Leave yourself room to expand, and be sure to place your roads in this direction. It’s for this reason I like to use strike rate (SR)in all my decision making: SR = probability of a roll resulting in a resource being received, = sum of probabilities of all the numbers you touch. As the game progresses further expand your ore and wheat. So the answer to the question is, It Depends. If I don’t have access to a certain resource, will I be able to reach a port? There are many different components, big and small, to Settlers of Catan that can vastly affect your game. Hold off on pursuing largest army. If you are trying to collect soldier cards and you bump into one of these cards your game will still benefit. Laying low early on. By. Count the possible victory points.) And that's a very good thing because even if it's not the resource you wanted, you can always trade for one you do need. If you find that you’re lacking in certain resources, making your way to the shore line for one of the 2:1 spaces can be a good idea. So as the game continues these numbers produce less and your best numbers are now blocked and now you can only build roads and settlements. It’s very likely that the most probable tile of the most scarce resource, yielding the highest EV to the strongest player will be targeted by other players with the robber. Which opponent has Knights in store to retaliate against me? Ore and wheat become more valuable as the game progresses. Do you have access to a port/will you be able to soon? You can do this strategy with any resource though. Leave yourself room to expand, and be sure to place your roads in this direction. Brick overall is the most valuable as there are only 3 brick hexes and is used for roads and settlements. If two other players trade and you are not involved, that is two people that are getting a benefit while you don’t get anything. It also extends the game for everyone else too, so there will be very little controversy with this type of trade. Keep in mind if they have a surplus of one resource and a port. We are the HexaGamers. Act like you’re trading for a certain resource, then Monopoly it. You can use it on the strongest player to slow them down. You should make sure that your initial settlements have access to a variety of resources. They are used to build settlements, which is early on in the game. These games were played with my closest friends and they are the inspiration for this site - Game Night Bros. Today, I enjoy playing and learning new games with my family and any other game group I can find. Try to build your cities on a variety of hexes so that you are not completely limited if the robber comes. By doing this you are also increasing your odds of collecting elements more frequently. The remaining development cards are two road building, two victory points, a monopoly card, and a year of plenty. So it may be better to just wait until you have all three roads in your hand and build them all at the same time. The multiple strategies to win, make playing a Settlers of Catan game unique every time. Do you have a monopoly on a resource that will enable you to trade for it in the future? reasons. Makes sense to go for largest army because a large percentage of development cards are knights. How diverse is my portfolio with regards to resources? At the end of the day, Catan is mostly a luck based game. A good player plays with low variance (i.e. If you are slowly building your Catan colony and you start to close in on 7 points showing then you may want to take an account and see what is needed to get the longest road. In the example, despite having a high EV your Strike Rate is only (5+3+2)/36 = 28% (because you only receive cards when a 3,4 or 8 is rolled). Try to ensure you have at least a decent supply of Brick, Wood, Wheat and Sheep. Even try to monopolize ore if you can. It is unlikely you will get targeted to be robbed for the cards in your hand because you are loaded with sheep. If they get a lot of one resource and/or port, they can just trade for the resource they need. Make sure you have a lot of space to build. Each resource space has a number on it, in addition to a number of dots. Especially if it has become obvious what resource they need before building. huge impact on your chances to win the game. Canada Word Searches, Crosswords and Puzzles for Kids. When selecting your first two locations it is advisable to make sure that you have opportunities to collect every element. As a rule of thumb, trading with a player who’s near victory is not usually a good idea, especially if it’s on their turn. Trading can be tough, if others have the ability to get their own sheep. Aim to place the robber on one of their hexes to steal it. This choice makes the other two really good spots unavailable to everyone else which is also to your advantage. If you wait till the 5 or more, people will see you as too big of a threat to trade. Here are some things you'll want to keep in mind when choosing where to place your initial settlements in a game of Settlers of Catan. Settlers of Catan, which is similar to the game Pandemic, was one of the first European-style games to come to America and has become one of the most well-known games of the genre. So you could possibly only miss out on one roll if they move the robber to your tile. Resource production is not created equal in The Settlers of Catan. That is if the other players are willing to trade if or when they receive it. So you could possibly only miss out on one roll if they move the robber to your tile. Novice players will often trade only to benefit themselves, without considering who they’re trading with. ", You can opt-out at any time. Do we really think that 5 out of every 36 rolls we will receive resources from this 8? Remember that Catan is not real-life*. Control can also be limiting an opponent’s element dominance by way of keeping the robber on their primary locations. Typically wood and brick are very valuable early in the game but lose value later on in the game. Browse the archives to see what to expect, or jump right in: everything © Blake Boles, forever and ever. Maybe build cities later in the game. If you need a resource, you may not want to place the robber on it. Get a hex of each with the resources that are producing the most being brick and wood. Where can I afflict the most damage to EV and SR to my opponents? Try to get ore when you are at the 4 point mark. Placing on identical number tiles = distribution trade-off. If you are hoping to expand towards a prime stop, keep in mind the order of placements, and how many placements are left. Works well for late-placement if there are wide areas with few settlements. This strategy can be used for any element. In order to have the best chances at collecting elements you want to make sure that your land locations are diversified. Then you can spend them as soon as you get them. If not going for longest road, use the triangle fork settlement building strategy, which costs you 3 road per 2 settlements (rather than 4). If you are able to obtain the 2:1 sheep port you may be able to use this port to your advantage later in the game without specifically seeking the sheep locations. Be careful with this strategy, if a 7 gets rolled it is very likely for you to have too many cards in your hand. These are the notes from Blake’s 5-day project on Settlers of Catan strategy at Not Back to School Camp 2012. Another result of exponential growth: early handicaps matter. Try to have less then 7 cards in your hand at all times. Avoid initial port placements, in general. Receiving a lot of resources will help your game immensely,  so try and place on one of each resource (depending on strategy). Block what they are currently needing or their highest producing tile. If it has to be removed because a 7 is rolled then use another soldier to put it back on them. Give multiple strategies a try, you may be surprised which ones are successful for you. Before starting the game, you must choose two locations for your starting settlements. Most Settlers of Catan strategic tactics revolve around element control. Watch other players to see if you can pick up on what Catan strategies they are thinking of doing. This bartering technique does fall within good game etiquette because the trade does benefit both parties. When in doubt, build toward the sea and/or 3-4-10-11 tiles. Awesome! But if a 7 is rolled, you will just lose sheep as thats all you have. What is the EV of this spot? Countless games of Catan end with one player placing multiple roads on the same turn, stealing the longest road card for two points and winning the game. You will want to build cities to get a lot of sheep so be sure you can get wheat and ore either by having the resource hex or by getting the port right away. It’s also the best way to find out whenever I publish new work or have a crazy new scheme. Pluses: get a little of all resources, maximize numbers, Minuses: no particular plan for getting victory points, Pluses: Quick access to many resources, ability to cut enemies off from territory early.