New Game Mode: Overthrow - Dethrone the Tyrant!
After thousands of games, it is safe to state that one hardly ever gets bored of Catan once they have adapted to its high level of competition. Despite that fact, the base game of Catan still has space available for new inventions, particularly ones adding more fun and easing out the seriousness. Using only components from the original set, we have come up with a custom game mode named Overthrow, whose motto is "Dethrone the Tyrant!".
Before continuing, we would like to clarify that this game mode has been carefully designed, balanced and playtested by members of the first, and so far the only, Catan club in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - HeXSaiGon. Aside from entertaining purposes, Overthrow helps intermediate players sharpen their skills to become even more professional. The two skills the game mode focuses on are resource management for the tyrant's side and trading for the vassals' side. Now let's get you to know more about the mode's new rules.
On one side, we have a tyrant who is fighting on his own; while his two vassals on the other side form an alliance against him. During the set-up stage, the tyrant places 02 settlements followed by 01 city, each of which has a road pointed outward. Meanwhile, each vassal begins with a "02 settlements & 02 roads" standard set. As usual, the second settlement immediately yields one resource for each surrounding terrain hex when picked. Meanwhile, the tyrant's starting city yields two times the starting resource amount. Check out the turn order we propose illustrated in the picture below, note that the vassals' turns during this stage are interchangeable.
Derived from the photo, it is obvious that the tyrant will potentially hold 09 cards when the set-up stage ends, which is well above the regular hand limit. Moreover, since he has only half the number of turns to spend his resources compared to the vassals, the hand limit for him in this specific game mode is doubled. Differently speaking, as long as he has 14 or fewer cards in hand, he won't be discarding when number 7 gets rolled. Additionally, the two vassals are allowed to see each other hands and unused development cards in private; however, the content of their trades must still be revealed to the tyrant. Since the vassals' VPs are combined, both sides have 04 Victory Points at the beginning. After ending his first official turn, the tyrant invites which vassal goes next; that flow will be kept for the remainder of the game. Lastly, whichever side reaches 14 VPs first wins the battle.
If you have any questions about Overthrow, please let us know in the comment section below. Hope you would enjoy dethroning the tyrant. Thank you for reading!