Objective
In Catan – Crop Trust Scenario, the goal is to ensure the sustainable management of agricultural resources on Catan while developing your settlement. Players must cooperate to preserve the genetic diversity of crops, crucial for food security on the island.
Setup
To start the game, you need: - The base game "The Settlers of Catan" - The Crop Trust scenario set
Set up the normal Catan game board with landscape tiles and the surrounding frame. Lay out the Crop Trust components, which include genetic resource markers and the seed bank card deck.
Gameplay
- Collect Resources: As in the base game, players draw resources based on dice rolls and their settlement locations.
- Building and Trading: Players use resources to build roads, settlements, and cities, or trade with other players.
- Manage Fields: For every crop harvested, a genetic resource marker must be taken from the associated tile. If markers run out, the field is exhausted and cannot produce resources, introducing the challenges of sustainability and cooperation.
- Seed Bank Management: Players collaborate to maintain genetic diversity by pooling markers to activate replenishment cards.
Notable Features
- Genetic Diversity: With each harvest decline, the player group can sacrifice markers to preserve diversity, maintain variety, and reactivate fields.
- Cooperative Elements: During the game, players must decide whether to collectively invest in conservation efforts, which costs resources but offers long-term benefits.
Strategies
- Resource Planning: Players should strategically use resources to advance their settlements while not neglecting critical conservation efforts for crop fields.
- Negotiation Skills: Since trading plays an important role, players should be ready to negotiate and form alliances to tackle challenges together.
Tips
- Balance between personal progress and sustainable use of the fields can be crucial to winning the game.
- Be prepared to make short-term sacrifices for long-term benefits, particularly regarding genetic marker conservation.
The game ends like the base game, when a player reaches 10 victory points, but the game can also be lost if agricultural resources are depleted and there aren't enough used markers for replenishment. The cooperative component makes it particularly important to carefully weigh when it is crucial to work together as a group instead of focusing solely on individual progress.
