Settle the island of Catan: collect resources from dice-activated terrain hexes, trade with rivals and the bank, and build roads, settlements, and cities to be the first to 10 victory points.

How to Play Catan

Overview

Catan (formerly The Settlers of Catan) is a resource-gathering, trading, and building game for 3-4 players in the base box (5-6 with the official extension). Players compete to be the first to 10 victory points by building roads, settlements, and cities on a modular hex island, fueled by five resources whose production is driven by dice rolls.

Components (what matters for play)

• 19 terrain hexes (4 fields, 4 forests, 4 pastures, 3 hills, 3 mountains, 1 desert) that produce resources, plus surrounding sea/harbor frame pieces.

• 18 number tokens (2-12, no 7) placed one per resource hex.

• Resource cards: brick, lumber, wool, grain, ore.

• Development cards: knights, progress cards, and victory-point cards.

• Buildings per player: 5 settlements, 4 cities, 15 roads.

• 2 special cards: Longest Road and Largest Army.

• The robber pawn (starts on the desert) and 2 six-sided dice.

Setup

1. Build the board: assemble the 19 terrain hexes inside the sea frame (variable or beginner layout), place the harbor pieces, and put the robber on the desert.

2. Place number tokens on every resource hex (the desert gets none).

3. Initial placement (snake order): each player places 2 settlements and 2 roads. In the second round (reverse order), each player collects starting resources from the hexes around their second settlement.

4. Sort resource and development cards into supply stacks within reach.

Turn Structure (what you do on your turn)

Play proceeds clockwise. On your turn:

1) Roll for production

Roll both dice and sum them. Every player who has a settlement (1 card) or city (2 cards) bordering a hex showing that number collects the matching resource. Settlements adjacent to a hex blocked by the robber produce nothing.

2) Rolling a 7 (the robber)

If you roll a 7: no resource is produced. Any player holding more than 7 resource cards (i.e. 8+) must discard half (rounded down). You then move the robber to a new hex and steal 1 random resource from a player who has a settlement/city touching that hex.

3) Trade

• Trade with other players: offer and negotiate any resources, in any ratio you both accept (you may not give resources away for nothing, and you cannot trade buildings/dev cards/special cards).

• Trade with the bank: 4:1 (four identical resources for one of your choice).

• Harbors: a settlement/city on a generic harbor trades 3:1; a specific-resource harbor trades that resource 2:1.

4) Build

Spend resources to build:

• Road = 1 brick + 1 lumber (must connect to your existing road/settlement).

• Settlement = 1 brick + 1 lumber + 1 wool + 1 grain (must touch your road network and obey the distance rule — no settlement adjacent to another settlement/city).

• City = 3 ore + 2 grain (upgrades one of your existing settlements; returns the settlement piece).

• Development card = 1 ore + 1 wool + 1 grain (draw the top card; knights, progress cards, or hidden victory points).

Victory Points

You win at 10 victory points on your turn. Sources:

• Settlement = 1 point each.

• City = 2 points each.

• Longest Road (special card) = 2 points, held by whoever has an unbroken road of 5+ segments (longest; can be stolen if surpassed).

• Largest Army (special card) = 2 points, held by whoever has played the most Knight cards, minimum 3 (can be stolen if surpassed).

• Victory-point development cards = 1 point each (kept hidden until they would win you the game).

End of Game

The instant a player reaches 10 or more victory points during their own turn, they declare it and win immediately. Because hidden VP cards count, a player can win on the turn they reveal them.

Scoring Guide (and How to Record a Match)

Catan is a race to 10 victory points, not a count-up-at-the-end Euro. The winner is whoever first reaches 10 VP on their turn; everyone else is ranked by the victory points they held when the game ended.

Where victory points come from

1. Settlements - 1 VP each (max 5 built).

2. Cities - 2 VP each (max 4 built; each replaces a settlement).

3. Longest Road - 2 VP, to the single player with the longest continuous road of 5+ segments.

4. Largest Army - 2 VP, to the single player who has played the most Knight cards (3+).

5. Victory-point development cards - 1 VP each, hidden until claimed.

These five sources add up exactly to a player's victory-point total, so the total is genuinely an additive sum of recordable components.

Recording Matches on Our Site

Minimum viable record (enough to rank the match)

• Variant played (Base 3-4 / 5-6 Player / 2-Player house variant / Timed).

• Player list.

• Final Victory Points for each player (integer). The winner has 10+; others have what they held at game end.

That alone determines the winner and the placement order.

Best record (great for analysis and 'why did I win?')

Record, per player:

• Settlements built (count) and Cities built (count).

• Held Longest Road (yes/no) and Held Largest Army (yes/no) at game end (each worth 2 VP).

• Victory-point cards (count).

These components sum to the victory-point total, so they double as a sanity check on the recorded score.

Common scoring mistakes to avoid

• Counting buildings you upgraded: a city replaces a settlement, so a settlement that became a city is now 2 VP (the city), not 3.

• Forgetting the special cards can move: Longest Road / Largest Army each belong to exactly one player at a time and are worth 2 VP - they can be lost if surpassed.

• Revealing VP cards too early: they are hidden and only declared when they would bring you to 10.

• Recording mid-game scores: only the final victory-point totals matter for ranking; the loser totals are whatever they held when someone hit 10.

Record each player's Final Victory Points (the winner has 10+; others have what they held at game end). Optionally record the additive breakdown — settlements_built, cities_built, longest_road_held, largest_army_held, victory_point_cards — which sums to the VP total. The board_layout (beginner vs variable) is a match param on this variant's ruleset and is not separately scored.