Player Status

The Board, the Island of Catan.

The Cost/buidling Panel

The Object of the game is to build and manage your resources to become the King of the Island of Catan. The person who reaches ten points first, wins the game. This game is not a war game, but a trading/strategy game. The board is random each game, which gives it infinite replayability.

The game is usually played with four players.

The Island of Catan is different each game, it is made up of hexes that represent the different types of terrain(resources).

	Wheat(4)		Clay/Brick(3)		Wood/Lumber(4)		Water/Ocean(9)
	Ore/Rock(3)		Sheep(4)		The Desert(1)		3:1 Ports(4)		Resource Port(5) one per resource type denoted by color, this is the brick port)

Each of the five types of resource hexes are assigned numbers 2-12. These numbers represent the results of a 2d6 dice roll that is part of every turn in the game. When the number of any resource hex comes up, (such as with the 5 examples above) those hexes produce resources for anyone who has built a settlement or city on them.

The player can use resources gained over the course of the game to build the following:

	Settlement - produces one resource if it is on the intersection of any hex that produces that turn (has its number rolled)	worth 1 victory point. Cost 1 sheep, 1 wheat, 1 wood and 1 clay to build. Must be built 2 road segments (whether there are roads there or not) away from existing settlements. You also must build settlements during the game (after the building phase) on your own road system. Hence you need to build roads before you can build any new settlements during the game.
	City (upgrade) - produces two resources if it is on an intersection of any hex that produces that turn (has its number rolled)	worth 2 victory points. cost 3 ore and 2 wheat to build Must be built in place of a settlement. Cities are upgrades to existing settlements only.
	Roads - required to reach locations to build new settlements.	cost 1 clay and 1 lumber to build. Having the longest connected (and uninteruppted by other players settlements or cities), that is at least 5 in length is the Longest Road. This counts as two victory points.
*	Development cards - are similar to chance cards from monopoly.	cost 1 ore, 1 wheat and 1 sheep. These will be explained further below, the differnt types.

Ports.

Ports are there to help facilitate trade. The Island of Catan has limited resources that you will be competing with the other players for. It is very likely you will find yourself short of producing the resources you need to build and expand. One way to get resources you do not have, is to trade. You can only trade on your turn, or with the person who's turn it is. If you find players unwilling to trade(which you will, trust me), You can use ports to trade. There are two types of ports. the 3:1 (three to one) and the resource ports. The 3:1 port allows you to trade 3 of the same type of any resource, for one resource of your choice. Example: 3 wood for 1 clay, 3 wood for 1 sheep, 3 ore for 1 wood etc. The resource ports allow you to trade two of that type of resource(each port is denoted by color, the picture above shows the ore port), for any one resource. Hence if someone was built on the port -- noone is yet but the red player may later in the game -- they can trade 2 ore for any one resource, 2 ore for 1 wheat, 2 ore for 1 sheep etc. All players at all times can trade 4:1 to the bank, four of any one type for one of their choice. This isn't the best deal in town but sometimes its the only deal in town.

The Robber   

The Island of Catan is not without villians (besides the other players of course!). The robber roams the island searching to steal precious resources. The robber starts the game in the desert (shown above.)

The robber comes into play when one of two things happen:

A '7' is rolled on the dice on any players turn. (note there are no '7's on any resource hexes, the '7' result from the die are reserved for the robber.

Also note that the robber steals from the rich. If a '7' is rolled any player who has 8 or more resources, must turn in half(rounded down) to the bank. He gets to choose what he discards. Moving the robber with a knight card does not cause anyone to turn in excess resources.

A player plays a development card he has purchased, the Knight card.

Once the robber needs to be moved, the player who's turn it is (rolled the 7 or played the knight card), gets to choose to move the robber to a hex of his choice. Any hex with the robber placed on it (such as the '5' hex above), will not produce any resources for the duration of the robber being there. So if the robber is on your hexes, you want him off it as soon as you can! The player moving the robber also selects one player who has a city/settlement on the hex he moves the robber to, and steals a random resource from them.

Development Cards

Development cards cost 1 ore, 1 wheat, and 1 sheep.
They are the equivalant of chance cards. When you buy a card, you keep it hidden from your opponents. You can only play one card per turn and you can only play a card the turn after you have bought it. The only exception would be if you draw a victory point, since its in your hand if its your 10th point you win the game without having to wait for your turn to come around again.

The types are as follows:

Development Cards
• Victory points - This card awards you (secretly don't tell!) a victory point that counts towards the 10 points needed to win. This shows on your screen on your point total but not to the other players.
• Knight cards - These are the only way besides rolling a 7 you can move the robber. You can play the knight cards before you roll on your turn, this is handy if the robber is on your hex, and you wish to move it before you roll, in case you roll that very number. If you have 3 knights played or more, you qualify for the World's Largest Army. The player with the most knights (minimum 3) played gains two victory points.
• Monopoly - When you play this card you choose one type of resource, and every player must give you all of their resources of that type.
• Discovery - Also known as year of plenty in the board game version, this lets you choose two resources to gain immediately, of your choice.
• Road Building - This card allows you to immediately buy and place two roads, without cost.

Game Play

The game starts out with the Building Phase

A random player starts the building phase. They build a settlement and a road from the settlement. Then it goes to the next player, This happens in reverse order. A,B,C,D,D,C,B,A.

The second settlement you place, determines which resources you start the game with. You start the game with one resource for every resource producing hex that is next to your settlement(max of 3).

When all four players have their first two settlements and roads built game play begins.

The Player's Turn

A player starts his turn in the following sequence:

Turn sequence
• He decides if he wants to play a knight card to move the robber before he rolls.
• He rolls the dice, and everyone gains resources if they are built on any resource producing hexes. (hexes who's number comes up that is not occupied by the robber.) Settlements produce 1 resource, Cities produce 2. Multiple settlements and cities on the same square are cumulative.
• The next phases can involve multiple actions in no particular order.
  The player can build, trade with other players or the bank/ports, or play a development card (you can only play one card per turn).
• When the player is satisfied with what he has done (or he can't do anything else due to lack of resources), he ends his turn.

Hints
• Try to build settlements on numbers that come up alot, on a 2d6 distribution. 6,8 are the best, 5,9 are the next best, 2,12 are the worst.
• Choose locations on what they produce as well as the frequency. You eventually need at least one of each type of resource to build. Roads require clay and wood. You cannot build additional settlements without additional roads.
• Use ports wisely. If you cannot gain all the resources you need, try to use a resource or 3:1 port. Remember you always have the 4:1 option available to you.
• Remember settlements can only be built 2 road spaces away from existing settlements(even if the roads arent actally built). Don't build a road that goes nowhere you can build.
• Don't be afraid to build roads to cut other players off, this isn't a war game, but its still war! You can also block them building settlements by building yours, since all settlements must remain 2 road places away from another.
• Longest road and Largest army are 2 points each, if you can get these its nice, but remember someone else can take them away by passing you.
• Cities are important as they are worth 2 victory points and produce double the resources as a settlement. Upgrade your settlments into cities right away.
• Clay and wood are important in the early game as everyone wants to build roads, and new settlements.
• Rock is important when people want to build cities.
• wheat is important throughout the game for cities, settlements, and development cards.
• sheep is important for settlements and development cards, but end up being the most abundant resource that you don't need as the game goes on. (but you can always get the sheep port or a 3:1...)
• Remember there are only 3 brick and ore hexes, and 4 of the others. Remember that when placing and choosing locations to build later in the game.
• When one player jumps into the lead, its customary for the other players to beat up on that player, by moving the robber there whenver they can, even buying development cards to get knights just to move the robber on that player to slow him down and steal his resources! Also when one player is close to winning the other players won't trade with him, why help him win?