Shane Cassels: The First Irish Qualifier

Congratulations go to Shane Cassels, the first Irishman to qualify for the 2005 Catan World Championships. Shane became the 15th qualifier overall for the World Champs by winning the first Irish qualifying tournament, which was held in Dublin on the 11th and 12th of June.

The other Irish qualifier should also be determined in the very near future, with a second qualifying showdown to also be held in Dublin this weekend.

For more information on the 2005 Catan World Championships, check out the Tournaments section.

3 new club listings

The first three clubs have been listed in the Clubs section:

• Wellington Settlers of Catan Club (New Zealand)
• Games Club of Maryland (USA)
• Columbia University Games Club (USA)

If any of these clubs are in your local area, drop them a line and go have a game!

Catan is coming to the Nokia N-Gage

Legendary games developer Capcom are set to release a version of The Settlers of Catan for the Nokia N-Gage in August 2005.

Simply titled 'Catan', the game has been refitted with Japanese artwork from Susumu Matsushita and a range of new gameplay modes. In addition to the standard Multiplayer mode that lets you test your skills against other N-Gage players, Catan includes Tournament, Single Player and Quest modes. 10 unique AI characters are even available to provide a range of challenges and playing styles.

The game was demonstrated at the E3 electronic gaming conference earlier this year and received a positive review from the team at Gamespot.

• N-Gage Official Description
• Gamespot Review
• Nokia Press Release

This news has also been added to the Playing Catan Electronic Style section.

Catan Tournament at the MSO in Manchester

A Settlers of Catan tournament is due to be held as part of the 9th Mind Sport Olympiad (MSO), which takes place from August 19 to 29, 2005, in Manchester, England.

Normally, the MSO is host to a range of more traditional games such as Chess and Go. However, this year the format has been expanded to include games like The Settlers of Catan, in a separate event called MSOCON. The other games included in MSOCON are Acquire, Age of Steam, Carcassonne, Lost Cities and Puerto Rico.

More information on the MSO can be found on the MSO website.

Sea3D

A review of Sea3D has been added to the Playing Catan Electronic Style section. Sea3D is an impressive piece of network gaming software for The Settlers of Catan, and boasts a strong community base.

The first Strategy article!

The first Strategy article, Trevor Dewey's Questions you might ask after you've played a bit, has been posted to the Strategy section.

Updates to Playing Catan and Links sections

The Playing Catan section of Catan HQ has been expanded to cover Catan expansion packs and the Java Settlers of Catan online game. While these updates are only brief, more detail is on its way.

Some new links have also been added to the Links section.

Catan World Championships 2005

The annual Catan World Championships at being held at the SPIEL 2005 international games fair in Essen, Germany, on October 15 and 16. 14 players have already qualified for positions, including last year's champion, Francesco Ferrari of Italy, and runner-up Claus Sorensen of Denmark.

More information can be found here on the Spielezentrum Herne website.

Catan Online preview extended

MSN Games have extended the preview period for Catan Online, the latest and greatest online version of The Settlers of Catan. The preview was previously slated to finish on June 6, but has been extended indefinitely, presumably until the supporter base reaches critical levels.

Welcome to Catan HQ

Welcome to Catan HQ. We hope that with your help, Catan HQ will become the definitive online headquarters for The Settlers of Catan. This site is still under construction, but Catan HQ will one day bring you:

• Catan News
• Strategy Pages
• General Catan Information
• International Player Rankings
• Catan Links
• And anything else the Catan community desires...