Settlers of Catan

So you want to beat your friends in Catan? The Settlers of Catan is a game of luck and strategy, although no promises that this post will make you luckier, it just might be able to help you improve your strategy.

First, a brief reminder of the game

The goal of the game is to gain 10 victory points by building settlements, cities, roads, and obtaining development cards. To do all this you will need resources, which are gained according to what numbers are rolled on the dice each round and where your settlements are located.

Lets talk strategy

Although you may find success going for a balanced approach, this may not be the most effective path to victory. Here's some more specialised approaches you can utilise to guide your gameplay.

Wood 🪵 and brick 🧱. This approach focuses on building roads and settlements. This approach is good if you have a lot of wood and brick early on to fuel rapid expansion. This expansion not only sets you up for the longest road but can also cut off opportunities for other player.

Ore 🪨 and wheat 🌾. This approach focuses on building cities and buying development card. This approach is good if you have a lot of ore and wheat early on to upgrade your settlements to cities and obtain more resources. Ore and wheat are also good for buying development cards, which can be used to gain resources, build roads, or gain victory points.

Monopoly 🎩. This approach focuses on monopolizing a resource. This is not the easiest to pull off, but if you can get a monopoly on a resource, you can use it to your advantage in trades. Brick and ore are usually the best resources to monopolize, as there are 3 tiles each.

Port 🛥️. This approach focuses on getting access to 2 for 1 ports and trading with the bank. For this to work, you need settlements or cities that give you the corresponding resource for 2 for 1 ports that are accesible to you.

Initial Settlements

As you may have seen, the approaches above all require certain resources and board states to be effective. This means that you should be careful about where you place your initial settlements. Here are some things to consider.

Consider the rarity of resources on the board, you should determine which overall approach you want to take and choose settlement positions which allow you to act on it right away. The total of the values of tiles at the intersections and the total of the values of particular resources on the board is a good way to figure out an overall approach.

If you require resource B, sometimes it might be better to settle at a high number tile for resource A and trade 4 to 1 at ports for resource B, than getting the lower number resource B tile.

It is also important to have a diverse range of tile numbers so you don't go on long dry spells.

Development Cards

The Monopoly card allows the player to steal all of any one resource from all other players. It is the most fun card to use, but also the hardest to use correctly. To make the most of it, you should try to be aware of resources other players pocess so you can maximise the amount of resources you steal.

Alternatively, you can trade away a resource you have plenty of and then take it all back with the monolopy card. PS. Use wisely as it might make trading with other players for rest of the game much harder 🙂.