We're still getting questions as to who should obtain The Settlers of Catan™ Pre-2007 Adapter Kit™. The following is an explanation of which Catan players should obtain the kit. We hope this answers whatever questions might arise when considering whether or not purchasing the adapter kit is necessary.

The kit has two audiences. First, if you have a 3rd edition Catan set you're not ready to part with yet, you can buy this kit to obtain the frame used for the 4th edition base set. So, you can now have a frame for your 3rd edition set, complete with both printed harbors and random harbor setups.

The second group is those with a 3rd edition base set who have since purchased a 4th edition Seafarers set. Basically, you have less water tiles overall with 4th edition (because with the frame, they're not needed). With 3rd edition, you received 18 sea tiles (9 with harbors). Then, when you bought 3rd edition Seafarers, you got 12 more water hexes, totaling 30 water hexes including harbors.

With 4th edition, you get no sea hexes, just frame pieces; you get 19 sea hexes with 4th edition Seafarers. (The land hex counts are almost the same between 3rd and 4th; there's one less desert tile in the new Seafarers.) The frame pieces are what you need to make the lower sea tile work with 4th ed. Seafarers, as some of the new scenarios have changed layout due to the frame (and the harbor tiles from 3rd ed. will almost certainly not be useful as harbors with many of the boards from the 4th edition scenarios).

So, to recap: complete 3rd + adapter kit = all single-set scenarios in 3rd, and all 4th edition scenarios, are playable, no 4th ed. Seafarers necessary (note that there are new scenarios in 4th ed., and some 3rd ed. scenarios were cut). With a 3rd ed. set you have 21 blank sea hexes, to 4th's 19 blank sea hexes. With 3rd ed. you have all of the land from 4th ed. plus one desert. With the adapter kit (frame + harbor tokens), you have everything to make a 4th ed. component set with 3rd ed. base set pieces.

We hope this explanation helps!