How to Play Catan Rules

Condensed How to Play Catan Rules for those who hate trawling through the rulebook.

The Catan game overview page introduces you to the game through a summary of the gameplay and videos shared by other gamer.

Step by Step How to Play Catan Rules

Step by step guide on how to play Catan. Each player takes turns to roll the dice. Each turn comprises 3 phases: Resource Production, Trade and Build.

Resource Production

• Roll dice on your turn.
• Match dice roll to hex terrain tile’s numbered token.
• All players receive resource cards based on terrain type:
  • 1 resource card per settlement.
  • 2 resource cards per city.
• If insufficient resource cards are available, no one receives any for that turn.

Trade

• Domestic Trade
  • Trade with other players (make your own deals).
• Maritime Trade
  • Trade with the bank:
    • 4 identical resource cards for 1 of your choice.
    • If on a harbour intersection, trade at better rates (3:1 or 2:1 for special harbours).

Build

• Use resource cards to build:
  • Roads
    • Must connect to existing roads, settlements, or cities.
    • First player to build a continuous road of 5 segments gets “Longest Road Card” (worth 2 victory points).
    • Longer roads built later take control of the “Longest Road Card”.
  • Settlements
    • Build on intersections where all 3 adjacent intersections are vacant.
    • Must connect to player’s roads.
  • Cities
    • Upgrade settlements to cities.
    • Settlements: 1 victory point.
    • Cities: 2 victory points.
    • Access to resources from terrain tiles.
  • Development Cards
    • Discard required resource cards and take the top card from the development stack.
    • Keep card hidden.
    • Types: Knights, Progress, Victory Points.
    • Play card any time after purchase, but not on the turn of purchase.

End of Game and Winning

• Declare victory and end the game when you have 10 or more victory points during your turn.

Other Key Catan Rules

Roll a 7

When ‘7’ is rolled, no one receives resources. Anyone with more than 7 resource cards, has to choose half of them (round down) to return to the bank.
Move the robber to number token of any other terrain or desert tile.
Active turn player steals 1 resource card from the opponent who has settlement/cities adjacent to the robbed terrain if there are 2 or more opponents adjacent, choose one of them.
During resource production of any turn, players with adjacent settlements do not receive resource cards if the robber piece is on the selected terrain tile 

Playing Development Cards

• Playing Knight Cards
  • Once played, move the robber to number token of any other terrain or desert tile
  • active turn player steals 1 resource card from the opponent who has settlement/cities adjacent to the robbed terrain
  • if there are 2 or more opponents adjacent, choose one of them
  • Place Knight cards face up in front
  • The player with 3 Knight Cards in front gets the special card \’Largest Army\’ (worth 2 Victory Points).
  • Subsequent players with a higher number of Knight Cards, take control of this special card and its victory points
• Playing Progress Cards
  • Follow the instructions on the card. The card is removed from the game when used.
  • Victory Point Cards
  • Players keep cards hidden and reveal when they have accumulated 10 VPs

How to Play Catan Rules FAQs

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