CATAN rules

Trade, build and settle the island of Catan: first to 10 victory points wins. Includes every expansion and scenario pack.

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How to play CATAN

Setup

For a first game use the fixed setup shown in the rulebook; later games can lay the hexes and number discs out at random.

1. Frame and hexes: Assemble the sea frame, then place the hexes and number discs as the setup diagram shows.
2. Supply: Sort the resource cards into five faceup stacks. Keep the development cards in a facedown deck, and put the Longest Route and Largest Army tiles near the board.
3. Robber: Put the robber on the desert.
4. Pieces: Each player takes a color: 15 roads, 5 settlements, 4 cities.
5. Fixed setup (first game): Place each player's 2 settlements and roads as the diagram shows (3 players: no white pieces). Each takes 1 card per hex next to their second settlement, shown in black. Then everyone rolls; the highest roll is the first player.
6. Variable setup: Everyone rolls both dice; the highest roll is the first player. Round 1, in turn order: place 1 settlement and 1 adjacent road. Round 2, in reverse order: place a second settlement and road, then take 1 card for each hex next to it.

Your turn

A turn has two phases, in order: production, then action.

1. Production: Roll both dice and add them. Every settlement on a hex showing that number gets 1 of its resource, and every city 2. On a 7 nothing is produced.
2. Action: Trade, build and play development cards, as often as you like, in any order, if you have the resources.
3. Pass: When you finish, and have not won, pass the dice to the player on your left.

You may play a development card before rolling too.

Rolling a 7

1. Discard: Every player with more than 7 resource cards returns half of them, rounded down.
2. Robber: The roller moves the robber to any other hex and steals 1 random card from a player with a building there.
3. Blocked hex: The robber's hex produces nothing until it moves.

Trading

• With players: Only the player whose turn it is may trade with others. Everyone else trades only with that player.
• With the supply: Give 4 identical cards for 1 card of another kind.
• Ports: With a building on a 3:1 port, give 3 identical cards; on a 2:1 port, give 2 of the resource shown.
• No swaps of the same kind: You can't trade matching cards, like 3 ore for 1 ore.

Building

• Road: 1 wood + 1 brick.
• Settlement: 1 wood + 1 brick + 1 wool + 1 wheat. Must be at least two edges from every other building.
• City: 3 ore + 2 wheat, replacing one of your settlements.
• Development card: 1 ore + 1 wool + 1 wheat.
• Roads connect: A new road joins one of your roads or buildings, never starting beyond an opponent's building.

Example: You hold 3 ore, 2 wheat and 1 wood. You can upgrade a settlement to a city (3 ore + 2 wheat). You can't also build a road, since that needs a brick.

Development cards

The 25 cards are 14 Knight, 5 Victory Point, 2 Monopoly, 2 Road Building and 2 Invention.

• One per turn: Play at most 1 development card a turn, and never one you bought that turn. Victory Point cards are the exception.
• Knight: Move the robber and steal a card.
• Monopoly: Name a resource; every player gives you all theirs of it.
• Road Building: Build 2 roads free.
• Invention: Take any 2 resource cards from the supply.
• Victory Point: Reveal these to win, even ones bought this turn.

Victory points

• Settlement: 1 VP.
• City: 2 VPs.
• Longest Route: 2 VPs for 5 or more continuous roads, if longest.
• Largest Army: 2 VPs for 3 or more played Knight cards, if largest.
• Victory Point cards: 1 VP each.

Winning

• Goal: Be the first to have 10 VPs on your own turn.
• Timing: You win as soon as you reach 10 during your turn, revealing any Victory Point cards you hold.

Expansion rules

Only needed if you play with the expansion named on each heading.

5–6 players 5–6 Player Extension

• Setup: add the 4 small frame pieces between the CATAN frame pieces and use the CATAN 5–6 number discs instead of the base ones; add the extra hexes, cards and development cards. Variable setup: discs A to Za-Zb-Zc, skipping both deserts.
• Setup: the first player takes the player 1 marker; the third player to their left takes the player 2 marker. With 5 players one colour is unused; in the fixed setup its settlements go on the board without roads.
• Paired players: player 1 takes a normal turn, then player 2 takes an action phase (trading only with the supply).

Seafarers Seafarers

Play across islands, using ships as sea roads.

• Setup: turn the CATAN frame pieces face down and combine them with the Seafarers frame; build the scenario's map with its hexes, discs and ports. A coastal starting settlement may take a ship instead of a road.
• Setup: start on the main island (New Shores, Through the Desert, Pirate Islands) or the large island (Forgotten Tribe, Wonders of Catan, not on marker or X intersections); in Four Islands, Fog Islands and New World, on one island or two.
• Ships: built on sea edges, linked to your ships or buildings, not to roads. They count toward Longest Route.
• Moving ships: move 1 ship a turn, if one end is open and it wasn't built this turn.
• Gold: a settlement on a producing gold field gets a resource of your choice (a city gets 2).
• Pirate: on a 7 you may move the pirate instead of the robber.
• Scenarios: each has its own map and victory point target.

Cities & Knights Cities & Knights

A longer game: win with 13 VPs. There are no development cards and no Largest Army.

• Setup: swap in the C&K frame with the barbarian track; barbarian ship on its start and the robber beside the track's last space; 3 progress decks; each player's improvement cubes at the bottom of each track.
• Setup: place your second starting piece as a city, not a settlement, taking 1 card per hex next to it.
• Roll: roll both production dice and the event die; resolve the event die first.
• Cities: forests, pastures and mountains give a commodity as well as a resource.
• Robber: it waits beside the track, and a 7 only makes players discard, until the barbarians first attack.
• Knights: recruit and activate knights to defend Catan against the barbarian ship.
• Improve: spend commodities to advance on the Science, Trade and Politics tracks.

Traders & Barbarians Traders & Barbarians

• Setup: Fishing: the lake replaces the desert; a fishing ground on each of the 6 coastal spots; fish and the old boot face down; robber beside the board. A second settlement by a fishing ground or the lake takes 1 fish.
• Setup: Rivers: remove 2 hills, 2 pastures, 2 mountains and the desert; place the 2 river tiles; the 2 disc goes on the 12 hex; robber on a swamp. Each player takes 3 bridges and a Poor Catanian tile.
• Setup: Merchant Trains: desert out, watering hole in the centre; wagons and robber beside the board. Barbarian Attack: robber out; castle and desert as shown; barbarians on the 2 and 12 hexes; 6 knights each; the scenario's development cards; your second starting piece is a city.
• Setup: Traders & Barbarians: remove a pasture, a field, the desert, the 2 and 12 discs, Longest Route, robber and development cards; add the commodity hexes, X markers, barbarians and scenario deck. Each player: 5 gold, a wagon board, a wagon on their city.
• Setup: Catan for Two: 5 trade tokens each (10 to the supply); each neutral player places 1 settlement without a road. Event Cards: deal 5, New Year on them, the rest on top; box the dice.
• Variants: Friendly Robber, Harbors of Catan, Event Cards and Catan for Two.
• Scenarios: Fishing on Catan, Rivers of Catan, Merchant Trains, Barbarian Attack and Traders & Barbarians, each with its own target.

Explorers & Pirates Explorers & Pirates

• Setup: start island face up, the rest face down. Place a harbor settlement on a marked intersection, then a settlement, a road and a ship with a settler; take 1 card per hex by that settlement and 2 gold. Remove development cards, award tiles, cities and the robber.
• Setup: put mission markers on the start of each track your scenario uses (Land Ho! has no tracks and no pirate ship).
• Ships: each moves up to 4 edges in the movement phase.
• Explore: turning over a new hex ends that ship's move.
• Missions: pirate lairs, spices and fish.
• Rolling a 7: the roller activates their pirate ship instead of a robber.
• Win: 17 VPs in the full game; the mission scenarios need fewer.

Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers

• Setup: needs Seafarers (and Cities & Knights for 2 scenarios); build the chosen scenario's map with its treasure tokens or Desert Dragons figures.
• Setup: Into the Unknown: 3 starting settlements. Greater Catan: 4 extra cities each. Great Canal and Enchanted Land: 2 settlements and a city on the home island (Great Canal: one on the coast, with a ship). No pirate in Into the Unknown, Desert Dragons or Enchanted Land.

Legend of the Sea Robbers Legend of the Sea Robbers

• Setup: needs Seafarers; build the chapter's map and give each player that chapter's pieces. Each player places 3 starting settlements: the first on a marked coastal intersection with a ship instead of a road, the others not on the coast.

Legend of the Conquerors Legend of the Conquerors

• Setup: needs Cities & Knights; use the chapter board and starting pieces for the chapter you play.

Helpers Helpers

• Setup: stack helpers 1 up to the number of players, lowest at the bottom; lay out as many random helpers sun side up as there are players; box the rest. Take the top helper after placing your second settlement and road.

Frenemies Frenemies

• Setup: guild hall board beside the island; favor tokens face down as a supply (3 players: remove the dotted ones).

Oil Springs Oil Springs

• Setup: oil spring tiles on the desert, the 9 forest and the northeast 10 pasture; robber off the board; disaster marker on 0.

Crop Trust Crop Trust

• Setup: fields hex replaces the desert; crop tokens on the fields as shown; 4 crops of your colour's type in your vault; robber on the pasture 2; an event token under each of your buildings and on the award tiles.

The Fishermen of Catan The Fishermen of Catan

• Setup: a fishery tile on each inner sea space; fish tokens and the old shoe face down; a second settlement on a fishery gives 1 fish.

Soccer Fever Soccer Fever

• Setup: no desert; one pitch in the centre and one replacing the hex left without a disc (if hills or mountains, it replaces a random pasture instead, taking its disc); the 2 disc goes on the 12 hex; robber beside the board.
• Setup: each player takes 6 shot tokens and a ball, plus 1 token per starting settlement next to a pitch; place stacks and league markers for the first pairings.

All CATAN rules (116)

Scoring

• Victory Points

Turn

• Your Turn
• Rolling the Dice
• Production
• When Resource Cards Run Out
• Action Phase

Robber

• Rolling a 7: Discarding
• Rolling a 7: Moving the Robber
• The Robber Blocks a Hex
• Stealing With the Robber

Trading

• Trading Overview
• Trading With Other Players
• Trading With the Supply (4:1)
• Ports

Clarification

• You Can't Trade Matching Cards
• Losing the Longest Route
• Reaching 10 VPs on Someone Else's Turn

Building

• Building Costs
• Building Roads
• Building Settlements
• Distance Rule
• Building Cities
• Running Out of Pieces
• Not Enough Resources or Space

Development Cards

• Development Cards
• Playing Development Cards
• Knight Card
• Monopoly Card
• Road Building Card
• Invention Card
• Victory Point Cards

Awards

• Longest Route
• Largest Army

Ending

• Game End
• Who Wins
• Ties
• Final Scoring

5–6 Player Extension expansion

• 5–6 Player Extension
• 5–6 Player Components
• Paired Players
• What Player 2 Can Do

Seafarers expansion

• Seafarers Overview
• Seafarers Scenarios
• Ships
• Moving Ships
• Starting Ships
• Gold Fields
• Island Bonus Victory Points
• Longest Route With Ships
• The Pirate
• The Pirate Blocks Ship Building
• Fog Islands: Discovering Hexes
• New World Setup
• The Forgotten Tribe
• Cloth for Catan
• The Pirate Islands
• The Wonders of Catan
• Seafarers for 5–6 Players

Cities & Knights expansion

• Cities & Knights Overview
• Cities & Knights Setup
• The Event Die and Production
• Commodities
• The Barbarian Ship
• Resolving a Barbarian Attack
• Defender of Catan
• Pillaged Cities
• The Robber Before the First Attack
• Knights
• Knight Actions
• Activating and Acting in the Same Turn
• City Improvements
• Level 3 Track Abilities
• Metropolis
• Progress Cards
• City Walls
• The Merchant
• No Development Cards or Largest Army
• Cities & Knights with Seafarers
• Cities & Knights for 5–6 Players

Traders & Barbarians expansion

• Traders & Barbarians Overview
• Combining Traders & Barbarians
• Friendly Robber
• Harbors of Catan
• Catan Event Cards
• Fishing on Catan
• Rivers of Catan
• Merchant Trains
• Barbarian Attack Scenario
• Traders & Barbarians Scenario
• Catan for Two
• Traders & Barbarians for 5–6 Players

Explorers & Pirates expansion

• Explorers & Pirates Overview
• Winning Explorers & Pirates
• Explorers & Pirates Ships
• Settlers and Harbor Settlements
• Exploring New Hexes
• Pirate Lairs
• Missions
• Delivering Fish and Spices
• Gold in Explorers & Pirates
• The Pirate Ship
• Explorers & Pirates Turn
• Explorers & Pirates Costs
• Council of Catan and Spice Farms
• Mission Tracks and Bonus Tiles
• Explorers & Pirates for 5–6 Players

Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers expansion

• Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers
• Desert Dragons, Great Canal and Enchanted Land

Legend of the Sea Robbers expansion

• Legend of the Sea Robbers

Legend of the Conquerors expansion

• Legend of the Conquerors

Helpers expansion

• Helpers of CATAN

Frenemies expansion

• Frenemies of CATAN

Oil Springs expansion

• Oil Springs

Crop Trust expansion

• Crop Trust

The Fishermen of Catan expansion

• The Fishermen of CATAN

Soccer Fever expansion

• Soccer Fever

Expansions covered

• 5–6 Player Extension paired players
• Seafarers ships, islands and gold
• Cities & Knights commodities, knights and barbarians
• Traders & Barbarians variants and scenarios
• Explorers & Pirates ships, settlers, crews and missions
• Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers Seafarers scenarios
• Legend of the Sea Robbers Seafarers campaign
• Legend of the Conquerors C&K cooperative campaign
• Helpers helper tiles
• Frenemies favor tokens
• Oil Springs oil and disasters
• Crop Trust seed vault
• The Fishermen of Catan fishery tiles
• Soccer Fever league matches

More about CATAN