How to play Catan

The basics

Setup

For a first game, use the beginner map printed in the rulebook. It's balanced and has the starting pieces already marked. Once you know the game, switch to the variable setup below.

1. Build the island. Put the sea frame together and lay the 19 terrain hexes inside it. Place a number token on every hex except the desert. The robber starts on the desert.
2. Take your pieces. Each player takes 5 settlements, 4 cities and 15 roads in one color, plus a building costs card.
3. Set out the supply. Sort the resource cards into five face-up piles. Shuffle the development cards face down. Put the Longest Road and Largest Army cards beside the board.
4. First placement. Roll to find the starting player. Going clockwise, each player places 1 settlement on a corner and 1 road touching it.
5. Second placement. Now go in reverse. The last player places their second settlement and road first, and the starting player places last. The second settlement doesn't have to connect to the first.
6. Starting resources. Take one card for each hex touching your second settlement. The starting player then takes the first real turn.

Your turn: roll, trade, build

1. Roll for production. Roll both dice. Every hex with that number produces for everyone: 1 card per settlement and 2 per city touching it.
2. Trade. Offer deals to other players. Every trade has to involve whoever's turn it is, and the rest of the table can't swap cards with each other. You can also trade with the bank: 4 matching cards for 1 of your choice at any time, 3 for 1 if you have a settlement on a general harbor, or 2 for 1 for the specific resource of a special harbor you're on.
3. Build. Spend cards on anything in the cost table below, as many times as you can afford and your pieces allow.

A development card can be played before your roll or at any later point in the turn. The 5th-edition rulebook keeps trading and building as separate steps for beginners and suggests mixing them once everyone knows the game. The 6th-edition rulebook allows any order from the start.

Building costs

Which hexes make what: hills give brick, forests give lumber, pastures give wool, fields give grain and mountains give ore. The desert gives nothing.

A new road must connect to your own road, settlement or city. A new settlement must connect to one of your roads and obey the distance rule. A city replaces one of your settlements, and the settlement goes back to your supply to use again.

Number token odds

Two dice don't roll every number equally. The dots under each number on a token show how many of the 36 possible rolls make it. More dots, more resources.

Add up the dots on the hexes around a corner to judge it. A corner touching a 6, an 8 and a 5 has 14 dots. One touching a 2, a 12 and a 3 has 4. The 6s and 8s are printed in red for this reason, and in a random layout they shouldn't touch.

Rolling a 7 and the robber

Nobody collects anything on a 7. Instead:

1. Every player holding more than 7 resource cards discards half, rounded down. Eight cards means you lose 4.
2. The player who rolled moves the robber to any other hex.
3. They steal 1 random resource card from a player with a settlement or city on that hex.

While the robber sits on a hex, that hex produces nothing when its number comes up. It stays there until the next 7 or knight moves it.

The robber is also the main way the table slows down a leader. Players will often agree, out loud, to rob whoever is closest to 10. Expect it to come for you once you're ahead, and spread your settlements so one blocked hex doesn't stop your engine.

Development cards

Play at most one development card per turn, and not one you bought that same turn. Victory point cards are the exception: reveal any number at once, even ones you just bought, when they give you the win.

Victory points

You win the moment you have 10 points on your own turn. If you reach 10 during someone else's turn, you have to wait until your turn to claim it.

Common mistakes

• Collecting from the second settlement only. Starting cards come from the second settlement, but both settlements produce from the first roll on.
• Trading between non-active players. Every trade must include the player whose turn it is.
• Forgetting the discard. On any 7, check hand sizes before the robber moves.
• Playing a card on the turn you bought it. Only victory point cards can be used straight away.
• Building settlements too close. The distance rule counts your own pieces too.
• Ignoring harbors. A 2-for-1 harbor on a resource you produce a lot of turns surplus into anything you need.

Catan is listed for 3 to 4 players. With two, pick something built for pairs; our best 2-player board games guide is a good start. For a family table, see the best family board games.