Catan

Objective

Be the first player to reach 10 Victory Points (VPs). Points come from Settlements (1 VP), Cities (2 VP), the Longest Road card (2 VP), the Largest Army card (2 VP), and Victory Point development cards.

The Basics

Catan is a resource management and negotiation game set on a modular island made of hexagonal terrain tiles. Each terrain type produces a specific resource: Forest → Wood, Hills → Brick, Pastures → Wool, Fields → Grain, Mountains → Ore. The Desert produces nothing and starts with the Robber. Players collect resources, trade with each other and the bank, and spend resources to build settlements, roads, and cities, or to buy development cards.

Setup

Assemble the frame, then arrange the 19 terrain hexes inside it (use the beginner layout for your first game). Place the numbered tokens (2–12, excluding 7) on the terrain hexes in alphabetical order following the spiral shown in the rulebook. Each player places 2 Settlements and 2 Roads on intersection points and adjacent edges of the board — the second player in reverse order. After placing their second Settlement, each player collects one resource card for each terrain hex adjacent to it. Place the Robber on the Desert.

Turn Structure

On your turn, take these steps in order:

1. Roll the Dice

Roll both dice. The sum (2–12) activates all terrain hexes bearing that number. Every player with a Settlement or City adjacent to an activated hex collects the corresponding resource — 1 per Settlement, 2 per City.

Rolling a 7: No resources are produced. Any player holding more than 7 resource cards must discard half (rounded down). The active player then moves the Robber to any non-Desert terrain hex and steals 1 random card from a player who has a Settlement or City adjacent to that hex.

2. Trade

The active player may trade freely with other players at any ratio they negotiate. They may also trade with the bank at a 4:1 ratio (or better if they have a port): 2:1 ratio at a matching resource port, or 3:1 at a generic "?" port.

3. Build

Spend resources to build or buy:

• Road — 1 Wood + 1 Brick; placed on any edge adjacent to your existing roads, settlements, or cities.
• Settlement — 1 Wood + 1 Brick + 1 Wool + 1 Grain; placed on any intersection point that is (a) connected to your road network and (b) at least 2 road segments away from any existing settlement.
• City — 2 Grain + 3 Ore; replaces one of your Settlements.
• Development Card — 1 Ore + 1 Wool + 1 Grain; drawn from the shuffled face-down deck.

Development Cards

• Knight (14 cards) — Move the Robber and steal a card. Collecting 3+ Knights gives you the Largest Army card (2 VP), which can be stolen by any player who accumulates more.
• Road Building — Place 2 roads for free.
• Year of Plenty — Take any 2 resource cards from the bank.
• Monopoly — Name a resource; all other players give you all of their cards of that type.
• Victory Point (5 cards) — +1 VP; kept secret until you win or the game ends.

Special Cards

• Longest Road — Awarded to the first player who builds a continuous road of at least 5 segments (no forks). Worth 2 VP; can be taken by any player who builds a longer road.
• Largest Army — Awarded to the first player who plays 3 Knight cards. Worth 2 VP; can be taken by any player who plays more Knights.

Key Rules

• You can only build a Settlement at a point that is adjacent to at least one of your roads and is at least 2 edges away from every existing Settlement (the Distance Rule).
• You may not play a Development Card on the same turn you bought it.
• You may play only 1 Development Card per turn.
• VP cards may be revealed at any time during your turn — once you have 10 VPs, you win immediately.

At the Table

Initial placement is the most important decision. Prioritize intersections adjacent to multiple number tokens with high probability (6 and 8 are rolled most often). Plan your resource diversity — you need all five resources to be flexible.