How to play

• The host sits first. Each player who joins takes the lowest open seat.
• At an online table, whoever waited longest sits first and hosts.
• Setup pieces cost nothing. A setup settlement needs no road, but it keeps the distance rule.
• Setup is worth 2 points. Its roads and harbours already count towards the awards.

1. 1

   Roll

   Roll two dice, or play a court card first.

2. 2

   Produce

   Tiles with that number pay: 1 card to each settlement on them, 2 to each city.

3. 3

   Trade

   Trade with the bank, or offer a trade to the other players.

4. 4

   Build

   Build roads, settlements and cities, or buy a court card.

5. 5

   End

   End the turn. The next seat rolls.

• Trade and build in any order, as often as you can pay.
• The tile under the bandit produces nothing. Nor does a desert.
• On a 7, nothing is produced. The seven has a chapter of its own.
• Only the player on turn acts. The others may only answer an offer or discard.
• While your own offer stands, you can only withdraw it.
• Nothing is built between turns, at any table size.

There is no box of pieces. Build whatever you can pay for and the island has room for.

1. Beat 1

   Discard

   • Every hand of more than 7 cards discards half, rounded down.
   • A player who has played a Treasury discards only above 10 cards.
   • You pick the cards. Court cards are never counted.
   • Nobody plays on until every debt is paid. After 40 s, random cards go.

2. Beat 2

   The bandit moves

   • The player on turn moves the bandit to a different tile.
   • Any tile will do, a desert included.
   • While he stands there, that tile produces nothing.

3. Beat 3

   A card is taken

   • Choose one player with a settlement or city on that tile.
   • Take 1 random card from their hand.
   • If nobody there holds a card, nothing is taken.

A Knight moves the bandit and takes a card the same way, with no discards.

The bank

Between players

• An offer stands for 25 s at standard pace. Whoever has not answered by then declines.
• It closes when everyone addressed has declined. Only the player who made it can withdraw it.
• An offer to a player who is away counts as declined.

Playing a card

• A court card costs 1 sheep, 1 wheat and 1 ore. The table only hears that you bought one.
• Cards are drawn at random from what is left. There is no deck order to learn.
• Play one card per turn, before your roll or after it.
• A card cannot be played in the turn it was bought.
• Victory point cards are never played. They count while you hold them.
• A victory point card can win the game the moment it is bought.
• Held cards are never stolen, traded or counted on a 7. An away seat keeps them.
• Once the deck is empty, no more cards can be bought.

A tie changes nothing

A challenger needs strictly more than the holder. Drawing level is not enough.

A road can be cut

A rival's settlement or city on a corner cuts a road in two there.

A holder who falls behind

The award goes to the single leader at the minimum or above. If several tie, nobody holds it.

Last player standing

• When every seat but one is away, and that one is connected, it wins.
• This is how a game of two ends when one side stops playing.
• When every seat is away, nobody wins and the game waits.

When a clock runs out

• A lost turn is skipped, as if the seat were away. An open offer closes.
• In setup, a random settlement and road are placed for you instead.
• Two lost turns in a row and your seat counts as away, though still connected.
• A touch says you are back. Ending a turn yourself clears the count.

Three paces

• The host picks the pace when the game starts. Standard is the default.
• A table found online always plays at standard pace.

The hurry-up vote

• At relaxed pace there is no cap. The other players can vote to hurry a slow turn instead.
• The vote opens once a turn is 90 s old.
• With up to three other players present, all must agree. With four or more, all but one.
• Once the vote passes, the turn has 30 s left. Running out is a lost turn.

• Your phone reports a touch at most every 5 s, and only while the table waits for you.
• No clock runs in a lobby, in a finished game or while nobody is connected.

1. 0:00

   The connection drops

   • The table waits for you for 2 minutes.
   • In a lobby, your seat, colour and host role are held as long.
2. 2:00

   The seat is away

   • Its turns are skipped: no roll, its offer closes, an unfinished bandit move is given up.
   • In setup, a random settlement and a road touching it are placed for it.
   • On a 7, random cards are discarded for it. Offers to it count as declined.
   • An away host hands the role to the lowest seat still present, for good.
3. Back

   You rejoin

   • Join the same room with the same account, and your seat is yours again.
   • Your pieces, cards and points were kept for you, even mid-game.

• Nothing advances while every seat is empty.
• A seat whose clocks lose two turns in a row is away too, until a touch.

• Empty lobbies close after 10 minutes. So do finished games nobody is connected to.
• Any room nobody has been connected to for an hour is closed.

A hosted table