
A settlement is a type of building in The Settlers of Catan and all expansions, scenarios, and variants. Basic function [ edit | edit source ] Following the basic rules of the game, a settlement is built using 1 Lumber , 1 Brick , 1 Wool , and 1 Grain , and can only be placed on an unoccupied intersection that is at least two intersections away from another settlement, city , or metropolis .
How do you place your settlements in settlers of Catan?
Luck matters, but if you don’t use good strategy, especially with picking your beginning settlement spots, Placing your settlements in Settlers of Catan like a pro involves seeing the board, likely resource scarcity, and potential open areas and combining them into one of four main in-game strategies.
Is settlers of Catan a good game?
Settlers of Catan is a great game with a lot of strategic depth and a healthy amount of luck added in. It has a huge amount of replayability due to the fact that the board is different every time that you play. For a euro-style game it has a good amount of other player interaction through trading and blocking other people’s road routes.
What do the numbers mean in settlers of Catan?
Here are some things you'll want to keep in mind when choosing where to place your initial settlements in a game of Settlers of Catan. Each resource space has a number on it, in addition to a number of dots. The dots on each number indicate how frequently it is likely to be rolled.
How do I create Catan?
Create Catan by placing the 19 terrain hexes on the table-again as shown. Place the circular number tokens on top of the designated terrain hexes. Finally, place your settlements and roads. Read also the beginners's guide. Select a color and take your 5 settlements, 4 cities and 15 roads (no more and no less!).
What do you need to build a settlement in Catan?
You will need to build roads to get to new places to build settlements. For one brick, one lumber, one wheat, and one wool, you can build a settlement. It must be connected to one of your roads and follow the distance rule. Settlements are worth one victory point.
Can you build through a settlement in Catan?
You cannot build through an opponents settlement. You can only connect to your own roads, settlements or cities.
Can you build a settlement through someone's road?
No. If you build a new road, it must always connect to one of your own roads, settlements, or cities. In the situation depicted above, the blue player would not be connecting his road piece to his own road but to the red player's settlement, which the rule prohibits.
Can you build a settlement where a knight is?
If you wish to build a settlement on an intersection occupied by a knight, then you must first move the knight. If there is no empty intersection for you to move your knight to, then he may not move and you may not build at that intersection.
Can you build a settlement and a city in the same turn?
2.4 Players are allowed to upgrade a settlement to a city in the same turn it is built. To do that, the player cannot have five settlements on the board before building the settlement the player wants to upgrade.
Can you build more than 5 settlements in Settlers of Catan?
This is super clear in the rules. Under Build in the Game Rules section: You cannot build more pieces than what is available in your pool—a maximum of 5 settlements, 4 cities, and 15 roads.
Can you break a road with a settlement Catan?
As long as the settlement is 2 road lengths away from another one, yes they can break up the road. It also counts against longest road. IE. if someone has the longest road at 8, someone builds a settlement between the road and cuts it down to 6, their longest road is 6.
Can you cut off someone's road in Catan?
The only way possible is placing a settlement (or a soldier if playing with the Cities & Knights expansion) on an intersection that "cuts" the other player's roads. The "2 road distance" rule for building settlements must be followed at all times.
Can you place your first settlement on a port?
During the initial placement, you are allowed to place a settlement on any open intersection (as constrained by the proximity restrictions), so you are allowed to place on coastal intersections, so placing on a harbour is a legitimate placement for a settlement during setup.
Does building a settlement block longest road?
You are correct. Your own cities do not affect your status towards the "Longest Road" You can view the official rules here, from pg. 9 (emphasis is mine). You can break an opponent's road by building a settlement on an open intersection along his road!
Can you build a road through a knight in Catan?
The red player has four available intersections for knight placement (marked with arrows). If the red player places a knight at intersection "A", the blue player will not be able to build past that knight. Only the red player can build a road there.
Can you break longest road with a settlement?
The longest road is broken by the placement of a settlement along its length (remember to obey the 2-step rule). In this case, everyone must check to see who has the longest road.
Can you build a settlement between two opponents roads?
Definite "yes." It is an inexpensive way to gain control of an intersection you and your opponent may be competing to build on if you have enough resources for roads but not enough for a settlement. In fact, you can even build a settlement on an opponent's road if one of your road segments intersects with it.
Do roads block settlements?
If you build a settlement on his road, you disrupt it yes. See also: catan-longest-road-clarification.
Can you build a city without a settlement in Catan?
A city in Catan is like a hotel in Monopoly; it's an upgrade. You can only build a city if you have a settlement on the board that can be replaced with the new city.
How many roads do you need to build a settlement?
Under building settlements (top of page 5) it says "Each of your settlements must connect to at least 1 of your own roads."
What does the rule say about building a new road?
The relevant parts of the rules are: Under building roads (bottom of page 4) it says "A new road must always connect to 1 of your existing roads, settlements, or cities. ". Under building settlements (top of page 5) it says "Each of your settlements must connect to at least 1 of your own roads.".
Do you need a road to build a new settlement in Settlers of Catan?
In Settlers of Catan, it says you need a road to build a new settlement (placement rules apply). If you have the resources available to build both at the same time, can this settlement be played wherever the player wants it to go?
What is the game Settlers of Catan?
Settlers of Catan, which is similar to the game Pandemic, was one of the first European-style games to come to America and has become one of the most well-known games of the genre. Before starting the game, you must choose two locations for your starting settlements.
Who wrote the book "Settlers of Catan"?
Placing Your Starting Settlements in Settlers of Catan. Written by. Seth Brown. Twitter. Seth is a freelance writer specializing in gameplay and strategies, and is also author of "The Little Book of Mahjong.".
What resources do you need to build a settlement?
Try to have settlements that gain you compatible pairs of resources, such as wood and brick, or ore and wheat. Wood and brick will allow you to quickly build roads in the early game, working towards more settlements.
Why is diversifying settlement numbers good?
Diversifying your initial settlement numbers increases the chance that you will get at least something from every roll. And that's a very good thing because even if it's not the resource you wanted, you can always trade for one you do need.
Can you upgrade settlements with ore?
Ore and wheat will allow you to upgrade your settlements into cities, thus increasing resource production. Each of these combinations can be very strong, but if you only have brick and wheat, you can't do either of them. The Spruce / Margot Cavin. Read More.
Starting Set-up For Beginners
You play the game on a variable gameboard. For your first game, we suggest that you use the following map, which is balanced for all players:
Setup
Select a color and take your 5 settlements, 4 cities and 15 roads (no more and no less!).
Game Play
Unless you're using the Starting Set-Up for Experienced Players, the oldest player goes first. On your turn, you can do the following in the order listed:
End of the Game
If you have 10 or more victory points during your turn the game ends and you are the winner! If you reach 10 points when it is not your turn, the game continues until any player (including you) has 10 points on his turn.
Why can't you build on 12/10/11?
So OP, you cannot build on the 12/10/11 spot near the top because that intersection is not at least two road distances from every settlement/city.
Can you build on any tile intersection?
Without knowing what color you are or what specific spot you're trying to build on we can't give more information , but in general you can build on any tile intersection provided the following conditions are met:
How many points do you need to win Settlers of Catan?
The way to win Settlers of Catan is to be the first one gain 10 Victory points.
What are settlements and cities used for?
As mentioned before settlements and cities are used to generate resources from nearby tiles while also being worth victory points (1 for settlements and 2 for cities.)
How far away from another settlement can you have a settlement?
A key rule to take note of is that any settlement that you place cannot be less than two “edges” away from another settlement or city. Essentially, you cannot have a settlement next to another settlement. This will make the positioning of your settlements more limited and interesting as you have to avoid spaces too close to others.
How many points are settlements worth?
Settlements (left) are worth 1 victory point while cities (right) are worth 2 victory points. The second is from having the longest road or largest army out of all the players. Having the longest road of five or greater or largest army of three or greater are each worth 2 victories points.
Why is the right red settlement illegal?
This is illegal because the right red settlement is too close to the blue settlement. They can’t be closer than two “edges” away.
What happens when a city is built?
When a city is built it replaces an already existing settlement. Settlements, roads, and cities are all built upon the edges of the hexagonal tiles. In this example if a six is rolled then the red player would receive two wheat resources due to having a city touching that tile.
When will Settlers of Catan be released?
Settlers of Catan Strategy: Placing Your Settlements Like a Pro. March 7, 2021 by Shane Dayton. Settlers of Catan is one of those amazing strategy games out there that has a huge array of fans across a wide array of gaming niches. In fact, it’s probably pretty safe to say that Settlers is probably one of the most popular ...
What is the first settlement in the game of Red?
This game shows that. Playing red, the first two settlements were the 5-9-10 and the second was the 3-6. This was a combination of harbor and full number spread strategy. The next town hooked up a 4 which meant any 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 would get something. Take away the rare 2 and 12, and the 7 because it’s the robber, and out of 9 remaining numbers 6 give me something.
What to do with 2nd settlement?
The options above for the second settlement either supercharge your city building materials, give decent numbers for resources you don’t have a lot of, and take advantage of harbors to let you convert excess resources into badly needed roads, settlement resources, or even development cards.
Does luck matter in settlement?
Luck matters, but if you don’t use good strategy, especially with picking your beginning settlement spots,
Is Settlers a good board game?
In fact, it’s probably pretty safe to say that Settlers is probably one of the most popular and widely loved board games out there, no matter what your normal gaming preference is. The game has strategy, it has trading and player interaction, and it has dice luck. However, the best die numbers for you changes because the exact placement ...
Do players do expansion in Settlers of Catan?
If you ever watch money tournaments of Settlers of Catan you will notice that players do this all the time to one another. Preventing expansion may be a jerk move, but it’s a powerful strategy.

Dots
Numbers
- Another thing worth paying attention to isn't just the total of dots, but the diversity of numbers you have next to your settlements. If you place your initial settlements on two 4s, two 6s, and two 9s, then unless someone rolls a 9, 6, or 4, you aren't going to get any resources -- and you should prepare for a long, boring defeat. Diversifying your initial settlement numbers increases the chan…
Expansion
- Try to avoid playing both of your initial settlements in the same corner of the map, unless you can guarantee that you won't get boxed in. (And keep in mind that there are few guarantees in a multi-player game.) It may be tempting to connect your two settlements and get a head start on claiming the longest road, but more often than not this strategy won't work.
Ports
- Consider building near one of the trade ports on the edge of the board. Starting on a port is probably a bad idea because you'll want your initial settlements on the intersection of three resource tiles, not only two. However, being close to a port is important, because building a few roads to connect to one early in the game will let you trade mor...
Resource Diversity
- Pay attention to the types of materials available in the game. There are more sheep tiles than any other resource, so sheep tend to be less valuable. The other resources have the same number of tiles -- but not necessarily the same availability! If two of the three brick spaces have low-dot numbers (like 2 and 11), there will probably be an early brick shortage as players attempt to buil…
Resource Synergy
- Try to have settlements that gain you compatible pairs of resources, such as wood and brick, or ore and wheat. Wood and brick will allow you to quickly build roads in the early game, working towards more settlements. Ore and wheat will allow you to upgrade your settlements into cities, thus increasing resource production. Each of these combinations can be very strong, but if you o…
Components
Starting Set-Up For Beginners
- You play the game on a variable gameboard. For your first game, we suggest that you use the following map, which is balanced for all players: (Note: Before your first game you must remove the die-cut components from the cardboard holders by carefully punching out and separate the pieces). 1. Assemble the frame as shown. 2. Create Catan by placing the 19 terrain hexes on th…
Setup
- Select a color and take your 5 settlements, 4 cities and 15 roads (no more and no less!).
- Place your 2 roads and your 2 settlements on the game board.
- Place your remaining settlements, roads, and cities down in front of you. Note: Remove the red pieces from the game if you are playing a 3-player game).
- Take your color's Building Costs Card:
Game Play
- Unless you're using the Starting Set-Up for Experienced Players, the oldest player goes first. On your turn, you can do the following in the order listed: 1. You must roll for resource production (the result applies to all players). 2. You may trade resources with other players or using maritime trade. 3. You may build roads, settlements or cities and/or buy Development Cards. You may al…
Game Turn
- I. Resource Production
1. You begin your turn by rolling both dice. 2. The sum of the dice determines which terrain hexes produce resources. 3. Each player who has a settlement on an intersection that borders a terrain hex marked with the number rolled receives 1 Resource Card of the hex's type. 4. If you have 2 … - II. Trade
Afterwards you may trade freely (using either or both types of trades below) to gain needed Resource Cards: 1. On your turn, you can trade Resource Cards with any of the other players. You can announce which resources you need and what you are willing to trade for them. The ot…
End of The Game
- If you have 10 or more victory points during your turn the game ends and you are the winner! If you reach 10 points when it is not your turn, the game continues until any player (including you) has 10 points on his turn.