Catan is super fun and can be set up in many ways or the standard way so that you can have endless variations to alter the way the game pans out. Find 3 (or more with expansion packs) friends to play with and carve out an afternoon to just talk and play. My buddies and I always have a blast and we haven't even touched the expansions outside of the 6 player extension.

Fun (family and friends) game with the base game. Fantastic once you have understood base game and added cities and knights expansion (and seafarers). Whole the base game has a stronger luck element, the strategy options of the game are expanded a lot by the expansions. Like its a different game

Use YouTube and search for catan strategy. There will be many videos

I love Catan because the board changes every time. Everyone ends up working out their own strategy and style of play. The rules can be a little daunting at first, but there’s lots of content out there that make it easy to learn. You’ll have to let us know how it goes after you play it!

I think its really really good... I also admit I might have gone a little overboard with my passion for Catan.

Welcome to the club!! Say goodbye to the rest of your life! It’s all Catan now!

Ok, seriously, there’s some good YouTube vids of strategy, information, tips, etc.

Godspeed, friend.

Play a few more games of base Catan then go look into Explorers and Pirates or Cities and Knights.

​

The expansions are where it's at.

Wheat is a pretty sneaky resource. You need brick and wood early to expand but wheat is needed for everything. If you can put yourself in a situation where you can get a city early in the game that will help.

Welcome to your gateway drug. Once you try cities and knights that’s the crack cocaine version.

Realistically, Catan is a nice way to ease you in to the world of advanced board games. Although, once you start playing those, Catan gets very simple (aside from the advanced expansions)

Scythe has area control, resource management, and is a step up in complexity from Catan.

If you're looking for a fun but very different take on war games, Cyclades is a good one; with the new version out, 1st edition is fairly cheap, though I do recommend getting either the Hades or Titans expansion to go with it (mind you, the two expansions are not intended to mix with each other). Alternatively, the "Legendary Edition" was released recently which reworks the game with a mixture of ideas from the expansions plus some new features.

If you’ve got a whole day to burn, and a case of megalomania, you might want to look into Twilight Imperium.

Risk

Root. Different factions with unique play styles and abilities battle for territorial control. There's cooperation, backstabbing, and cute wooden meeples. Plenty of expansions available, and a new one that was recently funded on Kickstarter.

I mean probably 50/50.

Obviously original placement and where you choose to build is skill.

Opponents can cut you off you’re placing at the turning point so that is a bit out of your hands.

Dice rolls are obviously luck and the development cards are also luck.

But… a seasoned player vs 3 newbies will likely win 50+% of the time. So clearly skills is required.

For base Catan I would say it’s about 60% skill, 40% luck & for Cities & Knights it’s about 75% skill, 25% luck.

With the base game, you rely heavily on the dice rolls and your initial setup.

With C&K, there’s more complexity, which reduces the amount of reliance on “pure luck”.

If you rolled a single 12-sided die, then Catan would be mostly luck. Since you roll two 6-sided dice, it becomes a game of probability management, which is a skill. That’s to say nothing of the social aspects such as trade and negotiation that don’t play out as well online but work great in person.

Highest elo on boardgamearena is around 500. That’s quite a separation from some noob with 100-150 elo. It’s less separation than some high weight euro like Terra Mystica or Castles of Burgundy, where the top players are >700 elo, so the ceiling is lower for sure. It’s even a fair bit lower than the top players of Ticket to Ride, also around 700, but that’s apples to oranges with many of the “top” players playing a ton of 2-player games which is 1) lame (who actually wants to play 2-player TTR on the US map?) and 2) much less likely for a worse player to win than if playing with 3-4 players like Catan. Also, even if you convince me that TTR has a higher skill ceiling than Catan, you can’t convince me it’s a better game.

So anyways, there is definitely skilled play to Catan, and better players will win much more often than worse players, but it’s the sort of game you can master by being smart and playing a fair bit without having to actively “study” the game, whereas some games I feel like I’d have to actively study to become awesome at.

I think it depends. Whenever I win it’s obviously 100% skill. But whenever anyone else wins it’s obviously 100% luck and I actually played the superior game.

KenPlaysCatan on YT has some good starter strategy to get you going. Dylighted Catan has videos where he plays and talks through his reasons.

A lot of people have pointed out strategy tips that might be contributing, but I would also like to point out that playing with just two players using the traditional rules means that a few rolls going or not going your way (basically luck) can be very make or break for games in my experience. Something that has been very helpful for me and my husband when playing with just the two of us is adjusting the rules a bit. I believe there was a an official two player rules released for one of the expansions that we based changes off of. But we play to 15 points. Each player gets 2 rolls per turn and cannot trade or build until both rolls are complete. If a 7 is rolled and you do not have at least 5 victory points then they cannot put the robber on your hex or steal a resource from you. If you do have at least 5 victory points and a 7 is rolled, any player that has more than 9 resources in their hand must put back half of their choosing prior to the robber stealing. These changes usually help even things out quite a bit more.

Is she helping you by putting on 12-2-3 spot? The dots under the numbers are how probable they are with 2 6 sided dice. More dots the better, with 6 and 8s being the highest probability.

Sounds like it’s a combo of perception bias and bad luck. Keep playing.

Make sure you're placing your initial settlements on numbers that have a high probability of rolling. Number tokens that are closer to 7 have a higher probability of rolling than those that don't (so a 6-9-4 spot is statistically better than a 10-11-3 spot with the same resources, since 11 and 3 aren't as likely to roll as 6 and 9). Sometimes it's possible to have initial placements on only three or four different numbers (i.e. two 8-5-10 spots or 8-5-10 and 9-5-10) - really nice if your numbers hit, sucky if they don't. Try to diversify your numbers if possible.

Other than that, yeah, sometimes this game comes down to luck. I had one game recently that after 20 rolls, 10 of them were sixes, and I wasn't on either one.

How much time are you intending to commit to improving your game? There's a decent amount of strategic depth to base Catan. Look up Dylighted and Neonate on YouTube. They have many great strategic analysis videos.

As a teaser, here's Neonate's (work-in-progress) list of (<)100 top tips, version 2019-06-24:

Placements

Rule #1 Ore Wins

Rule #2 Production, Production, Production

Rule #3 No Wheat = Defeat

Rule #4 Get All Five Resources

Rule #5 But, Ore/Wheat/Sheep Still Very Strong

Rule #6 Good Ratio of Wood:Brick is 1:1

Rule #7 Good Ratio of Ore:Wheat:Sheep is 5:3:2

Rule #8 Plan Third Settlement / Port

Rule #9 Point Roads to Coasts or Desert

Rule #10 Don’t Be Greedy (7-8pt Spots Will Be Contested)

Rule #11 Free Road? Yes, Please

Rule #12 Same Numbers = Feast or Famine

Rule #16 When First, Check Edges

Rule #17 When Third, Take Rare Resources

Rule #18 When Third, Predict Fourth

Rule #19 When Fourth, Take Best Production

Rule #20 When Second, Predict Last

Gameplay

Rule #21 Know Thyself: Army or Road?

Rule #22 Know Others: Army or Road?

Rule #23 Track Army & Road Progress

Rule #24 Largest Army Better Than Longest Road

Rule #25 Build Sooner / Take Bird in the Hand

Rule #26 Spread Out Production

Rule #27 Avoid Confrontations

Rule #28 Get a Port

Rule #29 Don’t Make Yourself a Target

Rule #30 When Ahead, Buy Dev. Cards

Rule #31 When Behind, Build Cities

Rule #32 Avoid Taking Army Too Early

Rule #33 Never Take Army Too Late

Rule #34 Build a City Before Maxing Out Settlements

Rule #35 Take Longest Road as Late as Possible

Rule #36 Know Your Win Condition(s)

Rule #37 Know Opponents’ Win Conditions

Development Cards

Rule #41 Play Knights Before Rolling (Except If Holding 7 Cards)

Rule #42 Save Monopoly for the End

Rule #43 Beware of Monopoly

Rule #44 Road Building? Plan Ahead

Rule #45 Save Invention for Rare Resources

Rule #46 Victory Points? Just Build

Rule #47 Track Dev. Cards Remaining

Trading (General)

Rule #51 Trade to Build Now or Soon

Rule #52 Trade for Rare Resources

Rule #53 Trade with Trailing Players

Rule #54 Trade Tightly with the Leader

Trading (On Your Turn)

Rule #61 Trade Before Building

Rule #62 Almost a Coin Flip (48%), 7s Won’t Roll (4P)

Trading (On Opponents’ Turn)

Rule #66 Trade Tightly When Opp. Needs Trade to Build

Rule #67 Trade Tightly When Opp. Holds Many Cards

Rule #68 Avoid Trades When Opp. Has 6+ Points

Rule #69 Demand Multiple Cards When You Hold 7+ Cards

Robber

Rule #71 Block/Rob the (Real) Leader

Rule #72 Block Resources You Produce

Rule #73 Unfair Robber? Play Tit for Tat

Rule #74 Racing? Rob & Block What He Needs to Win Race

Table Management

Rule #81 Table Talk Works

Rule #82 Don’t Be a Jerk

Rule #83 Don’t Show-Off

Situational

Rule #91 Low Ore, Ports are King

Rule #100 Break Rules as Needed

I wanna parrot the op and recommend checking out some of that dudes videos. I think the most important thing to learn is important settlement placement and knowing your route to victory (whether it’s with longest road or largest army).

Also, I think table talk is very important in this game. If you can start to recognize when someone is pulling ahead, you may be able to get the table to turn on them. Example : someone has 5 points, 2 revealed army cards and 3 hidden development cards. Realistically, at least one is an army, giving them 2 more points, and the unrevealed cards are probably worth at least one point meaning this player effectively has 8 points (or more). And when someone is that close to winning, no one should trade with them unless the trade lets them win immediately after the trade.

Well, first thing to know is that numbers closest to 7 on the board are most ideal. There won't be a 7, ofc, since that is the robber's number. But statistically speaking, for two dice the most likely numbers to come up are 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. So try to make sure to put settlements on 5, 6, 8, or 9.

The fortunate thing is that Catan puts dots on each number representing how many times that number should statistically be rolled every 36 rolls. So the best spots to put a settlement will be on spots with three numbers that have more dots than any other combination of three hexes on the board. Edit: Having three hexes, for example, that have a total of 13 dots between them is insanely good. Aim for at least 10 dots or more.

Now, secondly, I would put importance on wheat in particular. It's used for building more settlements, advancing cities, and getting development cards. Imo, it's the most important resource for that reason since it's the only resource that appears on three out of four* things that have a potential or guarantee to get you victory points. Plus settlements and cities also help you collect more resources.

So if there is a wheat hex with 5, 6, 8, or 9, that should be your highest priority to put a starting settlement on.

Thirdly, development cards shouldn't be underestimated. In addition to having a chance for victory points, they can also get you more resources. I think a lot of people underestimate them. Granted, they're not as good as getting another settlement or city though, as those are guaranteed victory points plus giving you a stronger economic position. But often you may find yourself without the resources to build them, as they are kinda pricey.

Finally, dont underestimate the strategy of specializing in a resource and having a 2:1 port for that resource... This is actually very powerful often times as it means you probably no longer need to rely on trades with other players anymore and it means you'll more easily get resources you need at the right time. Too often in Catan do people not get the resources they need at the right time lol. So having that trade advantage is very helpful to kinda guarantee you get what you need in your own time table.

Edit: Corrected auto-correct errors and other spelling/grammar mistakes.

Edit 2 *I initially forgot about having longest road(I had wrote wheat was involved in all victory point gathering). There's no wheat in road building ofc.

I haven't played in a long time but I think the discussion on Catan by the Game Brain Podcast could really help. It's episode "Round 2: Extra Turn".

I don't think this is a very good strategy. If you're using ports you aren't being very efficient with your cards. If you're relying on only sheep and the sheep port to trade for the others you are going to need twice as many cards as your opponents to beat them. Every city you build costs 10 cards while it only costs your opponents 5 cards.

Sure, you can get lucky with rolls and win. But it won't happen very often.

In addition to the above, take a look at your current game play. Some people tend to approach the game the same way every time, thinking: “this is the best strategy.”

Mix it up. Play a few games where you focus on cards. Play another set where you focus on getting the largest army or longest road.

Personally, I pick spots such that I try to spread the numbers out so that I get a resource every time the dice is rolled. . .

Oh hey, you were the guest speaker with Jesse. I really enjoyed hearing you guys talk about Catan strategy. I had completely written off Catan until I heard you two talk about it more and then I immediately wanted to try it again to try and implement some of your strategies.

Ore and brick only have 3 tiles.

It is really hard to gain control of those two.

If I can get those in the beginning with wheat do you think I’d have a good setup?

I'm going to add a couple of things the first poster didn't.

It is important to be sure that with your first settlement locations you will have expansion opportunities. Tiles closer to the center will be more likely to be cut off than tiles further out. The more players there are, the more likely you are to get penned in by other players. If there is a great tile with great numbers, by all means grab it, but be sure that at least one of your two settlements is relatively safe from being cut off.

Trade. Trade. Trade. And trade. Every time 2 players trade, they both are improving their situation. That means whenever you aren't involved in a trade, two people have just gained ground while you're sitting still. If a trade makes any sense, try to be involved in it. And take every opportunity on your turn to improve your hand by trading.

Cities have a numbers advantage over new settlements. Think about it. Would you rather double the output of your best settlement, or add another settlement that's the 9th or 10th best location on the board? Settlements do have benefits of opening up the chance for new goods or adding ports, but the benefits are much more situational. And obviously sometimes you just have settlement goods and not city goods available to you.

There are 3(ish) main strategies.

1. Lots of settlements, longest road (brick and wood heavy)
2. Cities, Dev Cards, Largest Army (ore and wheat heavy)
3. Hybrid (balanced goods, or lots of one good with a 2:1 port for it)

It''s important to let the board tell you which is best and not go in with a predetermined idea of what to do. I believe that your very first settlement should generally be the best available spot on the board (most pips) or within 1 pip of that number. I would only vary from the best pip totals if they were too limiting (the best numbers on the same good type, great numbers but too many sheep). Once you've picked the best spot, your second spot should help determine your strategy and shore up any weaknesses with your first (if there are any). Think about the 3 ways to go about winning, the goods you have on the first settlement, and pick your second to align best to one of the strategies and cover your weak spots. It should give you expansion opportunities if your first spot is surrounded. It should give you decent access to goods you don't already have but will need for your strat. It can give you proximity to a port that aligns to your goods.

Also try out colonist.io. I've found that one better

https://discord.gg/JgTUfRK

We play a lot of games on this discord like cards against humanities and scribble io

Anyone can join

Wait there’s one online?? I’d love to play

“No, you can’t have a settlement between your roads for longest- hold, let’s ask Reddit 😡”

Who put the robber on his hex????

Why is no one talking about the cat?

That's a hilarious picture taken.

I love this transfer to 3D. Very subtle and homogenous with the same map. HEALTHY ENVY!

Did Slippers re-roll the die again?

TTS is currently on sale if you're good at putting in a sales pitch towards them ;).

You might want to give this a go. It's a free browser based version of catan that seems to work alright (better than Catan Universe, apparently).

Edit: found this on the catan subreddit. It's a discord dedicated to catan on TTS. On pressing the link it seems it's not working, but maybe there's a solution to it on the catan subreddit