HOW TO WIN CATAN

This video will show you how to win Catan. This video assumes you already know how to play Catan and want Catan strategy to win.

Learn:

• How to combine the best resources together
• How to make a strong initial placement
• How to implement your resource strategy after having placed
• How to follow through on the strengths and weaknesses of each strategy to win

OTHER BOARD GAME VIDEOS

Catan, previously known as The Settlers of Catan or simply Settlers, is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as Die Siedler von Catan. Players take on the roles of settlers, each attempting to build and develop holdings while trading and acquiring resources. Players gain victory points as their settlements grow and the first to reach a set number of victory points, typically 10, wins. The game and its many expansions are also published by Catan Studio, Filosofia, GP, Inc., 999 Games, Κάισσα (Káissa), and Devir. Upon its release, The Settlers of Catan became one of the first Eurogames to achieve popularity outside Europe. As of 2020, more than 32 million copies in 40 languages had been sold.

[helloasroma]

Few tips and strategies:
1) Wheat is arguably the most important resource in the game as you need it to complete three out of the four possible actions (road, settlement, city, and development card). Be sure to secure a good wheat spot with your initial placements.
2) The more abundant a resource is, they less valuable it is, and the more useless it'll be in the late game. For example if a resource has the numbers 6 and 8 attached, you'll likely be fine without said resource as plenty will be produced in the game and others will want to trade them away.
3) Sheep and wood are generally more abundant than brick, wheat, and ore. Therefore when placing initial settlements, focus more on the latter three as they are more rare. You are more likely to obtain sheep and wood via trade than you do brick, wheat, and ore.
4) See if you can get a monopoly or near-monopoly for any of the resources during your initial placements. When you are the only player with good access to a certain resource, it'll be easier for you to get favorable trades. If lucky, you may even be able to secure a 2:1 port for the resource, making you less likely to be stuck with too many of the said resource.
5) While getting access to all five resources initially is always a good idea, it isn't always possible. It is fine to only have access to four resources upon placing your initial settlements. Anything less than four initially would be difficult, unless your strategy is cities & dev cards, in which case you only need to focus on getting good access to wheat, ore, and sheep. It is possible to win with only access to these three resources initially.

[oof]

POV: You've been destroyed at Catan on family game day

[fisher]

Remember that not all ports are equal. A wood or a sheep port can be really strong while an ore or a wheat could also be good but will generally be less useful, unless you really have the production to back it up.

Also be aware of resource ratios. Resources pair up. You don't want a lot of wood, if you don't have access to brick or a port. Otherwise your hand will be overloaded with wood and you might get stuck hands and lose valuable resources to the robber.

When trading try framing the trade in terms of what your opponent needs. Instead of saying "I need a sheep, can I get it for a wood from you?" You could say "You need wood, right? I could trade one for a sheep".

Avoid 4:1 unless you absolutely must. You are giving up 3 cards for free. Even risking losing cards to the robber is more worth it in terms of probabilities (losing 4 cards with 52% chance vs losing 3 cards with 100% chance). You should only 4:1 if it gives you a bigger advantage(like securing a spot or getting a city), or if you are scared of a monopoly and you need to do it defensively.

[birbobaggin]

When I used to play Catan as a kid, I just enjoyed stacking resource cards and building roads. Cool to see that this game is still played and has some really cool strategies aswell!

[butterfinger]

Catan is one of my favorite board games, I’m glad you covered it. Cities and knights would be cool, since that’s the expansion that my family plays most often. Thanks for this insight

[PSpurgeonCubFan]

I have also found it useful to diversify my numbers on initial placement. If you put your first settlement on 8/4/5, then a few plays later you see another good resource combo at the intersection of, say 8/5/10, beware. Yes, these are good odds, but you’ll be stuck in a “feast or famine” scenario, relying on 8s and 5s … and then the dice decide to favor 6s and 9s that day

[rodneymorin]

My family and I just got into catan. We’ve been playing almost every night. We recently just bought explorers and pirates and traders and barbs.

Thank you for this great video!

[swagmundfreud]

I've played thousands of games, and for a good year or so I was consistently dominating my family and friends at Catan winning over 80% of the games we played. Here's my tips. Note, I mostly play gallery edition, and did not watch the video until after I made this comment.
- The values of resources are as follows (high numbers = more valuable): brick and lumber = 1 (brick = 1.5 due to being slightly less rolled), sheep = 2, ore = 4, wheat = 5. These values are modified by +1 if you have a harbour for that resource, so if I have a sheep harbour, sheep = 3. Lumber and brick harbours are the best harbours because say you trade two lumber for a wheat, you just went from a value of 2 to 5.
- Only trade unfairly if you can, so for example you give a sheep for a wheat, to a less experienced player that may sound swell, especially if that sheep is needed for a town or card, but to you it is objectively a winning trade. Rob players who have wheat and ore.
- Place your first city with either wheat or ore, and maybe a lumber or brick. 6 of Wheat/8 of Ore + 5 of Lumber + another 6/8 is the best possible city spot in Gallery edition.
- Don't end your turn with more than seven cards. Just don't. Trade them away even if its a little unfair. It's not worth it.
- Trading with the person who's turn is before you is better than trading with the person who's turn is after yours, because there's more time for a seven to be rolled and for them to lose their cards.
- Seven is the best number you can be rolling early game. It brings your opponents down and you up. Knights are very good early game investments. However, the value of the stealing aspect of a seven/knight is the robber
- If you get a monopoly card, count the rolls so you get the best maximum resources from it.
- Don't be afraid to set your second initial town on a good harbour location.
- Having space to expand is more important than that space being good, especially in a four person game. Everyone always complains about how the person who puts their second town down last (which the way my family plays, would be the person who places their first town first, cuz we go in a boomerang, it's a lot more fair) however I think that it's actually really good IF you choose a spot where you have a lot of relatively uncontested expansion opportunities.
- Try to get Y road structures (a road structure where you have one road leading from each town to a single central location where they all meet, like the shape of an uppercase Y) this saves resources and makes your tiles very powerful.
- Don't fret too hard if another player gets a slight early lead. Everyone will put the robber on them and they will slow down significantly.

After watching I've realized what i normally do is the ore/wheat strategy with the port strategy sprinkled in. Basically I invest into ore, wheat, and get a harbour for lumber, brick, or sheep, whichever I have the most access to.

[georgebloch]

Played this once with friends and already know it’s one of my favourite board games out there

[spacelynx]

Great video! My family loves playing Catan and now I have a better idea of strategies to use. I’d like to see the next one be about the cities & knights expansion.
And if possible, could you do a future video for Carcassonne? Thanks!

[capt.redbeard]

I really love your analysis of the game. This is why it is such a classic - Catan is almost (perhaps as close as a board game can get to) a sandbox game given the many options. Great job on this one.

[petersamantharadisich]

Nice video - I think another aspect to consider is whether you try to get every number, or whether you bet big on a few dice rolls. eg usually want 4 out of the 6 more common numbers (5, 6, 8, 9) if possible... also important to wreck your opponents plans with your placement - eg if there is a settlement placed next to 3 wheat in the first round, you should place your settlement at the 2:1 wheat port so they cannot dominate and are stuck trading 4:1 - stooge ftw!! we would also do things like trade with the last placed player to allow them the steal the longest road from the leader. you normally want to be a "close 2nd" for most of the game if possible, and steal the win with 2 or 3 VPs on your last turn

[Kcslj]

Your videos are so detail oriented and helpful!

[kaiser]

Great video! I would love to see a video on how to win the game of Risk.

[Endless-fire]

Of note, in the early game wood and brick are more important, because SPACE is a very rare resource in ctan, even more so with 4 players (not so much with 5 however). However in the late game wheat and stone become far more important as eventualy only upward development becomes viable. Or you could go all in on dev cards... it is *surprisingly* effective.

[Aselium]

These video's are very high quality! Keep them coming!

[turbocharged_penguin]

Hexagons are bestagons

also please cover Starfarers edition next, if you don't count that as an expansion, knights and cities <3

[PhoenixO]

This is a really great start of a breakdown for strategies, but as my table only ever plays with fish there are a few extra things we have to keep in mind like requiring 11 points to win instead of 10, and managing your fish in the same way you would manage any other resource.

[rileynicholls]

It was really satisfying to know that I figured out all these strategies naturally playing the game over time. Then watching this video I was like yup, true, good tip, very good, yes. My favorite strategy is the last one mentioned. Dev card cards all day. I have personally beat my family without any brick or wood the entire game using the aforementioned strategy.

[ZÏ̇̃]

Loved the video as well as I love the game! I also love to play with the seafarers expansion pack, would love to see that for the next video!