Friends
Alter
Spezial
PLAIN MILK OR FINE DARK?
Die Siedler von Catan
Der Schokoladenmarkt
Produce chocolate, collect victory points
Oh no, not again! Not another expansion for Catan! That was the first thought that entered my head when I saw the box in the Games Museum. But at the same time I got curious as regards the Ritter Sport Logo and the title “The Chocolate Market”, despite being only a casual Catan player. A combination of games play and chocolate is not happening very often, there was a Monopoly Chocolate edition and A Milka Schoko Spiel, none of them with the topic of chocolate. Despite no real chocolate being involved, my curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to try out this this expansion. For all Catan fans and collectors is must be mentioned that this expansion cannot be bought in a shop, but can only be swapped for resources cards, which can be found in Ritter Mini Sport chocolate fans and of Settlers and this offer is open till April 30th 2011, 24:00.
The Chocolate market is packed into a box used for packing the Kosmos Series Games for Two. The components are nicely detailed and go well with the basic Settler Came. Topic of the expansion is to collect several ingredients necessary for the production of chocolate. This chocolate is then exchanged according to the rules at the chocolate market for victory points, resources cards, development cards or roads.
The ingredients for the production of chocolate come in the shop of cards with their own backside, so that you can distinguish them from the basic raw materials of the game. There are 5 different ingredients: Milk, Sugar, Cocoa, Hazelnuts and Grapes. For the production of cocoa the expansions features five hex tiles “Jungle”. Such a hex tile does not produce raw materials and has a fixed die value printed on it. To fit those tiles into the board of the basic game two water frame parts are included to extend the water border.
The jungle hexes as well as the terrain hexes from the basic game - with the exception of the mountains - produce ingredients for chocolate, but only when a production tile has been placed on them. Cocoa can only be produced in the jungle, sugar in the plains and milk on the pastures (considering what raw material pastures usually yield it must be sheep’s milk!)
For the conversion of the chocolate you produced to its revenue of Victory Points, Cards or Roads the expansions features an extra board, the chocolate market, which shows a table with five columns of five varieties of chocolate and the corresponding revenue listed in the rows. In each column you find a starting square where to place the corresponding square marker mirroring the shape of the corresponding Ritter Sport Mini Schokolade varieties at the start of the game. Depending on the position of these markers, each variety yields different revenues. Furthermore, each column shows the ingredients that you need to produce this special variety.
As a player can earn victory points for producing chocolate, the expansion includes round markers for the victory points, all those markers show a value 1 and are provided in adequate quantities.
Basically, all rules of the basic game of Settlers of Catan apply. When laying out the board the jungle tiles are simple shuffled into the other terrain tiles. Unfortunately the back of the jungle tiles is white so that you can recognize them from the back, which makes random distribution a bit harder. When the starting setup of settlements is finished each player can – following the same procedure as for the settlements – place 2 production tiles next to his settlements, following the same placement rules.
The ensuing game rounds are played as usual and according to the basic rules, roll the die – trade – build, with each phase being extended by additional possibilities:
Roll of the die: In this phase, players receive raw material cards and cards for chocolate ingredients when there is a production site present on the hex determined by the die. Thus, a player who receives a raw material card for such a hex also receives one ingredient card, but the yield for ingredients is limited to one card for a city! When a 7 is rolled, raw material cards and ingredient cards are added separately for the limit of seven cards in hand. Furthermore, a player who may draw a card from another player must announce whether he wants to draw a raw material card or an ingredient card. And, by the way, the robber also blocks a production site on a hex tile.
In the trading phase and kind of trade is allowed and possible. Thus in the case of inland trade = trade between players you can exchange ingredient cards for raw material cards and vice versa. In case of overseas trade, 3:1 or 2:1 with a harbor, you can only exchange raw materials for raw materials and ingredients for ingredients.
The building phase is extended with the construction of production sites and the production of chocolate. To set up a production site you must pay one Ore and one Wood. Then you choose one production tiles among those available and place it on a hex that corresponds to the type of production site chosen and is still free and is situated next to one of your own settlements or cities. To produce chocolate you discard the ingredients necessary for the variety you want to produce, this can vary between 3 and 5 different ingredients. Then the player receives the revenues noted in the corresponding row of the market, which is the row where the marker for the variety currently sits. In the top row, the most valuable one, you earn two victory points; in the lowest, least valuable row you receive nothing. In between you get combinations of victory point, road, development card or raw material card. Take care: A variety whose marker sits in the lowest row must not be produced! After production the marker of the variety is moved one row down in the column, the chocolate becomes less valuable. But as the demand for chocolate is staying the same the demand for another variety must rise and another variety must become more valuable. Therefore you roll a die and move the marker in the corresponding column one row up. In case of a 6 or when the marker of the variety rolled is already in the top row you can choose the column/variety.
Contrary to the basic game the game ends when a player has accumulated 13 victory points.
‚Der Schokoladenmarkt‘ is a nice extension of „The Settlers of Catan“ basic game and will be fun for all settler players. Due to it being a limited edition it will appeal especially to collectors, too.
How intensively a player incorporates the new possibilities into his game is entirely up to himself. Our test games showed that the chocolate production is not an essential condition for winning the game. You can win if you only concentrate on the basic game. Should a marker be in the top row and you are able to produce this variety, two victory points are a big advantage, of course! In any case this expansion offers nice variations of the basic game and it is simply fun to produce chocolate even if you cannot eat it afterwards.
Bernhard Czermak
Spieler : 3-4
Alter : ages 12+
Dauer : ca. 90 min
Autor : Klaus Teuber
Grafik : Menzel Michael, Kienle Michaela,
Titel : ident
Preis : not available in shops
Verlag : Kosmos / Ritter Sport 2010
Genre : Resources management game
Zielgruppe : With friends
Sprache : de
Regeln : de
Text im Spiel : ja
Kommentar:
Limited edition
Only playable with the basic game
Nice topic
Changed victory conditions
Allows new strategies
Vergleichbar:
Basic Settlers game and other Settlers expansions
Meine Bewertung: 5
Bernhard Czermak:
Despite not being an ardent fan of Settles I like this expansion because of its topic. The mechanisms and possibilietes of the basic game are extended challengingly and nicely. For my part, I can give a very positive recommendation.
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