


You could also choose to trade your cards with other players or engage in the maritime trade. In the base game, you can spend resources on four things: So, with that explained, what are the Catan building costs? And how can you set your game up to make the most of them? Base Game Building Costs Explained It could also be 5 settlements, Longest Road, Largest Army, and a victory point from a development card. For example, this could be 4 cities and 2 settlements. Equally, whoever plays 3 Knights first will get “Largest Army” and 2 victory points. It can switch hands constantly throughout the game. If anyone then constructs a longer route, they’ll take the award. Whoever reaches 5 consecutive uninterrupted roads first receives “Longest Road”, worth 2 victory points. Settlements and cities must be at least 2 intersections away from any other, including those placed by other players, and must be connected by your roads.Ī couple of extra bonus cards exist. Development cards can be anything, from a Knight (move the robber for free) to 1 victory point (which you can keep hidden). Settlements are worth 1 victory point cities are worth 2. Use your cards to build more roads, settlements, and cities, or buy development cards. The player can steal a resource card from the hand of anyone with a settlement or city touching it.Īs you gain more resources, it’s important to spend them, as this advances your game and means you won’t be caught out by the robber. This puts that particular resource temporarily out of play. Whoever rolls the 7 then places the robber on a resource hex. If you have 8 or more resource cards in your hand, you must discard half of them. When someone rolls a 7, the robber is in play. For example, if they roll an 8 and the board has an 8 on the Brick hex, every player with a settlement touching that piece can collect one Brick resource card. The number it shows indicates which resources can be gathered on that turn. Once there are eight settlements and roads on the board, it’s time to start. It’s then the fourth player’s turn to establish their second settlement and road, returning to the first via the third and second. The second player then places their settlement and road, then the third and the fourth. Roads are constructed on the edges, running parallel along with two hexes. Settlements are built on the hex corners, so they’ll always touch three different resources if you position them away from the edge. The first player then chooses where to build their initial settlement and places a corresponding road next to it. After this, you’ll put a number on each hex in a similar fashion, leaving the desert piece blank and placing the robber on it. There are a few ways to do this, such as following a preset layout (found in the guide), randomly selecting pieces, or inviting each player to place them one at a time. Start out by joining all the sea frame border pieces together. Settlers of Catan might look confusing at first, but it’s actually relatively simple – particularly the base game.
Catan board game trade build settle how to#
Why not check out Settlers of Catan: Resources Explained for more information on the game resources? How to Play – Bottom Line Up Front
Catan board game trade build settle free#
(If you know how to play, feel free to skip the first section!) As such, I’ll start by trying to run through them quickly and clearly. Expansions, such as Seafarers or Cities and Knights, are exceptionally detailed (especially the latter), with a whole host of additional rules, building costs, and strategies.įor this article, it’s important to be familiar with the game’s basic rules. For conciseness, I’ll only talk about the base game. On this page, I’ll run through some of the Catan building costs explained and talk about some strategies for building as quickly as possible. In itself, it’s useless, although you can sometimes use it to maneuver your way across the board, avoiding other players. There’s also a blank desert hex where the robber starts the game. Through this page, I’ll stick to the official names. In bold, you’ll see the official title for each one, and in brackets, you’ll find what many casual players refer to them as. There are five different resources spread over the map, as I’ve listed below. The more resources you collect, the more infrastructure you can lay down, and so on.

The base game of Catan, as we usually simplify it to, involves building roads, settlements, and cities on resource “hexes”, which are gathered at the roll of two dice. Its simple rules and inherently competitive nature make it one of the best options for settling down with friends and family. Settlers of Catan is one of the most popular board games around.
