Volume 2: A few words on Settlers of Catan Strategy

A few words on Settlers of Catan Strategy

Let me qualify this: I am by no means a statistical expert, nor do I play in board game tournaments. I have played quite a few games of Settlers of Catan though, and in an attempt to clarify some things and perhaps start a discussion, I have enumerated...A couple pieces of BASIC Settlers strategy:

1. Placement is (nearly) everything: Don’t get rushed when placing your first two settlements at the beginning of the game. These are two of the biggest decisions you will make and will color the rest of your strategy. There are a number of nuances here, but my general strategy is to cover as many numbers as possible (not too worried about 6’s and 8’s as they are often blocked) and have access to a port. The actual resources themselves aren’t that important, but it would be wise to avoid having all of your big numbers on, say, sheep.


2. Avoid Tunnel Vision: At every point in the game you want to have a plan of what you are working toward in the immediate, and what your endgame is. However, if your resources aren’t allowing you to buy what you want in the immediate, you need to be flexible and use your resources on other things. If you get caught with tunnel vision, you may overlook other ways to accomplish your same goal (which, in the end, is always 10 points). FOR EXAMPLE: Let’s say you have a wheat-heavy settlement group. You need a wheat port, and there’s one a couple of spaces away. However, you can’t get any brick or wood, no one else has any, and you can’t build roads to get there, much less build a settlement there. Meanwhile, you’re piling up a number of other resources. You could trade, 4-1, for the wood and brick you need. This, however, would be maddeningly inefficient. Instead, maybe you could build a city or buy development cards or trade with your opponents in the meantime. The point being, just because in a perfect scenario something is the right move, does not mean that it is the right move for you at that moment, given your resource allocation.


3. Don’t Spend too many resources on Largest Army or Longest Road, especially early on. I’ve always been of the mind that the early game should be spent building infrastructure (settlements, cities, access to ports). This will give you more resources and concrete points (ones that cannot be taken away). When the time comes to build the road or army that you need to get you over the top, your 4 cities in ideal places will have an advantage over your opponent who has 4 settlements and the longest road card. Also be aware of the inefficiencies involved in heavy competition for these cards. It is more than possible to do so in a game, especially one where two of your opponents are duking it out for these cards (see: tunnel vision point). It’s hugely inefficient to have to build 13 roads for longest road if you could have easily gotten to ten points another way. Same for largest army, though I think to a lesser extent.


4. Trade before you buy. On your turn, you should almost always trade before you buy. Why? First, it gives you a better idea of what you can buy on that turn, and what you can get in trades may change your course of action. Second, people are not going to want to trade with you if you just built a city and a road.


5. Get a port. One, it’s a more efficient use of resources than trading 4:1. Two, a lot of maps generated will have a general deficiency of certain resources, meaning that you cannot trade for them other than with the, um, bank? Finally, there will (hopefully) come a time in the game where you are visibly winning. If your closest opponent is smart, they will point this out and admonish others trying to trade with you. If they are smart, they will comply. Thus, you won’t have any trade partners. So you need a port to get the resources you are likely to need to win the game. Maybe even two ports.

That's it for now. Key thing to me is always flexibility in strategy. Would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Photo by Ben Chaney