Settlers of Catan Intro
“So explain to me what this game is like” a friend of mine says to me over the phone. Clearly skeptical at having to learn a new “bored game”. “Is it like monopoly? Give me some point of reference.”

“Um - well. It’s definitely not like Monopoly. And yet it has elements of Monopoly’s tycoon-ness going for it.” I’m stumped and I clearly haven’t even started yet. “I’ve got it its like a cross between Stratego and Monopoly, I guess.”

“What!?” my wife yells across the kitchen “Stratego and Risk? Are you nuts? It’s more like a cross between Monopoly and Sim-City.”

“Ok now I’m confused. It’s like a computer game and a board game at the same time? You’ve got to be kidding me.” My friend incredulously squawks into the phone.

“Yeah, ok – chief its like this. It’s like a compilation of Stratego, Risk, Sim-City & Monopoly. Except all those games stink... and this one rocks.”

I have always found it next to impossible to categorize this game. It is just next to impossible to do. And yet I haven’t met a soul that hasn’t gotten totally hooked on this game the very first time they played it. It would be physically impossible for me to count the number of people I have directly and indirectly shared this game with. If I had been smart I would have convinced Mayfair to give me a cut of every game I helped sell. I’d be retired now if I had.

This game is for the young (I’ve taught children as young as eight) and the old (I won’t embarrass any of my family members out there!) More surprisingly it is for both male and female. How often do all the males in your family go hide in the basement for 18 hours to play Risk all by themselves while the women wonder when they’ll ever be coming back? That never happens with Settlers. In fact I have been surprised that many times my wife mentions that we should play more often than I do.

Settlers of Catan Précis
At the highest of levels Settlers is a game of land and enterprise. By monopolizing tracts (hexes actually) of land that produce various resources (Wheat, Wood, Sheep, Brick & Ore) you will be able to expand your holdings by building roads, settlements and cities. The basic object of the game is to develop the predetermined number of cities and settlements to win.

The brilliance of Settlers is the fantastic balancing act you must do to make this seemingly simple task come to pass. Too much ore and you are swimming in cities but not enough roads and settlements. Too much brick and wood you are awash in roads and maybe settlements but not enough cities to seize the day. Settlers is deceptively simple which allows for all levels of play. It will tantalize you with its ease and yet will entice you to master its more intricate strategies that beguile you at every turn. (Further on in this review I will discuss some of the more simple strategies that I’m aware… so stay tuned.)

Settler’s of Catan Invasion
Settlers of Catan was originally created by Klaus Teuber in 1995 and it very quickly developed into a German gaming revolution that would soon sweep ‘round the world. It won the German Game of the Year in 1995 quickly followed by the US Board Game of the Year in 1996. It caught on very quickly within the College community and seemed to hop Universities around the globe.

I know that I first encountered it through a couple of friends of ours that had learned of it amongst their college friends. It only took several months to thoroughly infest itself into my family’s daily lives. Guests coming over for dinner? Let’s teach ‘em Catan. Heading out to be with family over the holidays? Let’s bring it as a gift and play all week long! It really was that bad. And although we’ve sort of tempered our play a bit, we still love to play every opportunity we get!

Settlers Components
I thought it important to detail out not only all the various components that come with the basic Settlers of Catan set but also what each is used for:

• 37 hexagonal tiles (composed of resources and water tiles)
• 18 number markers (used to determine how often a tile produces resources)
• Player game pieces in 4 colors
o 16 cities
o 20 settlements
o 60 roads
• 1 robber (keeps a hex from producing while it is resident)
• 2 dice
• 95 resource cards
• 25 development cards
• 4 building cost cards
• 2 victory point cards
• Rule books
o 1 game rules
o 1 almanac
o 1 starting setup sheet

Settler’s Expansion Packs
Here’s where the real fun with Settlers of Catan begins. The game I’m reviewing here is just the basic Settlers. It will allow three to four players on one large island. (The splitting of hairs here is important.) But there are also additional options available for additional money. I’ve listed and detailed all the other specifically Settlers related add-ons available below:

Settlers of Catan Expansion
The expansion pack does a very simple thing – it allows for up to six players to play a game of the basic Settlers of Catan albeit on a larger single island. Simple.

Seafarers of Catan
Seafarers allows the same three to four people to play Catan across water and numerous islands as opposed to the one original island. Seafarers makes this possible by adding boats to the original items available for being built (which if you recall includes settlements, cities and roads.) This is by far my favorite of the games to play.

Seafarers of Catan Expansion
Seafarers expansion allows for up to six different players to play Seafarers of Catan. It adds both water and resource hexes to enable the increased number of players to have enough room to play upon.

Cities and Knights of Catan
Cities and Knights is a variant created by Klaus Teuber that brings a much needed defensive/offensive nature to the game. Within the basic Catan game there is no battle aspect to the game. But with Cities and Knights there is an approaching rogue army coming and it is up to everyone to defend themselves by training and developing knights within their kingdoms. Some like this better than most – I for one am not a huge fan but I’d rather play this than no Catan at all.

Cities and Knights of Catan Expansion
You guessed it. This makes it possible to allow up to six players to play Cities and Knights simultaneously.

Other Variants
The beautiful thing about Catan is there is no lack of user-base created variants. Some include gold, jungles, volcanos and even all out global thermonuclear war. I would be happy to share my collection of variants if you are interested. Just give me an email and I’ll ship you my hand dandy word doc of tons and tons of variants. All free for the asking.

Settler’s Strategy
I know that I promised you thoughts on Catan strategy. But now that I am perusing my strategy guide that I worked to both compile or write I’m worried it’s a bit too much. I will include below the main strategies available to the players of Catan – and if it whets your appetite I’ll be happy to send my strategy guide along to you as well.

The Ore-Grain Strategy
This seems to be the most popular strategy, at least in the basic game. This strategy attempts to get a lot of ore and grain early in the game, in order to produce cities as quickly as possible. You should focus more on ore than grain, as you will need three ores to build a city, versus two grains (and in the basic game, there is usually less ore available then grain, as there are only three ore hexes compared to four grain hexes).

This strategy is often so powerful because the first cities you produce will probably be on your initial settlements, which should have high production values. Other people going for settlements right off will probably be left with lower production-value intersections. (Chuck Messenger )
This strategy lends itself to getting the largest army, as after you build your cities you will have lots of ore and grain left over to buy cards, of which the majority will be knights. For a game that needs ten victory points (like the basic game), four cities and the largest army means a win.
In general, the more congested the board, the harder this strategy becomes. Other players (especially wood-brick players, as described below) will have a greater expansion potential as they can pump out roads and settlements faster, thereby blocking off your expansion. All too often a player at the endgame will find themselves with the maximum of four cities and zero settlements for eight victory points, and not being able to get another two settlements (and corresponding victory points) because they are boxed in. In the basic game this is not as much as a dilemma as you can get another two points with the largest army or by victory point cards; in games where you need more victory points this can be more problematic. When playing with (or against) this strategy, you must keep in mind its greatest weakness is this lack of expansion potential.

The Ore-Grain Strategy can be good for Seafarers, as it is harder to get boxed in (simply build to an island). Getting an ore or grain port is great for this strategy, as after you build four cities you won't have as much a need for these resources, and it can make the endgame a lot easier.
Remember that by building cities, you are concentrating production in fewer locations. As you are putting more of your eggs in fewer baskets, make sure you don't leave any vulnerable. As pointed out by someone else later in this guide, make sure that you don't place your cities at an intersection with one good number and two bad numbers, or the robber can make your very expensive city worthless. This will be much less of a problem to players who are concentrating on (many) settlements rather than on (fewer) cities. For this same reason, those variants that use multiple robbers/pirates can hurt people who concentrate on cities more.

Near the end of the game you will be the constant target of the robber, as ore and grain become valuable to the other players. You need to have been saving knights so that you can get the robber off your production units. Also, since you have cities, your production spaces will naturally look like better places for the others to put the robber.

The Wood-Brick Strategy
This is a strategy to get a lot of wood and brick early in the game, in order to build settlements and roads fast. A wood/brick port is very useful in this strategy, as finding a way to get ore/grain will be important to build cities for the middle to end game.

Lots of people think this strategy is less effective on a small or congested board, as you need room to grow. Actually, it can be more effective, as your increased road building capability gives you the advantage in reaching those limited number of expansion spots first. An ore-grain player's worst nightmare is playing on a congested board with one or two wood-brick players.
This strategy naturally lends itself to getting the longest road.

For this strategy, it is very important that you build new settlements around open grain and ore hexes, or you will have a very difficult time trying to build cities later on in the game (which can be crucial for a win).

Optionally, with your increased settlement production, you can build on a number of ports to get ore and wheat. (Mike Schneider )

With your increased road building capability, you should build your roads to cut off other player's expansion. This can help in denying Ore/Grain players from acquiring enough building sites they need to win the game. (Greg Aleknevicus ) This leads into the next variant, which takes this to more of an extreme:

The "Road Boy" variant works to build roads fast in order to block off other players' expansion. This strategy concentrates on building roads first, rather than on production. Only when you are done blocking people off do you work on getting enough victory points to win the game. This requires a lot of wood and brick, so your first cities should be on these, rather than ore. Trade aggressively for wood and brick, before it's obvious you might be a threat. (Mike Schneider ) This is an interesting variant in that it violates my general philosophy of building up production first. It could work better on smaller boards with less people, so you don't miss blocking anyone. In addition, it might not work well in many Seefahrers scenarios, as people could just build to islands.

The Card Builder Strategy
This strategy is similar to the Ore/Grain Strategy, as it involves getting Ore/Grain hexes and building two cities fast. Then, cranking out development cards. This player will get an inordinate number of Knight cards, allowing them to keep the robber off their hexes and get other resources by stealing from other players. Often, victory point cards will come up. At some point in the game, try for a third settlement or city. The largest army is practically guaranteed. Note that this strategy may not work very well in higher victory point games, or those Seefahrers scenarios where extra victory points are awarded for getting to islands.

The Balance Strategy
This strategy strives for a balance in all five resources. Settlements can be built relatively quickly, and the player is less likely to be boxed in. Also, this strategy leads people to become more self-sufficient, and less likely to require trading. A 3:1 port could be very useful here.

This strategy is what a lot of players strive for in the initial setup. This is a powerful way to begin the game if you can do it, as it is easy to be flexible and change to another strategy later on.

The Rare Resource Strategy
A friend let me know I was missing this one in a previous version of this guide, and AllenDoum mentioned it as well in the first edition of the guide but I put it in setup section rather than the overall strategy section, which was a mistake:

Examine the board to see which commodity will be the hardest to get, and consider putting one of your settlements on the best tile for that commodity. A supply of a rare commodity may be more important than an extra 2/36 chance of a sheep.

Basically, this strategy is about identifying the rarest resources, and making sure you have access to them. There are two types of rare: rare in overall production (due to bad numbers being on them), and rare in position availability (fewer number of hexes have the resource, like ore and brick in the basic game, which only has three hexes each instead of four hexes like wool, grain, and wood). In many cases both will happen, such as when ore and brick have bad numbers on them in the basic game.

This strategy is not a monopoly: you don't necessarily want to be the only person on these hexes (as seen in the Monopoly strategy below, this may not be such a good idea). You just want to make sure you have them. This could be taken to the extreme, for example a player who goes for ore and brick, because they are the two rarest, but is more commonly used along with another strategy. This strategy can work well with a Cartel strategy, described below.
The crux of this strategy is realizing that you will pay dearly for rare resources later on in the game, and so you should plan ahead by getting them early. A reduced overall production value early in the game to get those rare resources is usually more than offset by not making 3:1 or 4:1 trades later in the game to get them.

*The Common Resource Strategy
Every game usually has a very common resource, that no one in particular wants. This is usually wool, as it is often the odd man out. The Wood-Brick players and Ore-Grain players (the two most popular strategies) will only be trying for wool if it is convenient. A friend of mine sometimes likes to go after wool hexes, and calls it the "Sheep-O-Matic" strategy. Since both Ore-Grain and Wood-Brick strategies need wool, he can often trade somewhat easily. He goes for a wool port (the Sheep-O-Matic) to get cards he can't trade for. He does best by combining this strategy with the Card Builder strategy. This would probably work well in Seefahrers, where everyone needs wool for sails. This strategy doesn't necessarily require wool, just any common resource that no one seems to want. You really need the port though, or you can kiss the game goodbye. This is similar to the Cartel strategy, described below.

The Monopoly and Cartel Strategies
These are strategies to gain either exclusive control (monopoly) or shared control (cartel) of a particular resource, usually ore or brick as they have the fewest number of hexes in the basic game (three, versus four of all the others).

First, the Monopoly variant, to gain more or less exclusive control. It is usually attempted by trying to control all of the good hexes (usually just one) of a resource by yourself. It seldom works. The major problem with this strategy is that the robber almost always sits on the monopolized hex. As you are the only person on that particular hex, the robber will stay there until YOU get it off (or a seven is rolled), unlike shared hexes. Also unlike shared hexes, every player EXCEPT YOU considers that hex to be fair robber placement territory, especially since they want a chance to grab that monopolized resource from your hand.

A potentially better way to try the monopoly strategy is to let other players surround the best hex of that resource, and to go for the two less marginal ones (in the case of ore and brick). Then try to place the robber on the good hex throughout the game. This has the advantage of being able to place your initial settlements away from the rest of the crowd. You will need a lot of lot of knights, to get the robber off of you, and onto the best hex. (Mike Schneider ). This would be good combined with the Card Builder strategy (to get the knights), especially if you are trying to monopolize ore or wheat.

If someone in your group has the nerve to try a monopoly, it will become apparent very soon, probably in the initial setup. You can use this to your advantage by remembering that ports have just become more valuable real estate, and by using the monopoly player as a lighting rod for other players aggression instead of you (and drawing people's attention off of your own designs.)

The Cartel variant. Basically, this is a strategy to share control of a particular resource in order to reduce the problem of the robber in a monopoly, but to make sure that you are the dominant player in that cartel. In this variant it is only necessary to control most of the resource. For example, if you control two out of the three settlement locations on a good hex of a rare resource. The other player will work just as hard to keep the robber away, but will only collect half as much. This is most common on a good ore hex. Another way this can be done is by having majority access to several hexes for a commodity for which you have a port. The other players can't keep the robber on all of them, and will probably just keep it on your prime hex. Sheep and wheat are most typical of this kind of cartel, because they are not the commodities that people usually target during initial placement. (Mike Schneider ) Note that this is very similar to the Common Resource Strategy.

Similar to the Monopoly variant, you will need a lot of knights to keep the robber away, and preferably on your opponents most productive hexes, or on a resource your opponent has a port for (so they can't trade easily for your resource). In this way, if you find yourself in total control you can make really good trades. Depending on your group, you can make 3:1 trades if people are desperate, and even turn these down if you are ahead, and force them to make 4:1 bank trades. (Mike Schneider )

The Straight Numerical Advantage Strategy
This strategy really tries to maximize production, without concentrating on any particular resource. Just get as much of anything. You may need to trade a lot, because you could end up with a strange mix. This works better in games with more people (more people to trade with). A 3:1 port is probably essential, if you have a varied mix of resources.

I put this in because some people use it, but this is not really a strategy. A good strategy is a plan to let you get the particular combination of resources you need to get certain victory points, which this does not do. This could be good in the initial setup as a short-term plan, before you figure out what other strategy you will need to win.

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Hopefully that will just get you started in thinking about how strategies work within Catan. It at least proves that there is way more to this game than many people make of it. Both the casual player and the advanced player are justified – as long as they are having a good time at it!


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 35
Type of Toy: Board Game
Age Range of Child: 9 Years or Older