MeepleRules
Catan
BGG rank
BGG #625
BGG rating
7.1

Catan

1995

Rules assistance for Catan

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 3–4 players
  • 60–120 min
  • 10+
  • Complexity 2.3/5
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For 3 players

Rules assistant for Catan

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Catan is a board game released in 1995 for 3–4 players, 60–120 minutes per game, and ages 10 and up. It was designed by Klaus Teuber and its main mechanics are Hand Management, Take That, and Race.

Expansions

Similar games

About the game

In CATAN (formerly The Settlers of Catan), players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine which resources the island produces. Players build structures by 'spending' resources (sheep, wheat, wood, brick and ore) which are represented by the relevant resource cards; each land type, with the exception of the unproductive desert, produces a specific resource: hills produce brick, forests produce wood, mountains produce ore, fields produce wheat, and pastures produce sheep. Set-up includes randomly placing large hexagonal tiles (each depicting one of the five resource-producing terrain types--or the desert) in a honeycomb shape and surrounding them with water tiles, some of which contain ports of exchange. A number disk, the value of which will correspond to the roll of two 6-sided dice, are placed on each terrain tile. Each player is given two settlements (think: houses) and roads (sticks) which are placed on intersections and borders of the terrain tiles. Players collect a hand of resource cards based on which terrain tiles their last-placed settlement is adjacent to. A robber pawn is placed on the desert tile. A turn consists of rolling the dice, collecting resource cards based on this dice roll and the position of settlements (or upgraded cities—think: hotels), turning in resource cards (if possible and desired) for improvements, trading cards at a port, possibly playing a development card, or trading resource cards with other players. If the dice roll is a 7, the active player moves the robber to a new terrain tile and steals a resource card from another player who has a settlement adjacent to that tile. Points are accumulated by building settlements and cities, having the longest road or the largest army (from some of the development cards), and gathering certain development cards that simply award victory points. When a player has gathered 10 points (some of which may be held in secret), s/he announces this and claims the win.

Designers

Publishers

  • Devir
  • Kaissa Chess & Games
  • Enigma (Bergsala Enigma)
  • Smart Ltd
  • Broadway Toys LTD
  • Hobby World
  • NeoTroy Games
  • HaKubia

Questions and answers

Catan supports 3–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.