Beginners Guide to Catan

By Dawson Twitchell on April 10, 2024

Settlers of Catan, promises endless hours of fun, strategy, friendly and potentially not-so-friendly competition. If you’re new to the game, learning how to play it might seem a bit overwhelming at first. With this step-by-step guide, you’ll be building roads, settlements and cities like a seasoned Catan player in no time.

Setting Up: The game board consists of numbered hexagonal tiles representing different resource terrains like wood, sheep, wheat and stone. Arrange these tiles randomly in a large hexagon, placing numbered tokens on each tile. Each player selects a colour and takes the settlement, road pieces and city.

Game Objective: The goal is to become the dominant force on the board by building settlements, roads and cities. Players earn victory points for each settlement and city they build, as well as certain development cards.

Starting Placement: Players take turns placing their first settlements and roads on the edges of the hexagonal resource tiles. Settlements must be at least two edges apart and roads connect them. Consider the resources available and potential expansion routes when choosing your placements.

Resource Collection: Roll two dice on your turn. Add the rolls together to get one number. Players collect resources if the number added matches the number of any hexagonal tiles they are settled on.

Trading and Building: After resource collection, players can trade resources with each other or the bank to acquire the materials they need to build roads, settlements and cities. Building costs are listed on the player reference cards.

Development Cards: Players can also purchase development cards from the bank using resources. These cards offer various advantages such as knights for protection, points or special actions.