How to Play Catan

I chose Catan because it is the game that finally got my friends who "do not like board games" to sit down and play for two hours. There is no fighting and no one gets knocked out, so nobody is bored waiting for the game to end. I discovered it about two years ago at a friend's place where it was the only game on the shelf, and I have been bringing it to gatherings ever since. What keeps me coming back is that the board is built from random tiles, so every game plays out differently and the same strategy does not work twice. I would recommend it to groups of three or four friends who like to talk and negotiate, because trading is half the fun. It is also a good pick for families, since the maths is just counting to ten and the rules fit on one page. If you have only played Monopoly or Uno, this is the natural next step.

Catan is a strategy board game for 3 to 4 players, played on an island made of hexagonal tiles. Each tile produces one kind of resource: wood, brick, wheat, sheep or ore. Players build settlements, cities and roads on the island to collect those resources and turn them into victory points.

The goal is simple: be the first player to reach 10 victory points on your own turn. Points come from the things you build and from a few bonuses, so there is more than one way to win.

• A game takes about 60 to 90 minutes.
• There is no player elimination; everyone plays until someone wins.
• Luck (dice) and skill (placement and trading) both matter.

Everything below comes in the base game box. Count the pieces before your first game, because a missing number token makes setup confusing.

• 19 hex tiles: 4 forest (wood), 3 hills (brick), 4 fields (wheat), 4 pasture (sheep), 3 mountains (ore) and 1 desert.
• 6 sea frame pieces that lock the tiles together, with 9 harbours printed on them.
• 18 number tokens marked 2 to 12 (there is no 7).
• 95 resource cards, 19 of each type.
• 25 development cards: 14 Knights, 5 Victory Points, 2 Road Building, 2 Year of Plenty, 2 Monopoly.
• Player pieces in four colours: 5 settlements, 4 cities and 15 roads each.
• 2 dice, the robber piece, and the Longest Road and Largest Army bonus cards.

You also need a table big enough for the board plus a bit of room on each side for your cards. Keep your resource cards hidden from the other players but your built pieces are public.

Setup is the part most new groups get wrong, so take it slowly the first time. It takes about ten minutes.

1. Build the frame. Connect the six sea pieces into a ring. The numbers on the pieces show which ends fit together.
2. Lay the tiles. Shuffle the 19 land hexes face down and place them inside the frame in a 3-4-5-4-3 pattern, then flip them over.
3. Place the number tokens. Start at a corner and go round in a spiral toward the centre, placing tokens in alphabetical order (A, B, C ... R). Skip the desert. If you prefer, just make sure no two red numbers (6 and 8) touch.
4. Place the robber on the desert tile.
5. Sort the bank. Make five face-up piles of resource cards and one face-down shuffled pile of development cards.
6. Pick colours. Each player takes all the pieces of one colour and a building-costs card.
7. Roll for first player. Highest roll goes first.
8. First settlements. In turn order, each player places one settlement on a corner and one road next to it. Then, in reverse order, each player places a second settlement and road. The last player therefore places twice in a row.
9. Starting resources. For your second settlement only, take one resource card for each tile touching it.

Players take turns clockwise. Every turn has the same three phases, always in this order.

Phase 1: Roll for resources

Roll both dice. Every tile whose number token matches the total produces. Each player with a settlement on a corner of that tile takes one matching resource card; a city takes two. Everyone collects, not just the roller.

If you roll a 7, nothing produces. Instead, every player holding more than seven cards discards half of them (rounded down). Then you move the robber to any other tile and steal one random card from a player who has a building on that tile. The robber's tile does not produce until it is moved again.

Phase 2: Trade

You may trade resource cards with other players at any rate you both agree on, but only the player whose turn it is can trade with the others. You may also trade with the bank:

• 4:1 with the bank: four identical cards for any one card.
• 3:1 if you have a settlement on a generic harbour.
• 2:1 if you have a settlement on a harbour for that specific resource.

Phase 3: Build

Pay cards to the bank to place pieces or buy development cards. You can build as many things as you can afford in one turn.

Roads must connect to your existing roads or buildings, and new settlements must sit on one of your roads and obey the distance rule. A development card bought this turn cannot be played until your next turn, and you may play only one development card per turn.

Here is a full turn from a real game, so you can see how the phases fit together. Maria has a settlement touching a 6 wood tile and an 8 wheat tile, and she holds two wood, one brick and one sheep.

1. Roll. Maria rolls a 3 and a 5, total 8. The wheat tile produces, so she takes one wheat. Another player with a city on that tile takes two wheat.
2. Trade. Maria now has wood, wood, brick, sheep, wheat. She asks the table for a second brick. Nobody bites, so she keeps her cards.
3. Build. She pays wood + brick + wheat + sheep for a settlement on a corner at the end of her road. She places it, and the settlement is worth 1 point immediately.
4. End turn. She has one wood left. She passes the dice to the player on her left.

Points are counted all the time, not just at the end. The moment you reach 10 points during your own turn, you say so and win immediately.

A typical winning board is three or four settlements, two cities and one bonus card. You only need to hit 10 once, and you can win with hidden Victory Point cards that nobody saw coming.

These are the things I see new players get wrong in almost every first game, and what to do instead.

1. Placing your first settlements on pretty tiles instead of good numbers. The dots under each number show how often it rolls. 6 and 8 roll most; 2 and 12 almost never. Aim for corners with lots of dots.
2. Ignoring brick and wood. You cannot expand without roads, and roads need both. A start with no brick usually stalls by turn five.
3. Hoarding cards. More than seven cards when a 7 is rolled costs you half of them. Spend or trade before you get there.
4. Forgetting the distance rule. Check the two corners next to your target before you build a road toward it, or you will waste the road.
5. Refusing every trade. A trade that helps you a lot and your opponent a little is still worth making. Being known as impossible to trade with hurts you more than it hurts them.
6. Playing a development card the turn you bought it. Not allowed, except that a Victory Point card still counts the turn it wins you the game.

What happens if the bank runs out of a resource?

If there are not enough cards for everyone who should receive that resource on a roll, nobody gets it. If only one player is owed that resource, they take whatever is left.

Can I build a settlement on a corner where an opponent's road passes through?

Yes, as long as one of your roads also reaches that corner and the distance rule is satisfied. Note that a settlement on an opponent's road breaks their road into two pieces for the Longest Road count.

Two players have the same longest road. Who gets the bonus?

The player who held it first keeps it. If nobody held it yet, the bonus stays unclaimed until one player clearly has the longest road.

Do I have to move the robber when I roll a 7?

Yes, you must move it to a different tile, and you must steal if there is anyone to steal from. You can choose a tile with no buildings if you want to avoid stealing.

I reached 10 points on someone else's turn. Did I win?

Not yet. You can only win on your own turn. Hold on until your turn starts, then announce it.

Can I trade with the bank at 4:1 during someone else's turn?

No. All trading, with players or the bank, happens only during your own trade phase.