Best way to win at CATAN (board game)???

[SIDI]

What is the best way to win at this game?

It seems like wheat and rock are important.

Is it bad to buy cards early game?

Anyone with experience, what is the best general strategy.

Much appreciated.

[Army of GOD]

On the drop, I always try to make sure I have a source of at least one of each resource. We have the Cities and Knights expansion pack, so it plays a bit differently than the original. Brick ALWAYS seem to be in a shortage in every game we play, so it's kind of annoying because you can't build any roads/settlements.

And connecting my two starting settlements isn't THAT important to me. Only if I have a chance at the longest road

[The Bison King]

I've only actually won 1 game, but I haven't been playing long and I usually come in second.

I've found that it's best to build a city early as possible. Also if you can't build anything try for a development card. Also (and this is the most important one) DON'T GO FOR LONGEST ROAD. It never works, and if someone out roads you, you've blown all your resources on a shitty useless road.

[BigBallinStalin]

It's about positioning, so it depends on where you dropped and the resources and numbers are around your town...

So in short, it depends.

Usually, I'm just wheeling and dealing to get whatever resource I want because I can be charming in person. If you don't have that option, then road-town it to the next best area asap. The rest just depends on what your opponents are doing.

[Army of GOD]

[qALWAYS try to put yourself on an 8 or a 6.

[pancakemix]

I'll agree with AoG that having balance at the start is a good thing, and if possible you want that extra resource to be brick or wood. This will give you a quick start because you can build a road, buy a card straight off, and you'll have one piece of your next road (if you didn't already get it on the roll). Basically my strategy revolves around expanding quickly to establish board control and get the longest road. This way, you're gaining number variety to get resources almost every turn, and that's more important than getting cities, IMO (of course, if you can buy a city, you definitely should). Being able to access a trade is important, so you'll want to do that too.

Here's a strategy that's more unconventional that I've used to success: if the hexes for a particular resource are bunched together, place your first settlement on the grouping, then build your second on the 2:1 trade for that resource. This way, you can get whatever resource you want without cheaply having to be built on it. Plus, people will probably have to deal with you to get it for themselves. It's a little risky, but I'd give it a shot.

I haven't played enough Cities and Knights to give strategy for that, but I like it and I'll probably play more of it soon.

[Ray Rider]

I'll agree with AoG that having balance at the start is a good thing, and if possible you want that extra resource to be brick or wood. This will give you a quick start because you can build a road, buy a card straight off, and you'll have one piece of your next road (if you didn't already get it on the roll). Basically my strategy revolves around expanding quickly to establish board control and get the longest road. This way, you're gaining number variety to get resources almost every turn, and that's more important than getting cities, IMO (of course, if you can buy a city, you definitely should). Being able to access a trade is important, so you'll want to do that too.

Here's a strategy that's more unconventional that I've used to success: if the hexes for a particular resource are bunched together, place your first settlement on the grouping, then build your second on the 2:1 trade for that resource. This way, you can get whatever resource you want without cheaply having to be built on it. Plus, people will probably have to deal with you to get it for themselves. It's a little risky, but I'd give it a shot.

I haven't played enough Cities and Knights to give strategy for that, but I like it and I'll probably play more of it soon.

There's some really good advice right there.

What is the best way to win at this game?
It seems like wheat and rock are important.

In Cities and Knights, wheat and rock are very important, because--obviously--you need wheat and rock for building a city or for building/activating a knight. However in the basic Catan game, brick and wood is more important because you need that for roads and settlements. Once you have a number of roads and settlements, you should be closer to going for longest road (if that happens to work out; as someone else said, don't spend a lot on it because if someone beats you, longest road doesn't help at all), with your settlements you should have access to more rock and wheat for cities or development cards.

Is it bad to buy cards early game?

In general, yes, because at the beginning you want to focus on expansion and building settlements and cities which will give you more resources to do more things throughout the whole game. However if someone has a grudge against you and you know they're going to put the robber on you, then it's worth it to buy a development card (the largest number of cards are knights).

Anyone with experience, what is the best general strategy.

Much appreciated.

When you place your first two settlements (I'm assuming you're playing the basic game), try not to double up with numbers (besides 6 and 8 ). Two of the same number is hit and miss, because in some games that number might be rolled a lot and other games hardly at all; but if you have a range of numbers, you're covered no matter what. Also go for a spot where there are numbers around with good odds of being rolled (obviously). If you're not sure, count the dots on the three hexes and see what the total is. 13 is about absolute best you can get, and 9 is still doing okay. Try to place one of your settlements where you have access to a good port by building one road and one settlement (although sometimes, like Pancakemix said, you may be able to start with a good combination of resources and 2:1 port, but it can be a bit risky).

Always try to have a plan in mind for what you're going to do next; what is going to be the most beneficial for you. If you don't have a plan, you won't be able to capitalize on other trades that happen during the round which may be useful to you.

If you get stuck with a whole bunch of one resource in your hand which nobody wants, trade it to the bank 4:1 or 3:1 (if you have a port) for something more valuable. Yes it's not a good trade, but it's better than losing half your hand on a roll of 7.

Don't do a trade with anyone unless it's going to help you, because whenever you trade, you're helping someone else get a resource they need (unless they're stupid). If you can trade 1 of yours for 2 of theirs, that's good, but when you play with more experienced players it's hard to get any better that 1:1 since everyone recognizes that a trade helps both of you. Never trade 3 of yours for one of someone else's unless absolutely necessary. It's usually better to wait and trade 4:1 to the bank rather than help someone else out.

When you place a robber on someone and ask to steal a card, notice which card they're looking at and steal that one. Usually it's their most valuable one which they really didn't want to lose. This doesn't work when you play with more experienced people because they might try to mislead you by looking at their worst card or they might just shuffle it and let you pick without them even knowing what you're picking, that way they don't give any indication of which is best.

Be wary when someone asks if "who all has resource x" or asks how many of a resource you have, because they might have a monopoly card and are deciding when to use it. It's best not to tell them exactly what you have, but turn it back on them and ask "What will you give for a resource x?"

If you're into Cities and Knights or one of the other expansions, the strategy is similar in some respects but different in others. Doesn't sound like you're doing that yet, though. Anyway, the best way to learn the strategy is to just play against experienced players and see how they're doing it; figure out what works and what doesn't. I lost a LOT of games at the beginning, but now I've been winning most times I play. Whether you win or lose though, it's a great game!

[Nobunaga]

... When I win, it is usually the case that I have a good Brick and Wood supply.

(copied from website)

Overall strategies:
Wood/brick (leads to longest road)
Build lots of settlements.
Build your future settlements on grain/ore hexes in order to build cities.
Build roads to cut off other players expansion, very useful in cutting off grain/ore players who might not be able to expand as fast as you can.

Grain/ore (leads to largest army)
Robber is a threat – huge target if you are building cities.
Buy development cards to try to get a knight in case robber is sitting on your city.
Only use the knight if the robber is sitting on 1 of your cities, try to save them for this situation to occur.
Focus more on ore than grain since you need 3 ores and 2 grain to build each city.

Try not to put your city on 1 good number and 2 bad numbers, or else the robber can come and make your city worthless.

The grain/ore strategy is generally my favorite strategy to play all things being equal, because it leads to guaranteed cities at the beginning. As long as you have development cards to protect them from the robber, I think it’s a very good strategy to pursue. You can always either expand towards wood/brick by either using the grain/ore to trade to other players since they will likely need it to build cities – which can result in favorable trades for your grain/ore.

Generally you either need the longest road or largest army to win the game, it’s very hard to win without either of them.

Initial settlement placement
Try to get your initial settlements on a total dot count of 11-13, this generally leads to strong resource production. Always put the first 2 settlements on 3 resource hex possibilities (not at the water where there are only 2 possibilities). You don’t want to constrict your resource growth at the start, you can always expand later to the water to grab a port.

Try to spread out your settlements on as many different numbers as possible so that your resource cards don’t come in huge batches – which may lead to robber losses down the road. This is an extremely key point, by doing this you are able to get resources no matter what number is rolled, which leads to steady and consistent building. I saw this approach work first hand last game, my friend had his settlements spread out among basically every number from 4-9 and he thus got resources seemingly every roll of the dice. And his cards came slowly, instead of in big batches.

Review the board at first and try to put a settlement on the rarest resource that you see (either by sheer number of tiles in the game or that the numbers on the tiles are not good), this will become extremely valuable for trading purposes later. Generally it will result in you getting 2 resource cards for your 1 resource card in trading, which can be really valuable for future building.

Expansion/settlements
Build settlements early, since growth is exponential once you get settlements and cities going. This is the most important strategy point – build settlements and cities first, to generate more production later – exponential growth rate.

Also try to go for settlement spots where your opponents are also going for, if you are sure you can get there first, otherwise don’t go for them because it’s just a waste of resources.

Break the longest road if at all possible with a settlement.

Try to get settlements on 3 different types of resources, though if you can’t, put your settlements on:
Wood/brick - settlements
Grain/ore – cities
Sheep are valuable, but generally it seems like sheep are always in high supply, so I generally don’t try to worry too much about getting sheep. It is nice to have at least 1 hex on a sheep, but I don’t worry too much about them.

Generally wood/brick is really valuable early on in the game for building roads and settlements, but then loses some of its value as the game goes along. This is because a lot of people start to build cities using grain/ore. Sheep generally hold the same value throughout the game (or its value goes slightly down), because they are only used in settlements (mainly done early in the game) and development cards (throughout the game).

Expansion opportunity priorities:
1. Go for the spot with the most dots
2. Increase diversity of resources you produce
3. Try to get to a nearby port

Make sure you are not cut off from future expansion opportunities, use roads to make sure of this, watch where your opponents are building towards.

Don’t place settlements just to try to screw others players, only think about yourself first and foremost. If in the process of getting a solid settlement placement you screw another player in the process, then that is great because you accomplished 2 missions in 1 shot.

In terms of settlements/cities, try to put your settlements/cities on hexes that have other players on them as well so that the hex is shared. This can help with keeping the robber off your hexes, since other players are also involved in the hex too.

The riskiest play in my opinion is to completely monopolize a hex (3 cities on 1 hex), this makes you a huge target for the robber, and you better have knights handy to get the robber off that hex in case the robber lands on that hex. I generally wouldn’t recommend monopolizing hexes, because it results in huge swings in terms of the number of cards in your hand, and the robber threat mentioned above. I did this in my last game, and while it did pay off okay (because another player was clearly in the lead the whole game and thus the robber was always on them), I don’t like to do it unless things just work out that way.

Robber/knight tips
If the robber is on your settlement/city before you roll the dice and you have a knight card, play the knight card before you roll so that if you roll the number that the robber was on before, you will get that resource.

Don’t buy too many development cards early on, it constricts your growth rate of resource production. It is much more worthwhile to build roads/settlements/cities because of the exponential growth rate of production if you get things setup early on. Save the development card buying for later once you get your resource production machine running and actually need some knight cards to keep the robber off your cities.

Make sure that you always have less than 7 cards before someone rolls the dice, even if it hurts your trading chances later, in case a 7 is rolled - I have been hit with the robber probably more than anyone else in my gaming group, I know the pain of having a 7 rolled with more than 7 cards in your hand =)

Buy a development card or something else if necessary to avoid having more than 7 cards in your hand before the dice are rolled.

If a 7 is rolled, put the robber on the rare resource hex
Also target cities if possible
Preferably target the current game leader, put it on his rarest resource hex that has a city on it – or try to hurt as many players as possible with the placement. By hurting as many people as possible with the placement, it also helps for later when a 7 is rolled again, so that 1 player doesn’t just target you with the robber if you singled out them the last time.

Count VP points as the game goes along to see who is in first place, and generally target them with the robber.

Trading
Don’t trade with someone if they are about to win the game (ie 7 or 8 VPs) – only trade with people who are behind you or slightly even with you. During the early to middle part of the game it’s generally fine to trade with anyone.

Try to be a part of every trade possible, as long as it helps you as much as your opponent. Don’t just make a trade simply for the fact that you wanted to make a trade – be sure that it helps you as much or more than your opponent.

Ports
Ports are useful – 2:1 ports can be really useful if you can get another settlement on that resource type with a really good number like 6 or 8.

3:1 ports are also useful, they may actually be more useful than 2:1 ports because there is no risk of the robber affecting your port trading ability by someone putting the robber on the hex that is producing the 2:1 port resource (since with a 3:1 port you can trade any resource, but with a 2:1 port it takes one specific resource). And since ports can only be used on your turn, you may want to try to hold out to trade all your resources using your port, putting you at higher risk for the robber.

Placing a settlement near a port at the beginning of the game (but not directly on the port) can be a good idea, because it can give you access in the future to it.

Though try to avoid placing settlements directly on ports early on, as it really constricts your resource production. It is much better early on to have both of your settlements on 3 resource hex possibilities. Later on in the game once your resource production machine is more established you can build a settlement on a port.

Development cards
% deck of development cards is as follows: (this may vary slightly depending on what deck and edition you are using)
Soldier – 48%
Monopoly – 12%
Road building – 12%
Year of plenty – 12%
Victory point – 16%

So generally unless you are going for largest army or just wanted to buy a development card to avoid having more than 7 cards in your had due to the robber – it is likely a better investment to build roads/settlements/cities since they result in guaranteed VPs, whereas it is more of an unknown with development cards. If you are going with the grain/ore strategy I would recommend investing in at least 1 development card to try to get a knight to help keep the robber off your city if at all possible.

Generally, development cards are only a good investment when:
1. You have more than 7 cards in your hand but have no other options to build anything else
2. If you are trying to win with the grain/ore (city) strategy and need knights to keep the robber off your hexes
3. If a lot of development cards have been bought already (and they were soldiers), so there is a better chance that the remaining cards are non-soldier cards

Monopoly card trick
One sneaky trick involves the monopoly card – trading away all of one resource to the rest of the players in exchange for whatever they have, then using the monopoly card to get it all back. So you then have all the resources that you traded for, in addition to the resource that you just traded to the rest of the players. I pulled it off once, and it did work, but my friends weren’t too happy about it =)

[PLAYER57832]

Anybody have experience with the kid's version?

[Victor Sullivan]

Catan is boss. I always love cock-blocking people with my roads.

[Nobunaga]

... Lack should make a CATAAN site. I'd sign up for premium on day-1.

...

[tkr4lf]

Ok, I must live under a rock, because I've never once heard of this game. I'm quite intrigued by what you guys have been posting, so I'm gonna go check it out on wikipedia. Thanks for the heads up. This sounds like an awesome game!



Edit: Ok, after checking the game out, I have to play this. This game looks to be an awesome experience. I'm surprised I've never heard of this one before.

[BigBallinStalin]

Ok, I must live under a rock, because I've never once heard of this game. I'm quite intrigued by what you guys have been posting, so I'm gonna go check it out on wikipedia. Thanks for the heads up. This sounds like an awesome game!



Edit: Ok, after checking the game out, I have to play this. This game looks to be an awesome experience. I'm surprised I've never heard of this one before.

Play it online. It's not as fun as real life because people can't be swayed as easily to trade...

but it's still a lot of fun!

[saxitoxin]

It's best if you buy houses on all your properties as soon as possible but don't waste money on hotels, those are money pits. Also, try to trade for utilities.

[saxitoxin]

[Army of GOD]

Ok, I must live under a rock, because I've never once heard of this game. I'm quite intrigued by what you guys have been posting, so I'm gonna go check it out on wikipedia. Thanks for the heads up. This sounds like an awesome game!



Edit: Ok, after checking the game out, I have to play this. This game looks to be an awesome experience. I'm surprised I've never heard of this one before.

Play it online. It's not as fun as real life because people can't be swayed as easily to trade...

but it's still a lot of fun!

We have to meet in real life (rofl!) and get a Catan game going in real life. I wouldn't mind a Axis and Allies, Scrabble, Diplomacy and Monopoly tournament. Playing online isn't nearly as fun (like how RISK! irl is a lot more fun than this site).

[tkr4lf]

Oddly enough, I've never played Axis and Allies or Diplomacy either. I'd never even heard of Diplomacy before browsing the forums on here and hearing people talk about it. I have seen Axis and Allies before, but it's such a huge damn game, and I could never find that many people interested in playing a strategy game like that. Looked like great fun though.

And, yeah, agreed, these types of games are more fun IRL than online. It's the human interaction that makes them so, I think.

[Doc_Brown]

... Lack should make a CATAAN site. I'd sign up for premium on day-1.

...

Check out this site:
http://games.asobrain.com/
I think it will give you everything you could want and more!

[Ray Rider]

Ok, I must live under a rock, because I've never once heard of this game. I'm quite intrigued by what you guys have been posting, so I'm gonna go check it out on wikipedia. Thanks for the heads up. This sounds like an awesome game!



Edit: Ok, after checking the game out, I have to play this. This game looks to be an awesome experience. I'm surprised I've never heard of this one before.

Oddly enough, I've never played Axis and Allies or Diplomacy either. I'd never even heard of Diplomacy before browsing the forums on here and hearing people talk about it. I have seen Axis and Allies before, but it's such a huge damn game, and I could never find that many people interested in playing a strategy game like that. Looked like great fun though.

Oh yeah, Catan is definitely one of my top 3 favorite games. Axis & Allies has a ton of strategy, but it also takes a ton of time, and is just too long in my opinion. Diplomacy is all strategy too, but last time I played the game it took like 6 hours also, and we never even finished. I prefer games like Catan or Risk that have strategy but some chance thrown in, and you can finish it in a reasonable amount of time.

Another really strategic game I played recently was 4-way Chess. It's similar to regular chess board, but it extends the board by 3 squares on every side so it looks like a big plus (+) sign. Each player starts on his side and you take turns clockwise around the circle. It greatly changes the dynamics because rather than playing primarily against the person opposite your side, you tend to play against the people who are on your right and left sides because they are closer and vulnerable to your bishops and queen. It gets really complicated though when player B puts you (player A) in check, and then player C puts player B in check. So once it comes back to your turn, you're really not in check because player B must first move himself out of check rather than taking your king! Anyway, it's kinda crazy playing against three people like that. Even if you do a two player game of two chess sets against the other two, it's still quite different.

[tkr4lf]

... Lack should make a CATAAN site. I'd sign up for premium on day-1.

...

Check out this site:
http://games.asobrain.com/
I think it will give you everything you could want and more!

The site won't let you register. The guy who runs it put a stop on new registrations for now. I'm guessing it's gonna be a while too. That sucks, the site looked interesting.

[BigBallinStalin]

Ok, I must live under a rock, because I've never once heard of this game. I'm quite intrigued by what you guys have been posting, so I'm gonna go check it out on wikipedia. Thanks for the heads up. This sounds like an awesome game!



Edit: Ok, after checking the game out, I have to play this. This game looks to be an awesome experience. I'm surprised I've never heard of this one before.

Play it online. It's not as fun as real life because people can't be swayed as easily to trade...

but it's still a lot of fun!

We have to meet in real life (rofl!) and get a Catan game going in real life. I wouldn't mind a Axis and Allies, Scrabble, Diplomacy and Monopoly tournament. Playing online isn't nearly as fun (like how RISK! irl is a lot more fun than this site).

Meet you? In RL?



But yeah, in real life, those games are hilarious. It's easier to be more rambunctious and to wheel and deal than on a faceless and toneless game chat.

[Army of GOD]

Just because you know I'd kick your ass in ANY game doesn't mean you should bitch about it.







I'd beat you at fucking thumb-wrestling

[BigBallinStalin]

Just because you know I'd kick your ass in ANY game doesn't mean you should bitch about it.







I'd beat you at fucking thumb-wrestling

WAT?! Yeah, right. I'm the thumb-wrestling king. I've never been defeated in my entire life, son! MY ENTIRE LIFE!@!

[Victor Sullivan]

Genius! That made me lol so hard...

[safariguy5]

A lot of strategy will tend to depend on the number drop. If you get a number 6 or 8 drop that borders a lot of one type of resource, I like to scope out the 2 for 1 port and then go after it. Wild-card 3-1 ports can be useful late game too. It takes a lot of the pain of dealing with the other players away especially if you're about to win and nobody will trade with you. I tend to hold off on card buying until mid to late game because that's when you're more able to stockpile the knight cards and get those +1 devo cards that are so useful (never reveal them until you can win) not to mention largest army.