When your journalistic beat consists of providing helpful tips on how to win games, people naturally assume that you are an expert at playing them. That’s not always true, but I like to think that I make up for it with moxie and a reasonably consistent positive attitude.
That is why I would like to get the following confession out of the way: I have played Catan, the civilization-building strategy game, in real life only once — and I honestly think it was because my editorial director felt sorry for me. Catan was first published in 1995, but I never got around to playing it, so she kindly brought the base set to the office and showed me and a few other Catan-deprived colleagues how to play.
Klaus Teuber, a German game designer who died in April, created the game, which is easy enough to learn. A total of 10 points are needed to win, but since you begin with a point for each of your two initial settlements, you’re really playing for eight points.
I managed to emerge from that first game with a grand total of two points. But it was enough to trigger an intense interest in learning more, so I spoke to some experienced Catan players about their strategies.
If you can’t figure out how to become a resource mogul, you’ll love my first tip, straight from the experts’ mouths.
It’s not you. No one really knows a surefire way to win at Catan.
In fact, the winning strategy as it was consistently relayed to me in interviews was “It depends.”
In every game, the hex tiles and circular number chits are arranged randomly, which means that players’ strategies need to change with each setup. Flexibility is key here, but there are ways to increase your chances of winning.
The beginning of the game is very important.
There are three ways to get off to a good start:
Play the numbers, not just the resources.
Park your settlements near numbers that have the best chance of being rolled rather than near any particular resources, advised Toby Howell, a co-host of the “Morning Brew Daily” podcast. Remember, Catan is a dice game, and dice rolls involve probability.
You want to be where you and the other players will land more often than not. Pay attention to the dots on the circular chits. Statistically, after the number 7, the numbers 6 and 8 (five dots each) have the highest probability of being rolled, while a 2 or a 12 (one dot each) have the lowest. You may want to avoid placing your settlements near those numbers.
It’s also important to take note of which resources have the low probability chits, because that creates scarcity, and we all know what happens when people want something that’s not readily available: The price for that resource goes up, which affects bargaining.
“Let’s say that wheat is on a 2 and a 12, and then an 11 and 4,” said Eric Freeman, the 2022 United States Catan champion and runner-up at the World Championship in Malta. “That’s going to be a really low wheat game, so understanding that wheat will be a precious resource is important.”
Build with an ocean view in mind. The harbors on the board’s edges, which represent the coasts of the island of Catan, offer a valuable trade ratio to players. It’s to your advantage to include them, if possible, when you decide where to start your settlements.
Accept that resource needs will change throughout the game. Players receive building-costs cards to remind them of the resources needed to make roads, settlements and cities. At the beginning, lumber and bricks are important to collect because you need to build roads to carve out your territory. When it’s time to build settlements, your focus should be on wheat and sheep. Upgrading to cities requires ore and wheat.
Note that you need wheat to build everything on the building-costs cards except for roads. You’re going to want to collect or trade for this resource, but so will everyone else who understands its value.
That’s where the social aspect of Catan comes in.
You obtain more resource cards with honey than with vinegar. Sometimes.
Trying to negotiate for that wheat card you desperately need is an integral part of the game, so it pays to be nice to your fellow players. Being honest about the resources you have to offer builds trust, and trust builds good trading relationships.
Sure, you could lie to your friends about the cards you have or throw your best buddy under the bus while trading, but you might notice that you’ve stopped getting invited to game nights.
“Catan games can be contentious because you can really get under someone’s skin and screw people over,” Mr. Freeman said. “It’s definitely caused a few fights.”
“The negotiation part of it and the ‘trying to convince people to do something’ aspect are intense,” he added.
For Guido Teuber, that’s one of the more interesting aspects of the game. Mr. Teuber and his brother Benjamin, Klaus’s sons, are the managing directors of Catan GmbH, which develops and publishes Catan games. “It is really an exploration of people,” Mr. Teuber said. “The exciting thing, the fascinating thing is that people you had pegged as having a certain personality show completely new aspects of their personalities.”
“Maybe that very shy person becomes like Tony Soprano,” he added, laughing.
For the love of all that is holy, buy development cards when you can.
I was so focused on building settlements and roads in my first game that I never really learned what the development cards were for and even forgot that they existed. Big mistake.
Buying a development card can deliver some choice freebies. For the price of one wool, one wheat and one ore, you can: hire knights to chase the robber away and build the largest army; add to your roads; declare a Year of Plenty; and draw two resource cards from the bank. You may also draw one of the five victory-point cards, which add to your point total for the reasonable price of the three resources.
There is also an ethically questionable power move involving the Monopoly card that exploits a loophole in the official rules. This is where tempers flare and you see what kind of people your friends really are.
Playing the Monopoly card allows you to take all of a particular resource from the other players. It’s not specifically disallowed, but some players will innocently ask around the table for a resource that they purportedly need, as if they are looking for a trade bargain. As soon as the Monopoly-wielding player knows where the resource is being held, the person reveals the card and relieves the patsies — sorry, the other players — of that resource.
Indulge in a little card counting if you can.
If using Monopoly as a means of subterfuge is too unethical for you, try keeping track of which cards other players are holding. I have never found this easy because I can’t even remember where I put my house keys, but maybe you’ll be better at it.
“Tracking is a very important part of the game that beginners never think about,” Mr. Howell said. “They have their own problems.” I can’t argue with that.
Time to celebrate.
You’ve collected your 10 points, whether through savory or unsavory means, and now it’s time to receive accolades from the other players.
Go on, stand up from the game table and do a smug victory dance as a way of asserting your dominance as a Catan master. It may get you banned from game night, but the victory will be sweet.