Die Siedler von Catan - Thüringen edition is part of a series of historical regional map expansions for the venerable Catan series. The new line profiles famous regions of Germany during the Middle Ages, when Celts, Romans, and Germans intermingled.
Like Die Siedler von Nürnberg and the other historical expansions, it features a fixed map board. The geographic features (resource hexes) and cities mirror the approximate location of their real-world counterparts. "Harbors" ring the playing field.
The rules of the Thüringen Edition cleave closely to those of standard Catan, with a few departures to keep things interesting. Players may only build cities in the round intersections denoting actual cities. Because some of the cities are only one hexside apart, the spacing rule requiring two roads between settlements is not in effect. Having built a road to a hex with a settlement, one cannot build a road leaving it until one has build a settlement on the hex. Finally, to obtain the benefit of a harbor, it is only necessary to lay a road on the hexside shaded in red.