How to play Catan

What you need

Everything comes in the base box. For three or four players you use:

• 19 terrain hexes (forest, hills, pasture, fields, mountains and one desert) inside 6 sea-frame pieces
• 18 round number tokens and 9 harbor markers
• 95 resource cards: lumber, brick, wool, grain and ore
• 25 development cards: knights, progress cards (Road Building, Year of Plenty, Monopoly) and victory point cards
• Per player: 5 settlements, 4 cities, 15 roads and a building costs card
• The Longest Road and Largest Army cards, two dice and the robber

A flat table about a meter across is plenty. Keep the five resource stacks within reach of everyone, because cards move constantly.

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Set up the game

1. Assemble the sea frame by matching the numbered joints (1 to 1, 2 to 2 and so on).
2. For a first game, lay the hexes and number tokens exactly as the rulebook's "Starting Set-up for Beginners" map shows, and put each color's two settlements and two roads on the marked spots. With three players, remove the red pieces. Each player takes one resource card for every hex touching the settlement marked with a white star. The oldest player goes first.
3. For later games, use the variable setup. Shuffle the land hexes face down, lay them out, then place the number tokens in alphabetical order starting at a corner and spiralling counter-clockwise toward the center, skipping the desert. If you place numbers fully at random instead, the red 6s and 8s must not touch each other.
4. Put the robber on the desert. Sort resources into five face-up stacks, shuffle the development cards face down, and set the two special cards and the dice beside the board.
5. Variable setup placement: everyone rolls, highest goes first. In round one, each player in clockwise order places one settlement on any intersection and one road touching it. Round two runs in reverse: the last player to place goes first, and the starting player places last.
6. Your second settlement does not need to connect to the first. Right after placing it, take one resource card for each hex it touches. The first settlement gives you nothing at setup.
7. The distance rule applies from the very first placement: no settlement may sit on an intersection next to any other settlement or city, including your own.

Playing Catan

1. Roll for production. Every turn starts with a roll of both dice. Every hex showing that number produces: each adjacent settlement takes one card of that resource, each adjacent city takes two. This happens for everyone, not just the roller. The desert never produces, and the hex under the robber produces nothing.
2. A 7 activates the robber. Nobody collects. Anyone holding more than 7 resource cards discards half, rounded down (8 cards discard 4, 11 discard 5). The roller then must move the robber to a different hex and steals one random resource from a player with a building on that hex.
3. Trade. You may trade with other players, but every trade must involve you, the active player. You can also trade with the bank at 4:1 anytime, at 3:1 with a generic harbor settlement, or 2:1 in one resource with a matching special harbor. No gifts, and no trading like for like.
4. Build. Pay the costs on your card and place pieces. New roads must connect to your own road, settlement or city. New settlements must touch one of your roads and obey the distance rule. Cities only upgrade an existing settlement. You can build as many things as you can pay for and have pieces left.
5. Development cards. You may play one development card per turn, at any point in your turn, even before rolling. You cannot play a card on the turn you bought it, except a victory point card when it wins you the game.
6. Win. When you have 10 or more points during your own turn, announce it and the game ends. If you hit 10 on someone else's turn, you wait until your turn to claim it.

Experienced groups may merge trading and building into one phase, so you can trade, build, trade again and build again. The rulebook recommends this once everyone knows the game; it also lets you use a harbor on the same turn you build there.

A sample round, turn by turn

Three players: Ana (blue), Ben (white) and Cara (orange). Ana's settlements touch a forest 6, a hills 8 and a fields 4 on one corner, and a pasture 5 and mountains 10 on another. Ben sits on a fields 9 and a mountains 8. Cara has the best brick: hills 6 and hills 3.

Ana's turn. She rolls a 3 and a 5 for 8. Ana takes a brick from her hills 8. Ben also touches an 8 (his mountains) and takes an ore, even though it is not his turn. Ana now holds brick, brick, lumber, wool. She offers one wool to the table for a lumber. Cara agrees. Ana pays brick and lumber twice and lays two roads toward an open coastal corner beside a 3:1 harbor. She ends her turn with no cards, which keeps her safe from the robber.

Ben's turn. He rolls a 7. Cara has 9 cards, so she discards 4. Ben moves the robber off the desert onto Cara's hills 6, which is the island's best brick, and steals one random card from her: a grain. Until someone moves the robber again, a rolled 6 gives Cara nothing from that hex. Ben has ore, ore, ore, grain, grain after the steal, so he upgrades a settlement to a city for 3 ore and 2 grain. His score goes from 2 to 3.

Cara's turn. She plays a knight she bought two turns ago (legal, since she did not buy it this turn), moves the robber off her own hills onto Ben's mountains 8, and steals from Ben. Then she rolls a 6. Her hills 6 is free again, so she takes a brick. Ana's forest also shows a 6, so Ana collects a lumber on Cara's turn. Cara offers 2 brick for that lumber; Ana agrees because she wants brick for her road push. Ana cannot trade with Ben on Cara's turn, only with Cara.

Three turns, and you have seen production for non-active players, the discard, both ways of moving the robber, a city upgrade and the "trade only with the active player" rule.

Scoring, with a worked example

Points come from five places: each settlement is 1, each city 2, Longest Road 2, Largest Army 2, and each victory point development card 1. Everyone starts at 2 points from the two setup settlements, so you need 8 more.

Worked example. Late in the game Siobhán has:

• 2 settlements: 2 points
• 2 cities: 4 points
• Longest Road card: 2 points
• 2 hidden victory point cards: 2 points

That is 10. On her turn she reveals both victory point cards and wins. The rulebook uses almost exactly this example. Note the limit on pieces: 5 settlements alone can only ever give 5 points, so cities are not optional if you want to win.

Longest Road counts only the single longest continuous branch, at least 5 segments. Another player can break your road by building a settlement on an open intersection along it. Largest Army goes to the first player with 3 knights face up, and moves to anyone who later has more.

Beginner strategy tips

1. Count pips, not hopes. The dots under each number show how often it rolls. A 6 or 8 has five dots and comes up about 14% of the time; a 2 or 12 has one dot and comes up about 3%. Add the dots on the three hexes around a corner. A corner totalling 10 or more is strong.
2. Get brick and lumber early. Every road and every settlement needs both. The rulebook's own tactics section says to put at least one starting settlement on a good forest or hills hex. Without them you stall in the first five turns.
3. Plan the second settlement as a pair with the first. Between the two you want all five resources or a harbor that covers the gap. If you have lots of grain, the 2:1 grain harbor turns surplus into anything.
4. Leave yourself room. A starting spot in the middle can be boxed in by other roads within a few turns. Look at where opponents' roads point before you place.
5. Keep your hand at 7 or fewer when a 7 is likely. Seven is the single most common roll at about 17%. If you are sitting on 9 cards at the end of your turn, build something or trade down.
6. Turn settlements into cities on your best numbers. A city on a 6 or 8 doubles your best income. Ore and grain become the key resources in the middle game.
7. Trade generously when it is your turn. Offers cost nothing. Players who trade more tend to build more, and the rulebook says so directly.

Common mistakes and rule disputes

• Taking starting resources for both setup settlements. Official answer: only the second settlement pays out at setup.
• Players trading with each other on someone else's turn. Not allowed. All trades go through the active player.
• Discarding on exactly 7 cards. You discard only with 8 or more. Seven cards is safe.
• Leaving the robber where it is. On a 7 or a knight the robber must move to a different hex.
• Playing two development cards in one turn. One per turn, and never one bought the same turn (victory point cards are the exception when they win you the game).
• Claiming the win on another player's roll. You only win during your own turn.
• Building a settlement two edges along your own road from your own settlement. The distance rule applies to your pieces too.
• The bank runs out. If the supply cannot pay everyone a resource, nobody gets that resource that roll, unless only one player is owed it, in which case that player takes what is left.
• Tied Longest Road after a break. If your road is broken but you are still tied for longest, you keep the card. If you no longer lead and two others tie, the card is set aside until one player has the longest road alone.

Variants and house rules

Official options: the combined trade/build phase for experienced players; the 5–6 player extension, which adds a larger board and a special build phase between turns; the Helpers of CATAN cards included in the 25th Anniversary box; and expansions like Seafarers and Cities & Knights.

House rules (not in the rulebook, agree before you start):

• Friendly robber. The robber may not be placed on a hex touching a player with only 2 or 3 points. Popular with new players and kids.
• Shorter game. Play to 8 points instead of 10 when time is tight.
• Balanced map. Rebuild a random map if two 6s or 8s end up on the same resource, so nobody gets an unbeatable start.

Teach it in 5 minutes

Read this aloud while pointing at the board:

1. "We are settling an island. First to 10 points on their own turn wins. You already have 2."
2. "Each turn you roll. Every hex with that number pays everyone touching it: one card per settlement, two per city. That is how you get cards."
3. "Cards buy things. Here is your cost card. Roads go out, settlements go on corners at least two steps from any other building, cities replace settlements."
4. "On your turn you can trade with anyone at the table, or trade 4 of one kind to the bank for any 1."
5. "A 7 is bad news. Anyone with more than 7 cards throws away half. The roller moves this robber, blocks a hex and steals a card."
6. "These development cards are a gamble: knights move the robber, some give free stuff, some are secret points. One per turn, not the turn you buy it."
7. "Longest road of 5 or more and biggest army of 3 or more knights are worth 2 points each. Let's place settlements."

Skip harbors and the bank-shortage rule until they come up. Play the first game on the beginner map.

Ages and group size

The box says 10 and up, and that is about right for playing independently. Confident 8- and 9-year-olds can play with an adult helping them read the cost card. Four players is the sweet spot: the board is tight and trading is lively. Three players works but leaves more open space, so the game is less cutthroat. For five or six you need the extension. Expect your first game to run close to two hours; a seasoned group of four finishes in about an hour.

Check yourself

Questions about this game

Sources and edition notes

CATAN 25th Anniversary base game for three or four players. Family Edition, 5–6 extension, Cities & Knights and other expansions differ; use their separate instructions.

Rules re-checked against the publisher's rulebook October 2026. This records a document check, not a claim of hands-on testing. House rules above are labeled and are not part of the official game.

• CATAN: 25th Anniversary basic rules PDF
• CATAN: official base-game FAQ

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