Settlers of Catan Board Game

The settlers of catan is a great board game that can be played with a group of people. Basically When you play this game you are all settlers on this island. You can all gain resources, trade them, building armies, roads, and more.

Setting it up

The settlers of catan game is unique because you don’t just get 1 board to play on. You get a number of Hexagon shaped pieces that make up the board. This way you never play on the same board twice.

To set it up you lay down the land pieces in a circle and surround it by the water pieces. Then you put number tokens on each piece, except for the water pieces.

Your first move

Everyone has different colored pieces. These pieces include settlements, cities, and roads.

Each player takes turns putting down 2 settlements and 1 road. You can place a settlement wherever 3 hexagons touch each other. Roads on the other hand are placed at the edge of 2 settlements.

Your Turn

After everything is set up you each take turns. On your turn you first roll two dice. The total of your two dice is the resource number. And remember each hexagon piece has a number on it. If you are touching the hexagon piece that has that number on it you get the resource for that square.

So if you roll an 8 and someone is touching a hexagon with the number 8 on it they get that resource. If that hexagon gives off brick resource they get a brick resource card.

After you roll you can choose to use your resource cards to build or buy something, you can also ask if another player wants to trade resources, a brick for a sheep, ect. If you can’t build anything, or you don’t want to you end your turn.

Building

Building is important in the settlers of catan board game because it gives you victory points. The first one to 10 victory points wins. You may choose to build.

1. A Settlement (+1 VP) – These cost 1 brick, 1 wood, 1 grain and 1 sheep to build. You also get 1 resource item if your settlement is touching a hexagon whose number has just been rolled.

2. A Cite (+2 VP) – A city cost 3 grain and 2 ore; you can only play a city on places that you have settlements on. If a city is touching a hexagon whose number has just been rolled you get 2 resource cards.

3. A road (+0 VP, with a catch) – All cities at settlements must be connected by a road (with the exception of the first turn). Whoever has the longest road gets the longest road card which I believe gives you +2 VPs.

4. Buy a Development card – This cost 1 sheep 1 grain and 1 ore. Each development card gives you special abilities, for example there is a card called Monopoly, when you play it, you say 1 resource and all players with that resource give you all of that resource in their hand.

Robber

There is no number 7 piece. Instead when someone rolls a 7 all players with over 7 cards must discard half. Then the player who rolled the 7 can put the robber on any 1 resource hexagon. She may then take 1 resource without looking from the hand of 1 person who has a settlement or a city on that hexagon.

Also the hexagon with the robber on it will not give you any resources until the robber is removed. So if an 8 rolls up but there is a robber on the 8 you can’t get anything.

(There is also a Development card called the knight that lets you move the robber anywhere, when you first play it. The person with the most knight cards gets the largest army +2 VPs.)

Ports

In the The Settlers of Catan Board Game the ports are very important. If you build a settlement or a city by a port you can trade resources with the outside world. Each port has a specific resource on it and a number. You can trade that resource to get any 1 resource.

So if it says 2 woods you can trade 2 woods to get any 1 resource, but remember you must have a settlement or a city near the port.

Winning the Settlers of Catan board game

You win by getting 10 VP. And here are some tips to help you.

1. Buy development cards if you can. They help you soooo much.

2. Don’t go for the longest road. I tend to get into a longest road cold war with other players. You end up using all of your resources to build roads and keep that Longest road (+2VP) title.

3. Get by a Port; they can help you if no one else wants to trade with you.