hesse map board instead of building a random hex layout.
2. Resource hexes and number tokens are pre-printed on the board.
3. Place the robber on the forest/wood hex with the number “12.”
4. City spaces (round circles) are pre-printed on the board at locations corresponding to real Hesse cities.
5. Road construction places (rectangles) are pre-printed on the board.
6. Each player places initial settlements on any two available city spaces and roads on adjacent road rectangles, following standard initial placement rules.

Rule Changes

Settlement Placement: Settlements may only be built on the round “city spaces” printed on the board. The standard Catan spacing rule (requiring at least 2 roads between settlements) does not apply. Settlements can be built on adjacent city spaces.

Road Building: Roads may only be built on the road construction places marked by rectangles on the board. If a player builds a road to a city space, they may only continue building roads beyond that city space if they have built a settlement there first.

Harbor / Port Trading: To gain the benefit of a harbor, a player only needs to build a road on the hexside shaded in red (rather than building a settlement at a harbor intersection).

Special Red Road Spaces: Some road construction rectangles are colored red. When a player builds on a red road space, they gain a special trade ability as indicated by the sign next to it: either trade 3 identical resources of any sort for 1 resource of choice, or trade 2 resources of the specific type shown for 1 resource of choice.

Robber: The robber begins on the forest hex numbered 12 and operates according to standard Catan rules thereafter.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• The map uses stylized artwork for ore hexes, depicting low mountain ranges rather than standard Catan mountain art.
• City positions approximate but do not precisely match real geographic locations for gameplay balance.
• Some Hessen cities were excluded from the map for gameplay reasons.
• All other Catan rules (resource production, development cards, longest road, largest army, trading, etc.) remain unchanged.
• Players need base Settlers of Catan to play; this is a map-only expansion.

Player Reference

Rule	Standard Catan	Settlers of Hesse
Settlement spacing	2+ roads between settlements	No spacing rule; build on marked city spaces only
Road placement	Any valid intersection edge	Marked rectangle spaces only
Road past city space	Always allowed	Only if settlement built at that city space
Harbor access	Settlement at harbor intersection	Road on red hexside
Red road bonus	N/A	Special trade rates (3:1 any or 2:1 specific)
Robber start	Desert hex	Forest hex #12