Settlers of the Shire

Hi and welcome to this Instructable!

As a huge fan of Settlers of Catan—and an even bigger fan of The Hobbit— I have combined the two. That’s how the game Settlers of the Shire was invented: a hobbit-themed twist on the Settlers of Catan.

Materials

1. Acrylic paint
2. Acrylic paint pens
3. 5-pack foam board ( you can find this at your local art store)
4. Polymer clay
5. Card (A4 size)
6. A4 paper
7. Coloring pencils
8. Glue stick
9. Spray paint ( blue, black, red)

Tools

1. Standee knife (or craft knife)
2. Ruler
3. Sketch pencil
4. Black pen (a Sharpie works great)
5. Guillotine or scissors
6. Chopping board
7. Paint brushes (fine tip + thicker tip)
8. Toothpick

Outer Edges:

1. Start with an A3 foam board (5-pack).
2. Use the edges of an original Settlers of Catan board as a template.
3. Lightly trace each piece with a pencil. You should be able to fit all six pieces on one A3 sized board
4. Place the foam on a cutting board and, with a sharp standee knife, carefully cut along the traced lines.
5. Repeat this process six times until you have all the outer edge pieces.
6. Tip: Cut the tabs as triangles rather than rounded (unlike the original design). This is much easier to do with foam board.

Hexagons:

1. For the inside pieces, use one of the original Catan hexagons as your template.
2. Cut out 19 hexagon pieces in total.
3. (If you don’t own a Catan board, don’t worry—hexagon outlines can easily be found online and printed for tracing.)

Base Colors: Using your acrylic paints, start by painting the background along the edges of the board.

The Journey Around the Edge: Begin at The Shire and work your way around:

1. The Shire
2. Rivendell
3. Mirkwood
4. The Misty Mountains
5. The Lonely Mountain
6. Add some sea
7. Finally, add a few trees and rolling landscape to loop back into the Shire.

Details: Once the background is dry, grab your acrylic paint pens to add finer details—Rivendell’s architecture, the spiders and their webs in Mirkwood, the houses/boats of Lake-town, etc.

Finishing Touch: Blend the edges so the whole border feels like one continuous journey.

Base Colors:

Paint your 19 hexagons using the five base colors:

1. Light Grey – diamond mines
2. Dark Blue-Black – mountains for the stone
3. Yellow – wheat fields
4. Brown – forests/woods
5. Green – pastures for ponies

since there are 19 hexagons total, paint:

1. 4 hexes of four different colors
2. 3 hexes of one color

Details with Paint Pens:

1. On the light grey hexes, draw rocky peaks and add a mine entrance for the diamond mine.
2. On the brown hexes, trees.
3. On the green hexes, add a few pony heads.
4. On the yellow hex, draw wheat plants (Hobbit cram-making material!).
5. On the dark blue/black hexes, add mountains and a quarry for stone.

Good news: You don’t need to sketch the characters yourself—all the work is done! Simply click on the uploaded file below to print the cards directly.

How I Did It:

1. Sketch & Outline:
2. I sketched each character onto paper.
3. Then I outlined them with a black pen and added color to bring them to life.
4. Digitize & Prepare for Printing:
5. I took photos of the completed sketches and uploaded them to Google Photos so they could be accessed from a computer.
6. I created a file with all the images which I uploaded below—this file can be printed directly.

Now It’s Back to You:

1. Print & Assemble:
2. Print the images on two types of paper:
3. Cardboard for Smaug the dragon on his mountain
4. Plain paper for the other characters
5. Align the plain paper prints with the cardboard and glue them together so that Smaug appears on the back of every development card.
6. This method avoids the need to print double-sided, and not being able to line everything up.
7. Cut Out: Use a guillotine for clean edges, or scissors if preferred.

Good news: I’ve also already created these for you, so all you need to do is click on the file below and print. That’s it!

How I Did It:

1. Sketch & Outline:
2. Firewood – drew a bundle of wood
3. Ponies – drew a pony
4. Cram – drew some cram
5. Diamonds – drew some diamonds
6. Stone – drew a pile of stone
7. For each resource, I first sketched, then outlined with black pen, and finally added colour to bring them to life.
8. Add Backgrounds & Details:
9. Firewood: I added a forest behind the bundle of wood
10. Ponies: I added rings around the pony
11. Cram: I added wheat stalks
12. Stone: I added mountains with quarry stones
13. Diamonds: I added mountains and mines around them
14. Digitize:
15. Then i took photos of the completed sketches and uploaded them to Google Photos for easy access
16. Created a file so you can print directly!

Now It’s Back to You:

1. Print & Assemble: Print at least two copies of each of the resource cards onto thin card.
2. Cut Out: Use a guillotine for clean edges, or scissors if preferred.

Materials:

1. Polymer clay (Use either 3 colors of clay or spray paint in 3 colors)
2. Knife
3. Chopping board

Troll:

1. Roll a small ball of clay for the head and with a toothpick make two small holes for eyes, then add a little nose.
2. Roll a larger ball for the body and attach two pieces of clay for the arms.
3. Poke a hole in the middle of the body for his bellybutton.
4. Add two more bits of clay to the bottom of the body to make the legs and feet.
5. With the knife, make cuts for the toes.
6. Spray blue or leave color of clay you use

Roads:

1. Flatten the clay to 0.5 cm thick
2. Cut into strips about 20 mm long and 3 mm across
3. Make 42 road pieces

Hobbit Holes:

1. Mold a small dome from clay
2. Add a chimney and a small door using a toothpick for details.
3. Make 9 Hobbit Holes

Village Houses:

1. Form clay into a rectangular prism and cut diagonals to form roof to create a simple house.
2. Make 12 Village Houses

Elven Cities:

1. Combine two houses together at a 90° angle.
2. Add a tower on top with a small rolled ball.
3. Make 9 Elven Cities .

Distribution:

Each player receives:

1. 4 Village houses
2. 3 Elven Cities
3. 3 Hobbit Holes
4. 14 Roads

Baking & Finishing:

1. Cook in a preheated oven at 145°C for 20 minutes
2. After cooling, if you didn't use 3 different colors of clay you can spray paint the pieces in three different colors: Red, Blue, Black .

Good news: You don’t have to make these yourself—all the instructions are ready in the file below. Simply click, print, cut, and stick onto your foam board that you have cut 3 out of (200 mm high and 180mm across). That’s it!

How I Made Mine:

1. I used leftover foam board to make the base.
2. Cut the foam to approximately 200 mm high and 180 mm across to form a rectangle.
3. In Word, I created a new file and added instructions for converting resources into structures:
4. Hobbit Hole: 2 stone + 1 wood
5. Village house: 1 stone + 1 wood + 1 cram + 1 pony
6. Elven City: 3 cram + 3 gems
7. Development Card: 3 ponies + 2 gems

Usage:

1. Place the printed boards on your table for easy reference during gameplay.
2. These show which resources are needed to build a Hobbit Hole, Village House, Elven City, or get a Development Card.
3. This is optional

Print out the file below, onto light card and cut out.

Settlers of the Shire

Game Instructions

This is designed as a 3 player game using two dice.

A player must reach at least 10 victory points to win.

Once the board is set up (see photo) randomly place a number token on each hex placing them so the numbers are facing down. Flip them over just before play ,ensure 6s or 8s are not adjacent, move these if necessary.

Roll dice to determine turn order. The highest roll goes first, proceeding clockwise.

Starting with the first player, each places one Hobbit-hole and one Road piece along the bottom edge of board (the Shire). Then in reverse order each player places a second Hobbit-Hole and Road together, anywhere on the board.

Each player takes one Resource Card for each hex adjacent to their two Hobbit-Holes.

Players then take turns, in clockwise order, by first rolling both dice. The sum (2-12) determines which hexes produce resources. Hobbit-Holes and Village Houses yield 1 resource card of that type. Elven cities yield 2 resource cards per hex. Note: You can upgrade Village Houses to to Elven Cities as resources allow but not Hobbit-Holes.

If a 7 is rolled, no resources are produced Instead players with more than 7 cards in their hands must discard half (rounded down)their cards. The rolling player then moves the Troll pawn to any hex and steals 1 random resource card from a player with a Hobbit-hole/Village House or City on that hex.

The development card of Azog the Orc can also move the troll.

Hexes with the troll produce no resources until it is moved.

Domestic Trade: You may trade Resource cards with other players (only with the active player).

Bank Trade: Trade 3 identical resources for 1 of your choice from the bank.

Building Costs:

Road = 1 stone and 1 wood

Hobbit-Hole = 1 stone, 1 wood + 1 cram

Village = 1 stone, 1 wood, 1 cram + 1 pony

Elven City = 3 cram + 2 gems

Development Card = 3 ponies + 2 gems

Development Cards:

Thorin Oakenshield = 1 victory point

Gandalf the Grey = You may take one resource card from the bank

Bard the Bowman = You may claim all resource cards of one kind from another player

Azog the Orc = Move the troll and steal one resource card from another player

Bilbo Baggins = You may build two roads for free

Scoring: 12 points total to win

1. Hobbit Hole = 1 point
2. Village House = 2 points
3. Elven City = 3 points
4. Thorin Oakenshield card = 1 victory point (must be turned over before last turn, unless picked up on last turn)