Catan

Overview

Three or four players settle an island, collecting and trading five resources to build roads, settlements and cities. The first player to reach 10 victory points on their own turn wins. The board can change every game.

This entry is checked against the CATAN 6th edition rulebook (©2025 CATAN GmbH), downloaded from catan.com. It was known as The Settlers of Catan in earlier printings.

The 6th edition changed some familiar names. "Longest Road" is now Longest Route, the "Year of Plenty" card is now Invention, and lumber and grain are now wood and wheat. It also made the combined trade-and-build phase the standard rule (section 3). If your box is older, play is almost identical, but your cards will use the older names.

1. Components

Item	Count
Terrain hexes	19: 4 forest, 4 pasture, 4 fields, 3 hills, 3 mountains, 1 desert
Number discs	18
Resource cards	95: 19 each of wood, brick, wool, wheat, ore
Development cards	25
Per colour	5 settlements, 4 cities, 15 roads
Bonus tiles	Longest Route, Largest Army

In a three-player game, leave out the white pieces.

2. Setup

The rulebook offers two setups.

Fixed setup, recommended for a first game. Lay the hexes and number discs as printed in the rulebook, and place each player's two starting settlements and roads in the positions shown.

Variable setup, for the full game:

1. Shuffle and join the sea frame pieces, then place the hexes face up at random inside the frame.
2. Arrange the number discs face down in A-B-C order. Starting in any corner, place them counterclockwise around the board, skipping the desert, then turn them face up.
3. Put the robber on the desert.
4. Everyone rolls. Highest roll is the first player.
5. Round one: starting with the first player and going left, each player places one settlement and one road next to it.
6. Round two: starting with the last player and going in reverse order, each player places a second settlement and road. So the last player places two in a row.

Each player takes one resource card for each hex next to their second settlement.

The 5th edition also allowed placing the number tokens in random order, provided the red 6s and 8s were never on adjacent hexes. The 6th edition rulebook gives only the A-B-C method.

The Distance Rule applies to every settlement, at setup and all game:

When placing a settlement, stay at least two edges away from all other buildings!

In other words, no settlement on a corner directly next to another one.

3. A turn

A turn has two phases.

Production phase

1. You may play one development card before rolling.
2. Roll both dice.
3. Every hex showing that number produces. Every player with a building on it collects, not just the one who rolled:
   • 1 card per settlement
   • 2 cards per city

If the supply runs short: if there aren't enough cards of a resource for everyone owed it, nobody gets any of that resource. But if only one player is owed it, they take whatever cards are left.

Action phase

In any order, as often as you can afford:

• Trade
• Build roads, settlements, cities and development cards
• Play a development card, if you didn't play one before rolling

The 5th edition rulebook kept trading and building as separate steps for beginners and offered a "Combined Trade/Build Phase" as a variant, saying the separation "was introduced to make the sequence easier to learn for beginners". The 6th edition makes the combined phase the rule: trade, build, trade again and build again.

When you're done, pass the dice to the left.

4. Trading

Only the player whose turn it is may trade:

During your turn, other players may only trade with you, not with each other or with the supply.

• With other players: any resources on any terms you agree. You can't give cards away, and that includes trades of matching cards, such as 3 ore for 1 ore.
• With the supply, 4:1: four of the same resource for one of a different resource.
• At a 3:1 port where you have a building: three of the same resource for one different.
• At a 2:1 port where you have a building: two of the resource shown on that port for one different.

Development cards can never be traded or given away.

5. Building

Item	Cost	Worth
Road	Wood + brick	0
Settlement	Wood + brick + wool + wheat	1 VP
City	3 ore + 2 wheat	2 VPs
Development card	Ore + wool + wheat	Varies

• Roads go on empty edges and must connect to one of your roads or buildings. You can't continue a road through an opponent's building; you may not build on the far side of it.
• Settlements go on empty corners, must follow the Distance Rule, and must connect to one of your roads. You have five; to build more, upgrade one to a city first.
• Cities replace one of your settlements, which goes back to your supply. You have four and can't build more.

6. Rolling a 7

No hex produces anything. Instead:

1. Every player holding more than 7 resource cards returns half of them, rounded down, to the supply. Nine cards means discarding four.
2. The roller must move the robber to a new hex and steals one random resource card from a player with a building there, choosing which player if there is more than one.

A hex with the robber on it produces nothing while the robber stays, even when its number is rolled.

Development cards don't count towards the seven-card limit, and the robber can't steal them.

7. Development cards

Drawn face down when bought, and kept hidden until used.

Card	Count	Effect
Knight	14	Move the robber and steal, exactly as on a 7, but nobody discards
Victory Point	5	1 VP, kept hidden
Road Building	2	Build two roads for free
Invention	2	Take any 2 resource cards from the supply, the same or different
Monopoly	2	Name one resource; every player gives you all of theirs

• One development card per turn, played before you roll or at any time in the action phase.
• Not on the turn you bought it.
• Victory Point cards are the exception. You may reveal any number of them, including ones bought this turn, but only to reach 10 and win. Otherwise keep them hidden.
• Played cards never go back into the deck. When the deck runs out, no more can be bought.

8. The bonus tiles

Longest Route (2 VPs) goes to the first player with 5 continuous roads. If another player gets a longer continuous route, they take it immediately.

A route can be broken. An opponent who builds a settlement on a corner in the middle of your route cuts it into two shorter ones. If the holder no longer qualifies, the tile goes back to the supply and stays there until one player alone has the longest route of at least 5. On a tie it stays in the supply.

Largest Army (2 VPs) goes to the first player to have 3 Knight cards in play. If another player has more Knights in play, they take it immediately.

9. Winning

Source	VPs
Settlement	1
City	2
Longest Route	2
Largest Army	2
Victory Point card	1 each

If you have 10 or more VPs at any point during your turn, the game ends immediately and you are the winner!

Reaching 10 during someone else's turn doesn't win. You need to have 10 during your own turn.

Commonly argued

• You collect resources on everyone's turn, but you trade and build only on your own.
• Other players can't trade with each other during your turn. Every trade has to involve the player whose turn it is.
• A 7 hits everyone holding more than 7 cards, not just the player who rolled. Development cards don't count towards the limit.
• The robber can't steal development cards.
• The robber has to move to a different hex. You can't leave it where it is.
• You can't play a development card the turn you buy it, except Victory Point cards, and only to win.
• Only one development card per turn, and it can be played before you roll.
• A settlement can break an opponent's route, and if nobody then qualifies alone, the tile goes back to the supply.
• Trading and building can be mixed. That was an optional variant in the 5th edition and is the standard rule in the 6th.
• "Longest Road" and "Year of Plenty" are the older names for Longest Route and Invention.

Where this comes from

CATAN 6th edition rulebook, CN3081, ©2025 CATAN GmbH and CATAN Studio, hosted on catan.com. It covers the base game for three or four players; the 5–6 player extension and the expansions have their own rulebooks.

Where this entry and the rulebook disagree, the rulebook wins. Tell us.