The Rivals for Catan () is an updated revision of the Catan Card Game, a card game adaptation of The Settlers of Catan. The game was released in 2010. It is a member of the Catan series of games, and is published by Kosmos in German and Mayfair Games in English. Like its predecessor, The Rivals for Catan is a two-player game. As with the Catan Adventures series of games, the theme is based on the Rebecca Gablé novel The Settlers of Catan, a novel based on the original board game. The development of The Rivals for Catan and its evolution from the Catan Card Game was documented on the official Catanism blog in eight parts, titled "The Reform of the Catan Card Game". There are a few minor changes to the rules between the two editions. The two editions are not compatible with each other, but they share many cards in common. The changes were motivated by the escalating complexity of the rules in the Catan Card Game (which had, in 2003, undergone a major rules revision) in order to make the game more accessible. Cards in The Rivals for Catan are organized into "Theme Sets", which broadly follow the progression of time on Catan. Included with the base game are three theme sets, "The Era of Gold", "The Era of Turmoil", and "The Era of Progress", with each expansion of The Rivals of Catan containing additional theme sets. The Rivals of Catan supports three (four with expansions) different rulesets, called the Introductory (no theme sets), Theme Deck (all cards from one theme set), Duel of the Princes (parts of all theme sets), and Tournament (custom deck) games. In 2011 an expansion called "Age of Darkness" () with the theme sets "The Era of Intrigue", "The Era of Merchants Princes", and "The Era of Barbarians" was released. This expansion contains new card types: Region Expansions, Extraordinary Sites, Road Complements, a new center card and Marker cards. Furthermore, there are now cards which can be placed in the opponent's principality. For 2012 a second expansion, "Age of Enlightenment" () was released. This 125-card expansion includes three theme sets: "The Era of Explorers", "The Era of Sages", and "The Era of Prosperity". Gameplay Each player controls a principality of Catan, initially consisting of two settlements, a road between them, and six regions near the settlements, all of which are represented by