Catan: Traders & Barbarians - Scenario: Traders & Barbarians

Scenario: Traders & Barbarians

Traders & Barbarians is the flagship scenario for the Traders expansion. In this expansion, each player has a caravan that serves to shuttle commodities between three different trade hexes. These trade hexes, all situated on a coast, have a central point and four possible road paths leading to them (building settlements on the central point or on the coastal portion of trade hexes is forbidden).

Each player is also given a wagon, which has a limited number of movement points each turn (this number can be increased by 2 by paying one grain or 2 fish, but cannot be increased further). Wagons move on the intersections of hexes, and the movement costs vary depending on the presence of a road on the path, the owner of said road if it exists, and the presence of a barbarian on the path. The movement point costs are:

• 1 movement point to use your own road, bridge, or ship
• 1 movement point and 1 gold to the owner to use an opponent's road or ship
• 1 movement point and 2 gold to the owner to use an opponent's bridge
• 2 movement points when there is no road or ship, or when there is a road broken by the Earthquake event in the Catan Event Cards variation
• 3 movement points to cross a river without a bridge
• 2 additional movement points if there is a barbarian on the path

Whenever an empty wagon arrives at a trade hex's central point, a commodity tile from the trade hex is drawn, which is to be carted off to another trade hex - each trade hex supplies and demands two different commodities. A successful delivery earns the player one victory point as well as some amount of gold.

Wagons can be upgraded to different levels (akin to development in Cities and Knights), represented by a players' Baggage Train. Increased levels increase the amount of gold earned per delivery, the number of movement points given per turn, as well as a chance to drive off barbarians (i.e. force barbarians to relocate before continuing with movement). Upgrading to the highest level earns the player one victory point.

At the start of the game, three barbarians are placed onto the board. Barbarians occupy paths, and a road may not be built on paths occupied by barbarians. However, they may be driven off by wagons, and (as there is no robber in this scenario) may be moved on a roll of 7 to another path (if there is a road, the player may steal a resource from the road's owner).

In addition as a way of payment on opponents' roads, gold may be used in the same way as The Rivers, except that there are no wealthiest/poor settler tiles.

When combined with Barbarian Attack, barbarians go on one side of the road, so that they are both on a road (affecting the rules of this scenario) and a hex (affecting the rules of Barbarian Attack). It is possible to remove them using knights, and they can be moved using the wagons or certain Barbarian Attack development cards. In this case, hexes, settlements, and cities in the center of the board can also be conquered, but the barbarians always start on coastal hexes.

When combined with Cities and Knights, active knights can be used to move a barbarian from a path, which deactivates the knight.