HOW TO WIN CATAN 

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.

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

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.

HEXAGONS ARE COOL

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!

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

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

Hexagons are the bestagons

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!

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!

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

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.

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

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

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

Your videos are so detail oriented and helpful!

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.

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!

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

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.

My favorite way to play is to lay out the board randomly and then put the number tokens out randomly face-down. everyone places their initial settlements based on hexes alone then we flip any token that has a building (road/settlement) attached to it. It can make for some really unbalanced games, but with several skilled players even having a lot of resources early on doesn't guarantee a win. For expansions I started with Seafarers but I really think Cities and Knights completed the game and is by far my favorite. One point you didn't cover is that you want to diversify what numbers you are associated with. In my experience its better to have a wider range of numbers as having 1 resource this turn tends to be more valuable than 2 resources next turn based on the economy of resources.

Can't believe you actually went through with my idea. Sick video, plan to destroy my uncle next time I see him! Thanks!

For initial placement it's also very important to try and get as many unique numbers as possible. Preferably all six unique, because randomness can bite you worst in early game.

thank you for making this video! this was super helpful i learned a lot, i hope to see more

Having a way to get all resources regardless of what the other players scheme can be crucial. Even a bad spot like lets say a 3 wood or 2 sheep can make a difference (not ideal, but can become your saving grace if nobody wants to trade). Granted, spots like that are only a last resort, 4:1 trades with the bank can do the trick as well. Obviously having a 3:1 or a useful 2:1 solves the issue as well.

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.

Love ur content! Also, can u make a how to win Catan: Cities and Knights?

Petition for cities and knights follow up

Could you possibly make an in depth look at the game 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'. I lack both mechanical skill and experience, however with your help I may become more skilful in the artful game of ' Rock, Paper, Scissors'

LOVE YOUR CONTENT

Great video, I cant wait to apply these advice! I suggest 7 Wonders as the next game in the series. It has become a classic, and is very well balanced ao this should be interesting

I have found when placing my initial settlements, getting a variety of numbers is more important than a variety of resources.

Nice one! Wanting to watch a how to Catan video for some time.. definitely do Cities & Knights next 😍

As a house rule to shake things up we usually play with dice roll indicators face down during initial placement. It takes away dice odds as an initial consideration and often ends up forcing you into a strategy you weren't planning to play due to resource scarcity. Unfortunately it can occasionally mean that one or more players end up extremely lucky/unlucky when the indicators are flipped, but that's life I guess. Plus with enough games played, eventually even the less savvy players will luck out with a really good placement and odds. Worth a try if you and your group are settler heads looking for a twist!

Another handy tip is picking your strategy based on how rich the board is in producing the required resource. Eg. don’t go for a City/dev card strategy if the ore tiles have low numbers.

Please do a video on ticket to ride. I played ticket to ride for pretty much the entire Covid season and I’d love to see advanced strategies for it

7:09 NeXT is a blast from the past.

Yo just thanks in general for your whole channel

Not gonna lie, this video is very basic and explains strategies that most people would've figured out after their 2nd or 3rd game. In fact, this is nearly all the strategy there is in base game Catan. The game is pretty shallow without expansions.

I remember my first game of this so well Idk how I came up with this strategy on the fly but the way the board was set up, a 6 and 8 space of ore and wheat were on the outside ring, with the desert removing their appeal (I am pretty sure the tiles were not setup correctly) I built on an 8 ore, 6 wheat, desert space And a 8 ore, 4 brick, sheep ocean port As all the sheep were clumped up on the other side of the board. And on my turn I offered if anyone wanted to trade 3 sheep for anything I would use my port to help them with the deal I got to keep one sheep I even made some moves that put me at a minor disadvantage helping other players Then in late game I cut off access to the port Slapped down 4 solders, a road building and 1 victory point and won with 2 desert cities and a settlement on wood and more wheat I dont think my parents knew how to play that well back then either

Cities and knights or seafarers would be great!!

I love playing this game against my parents. My strategy is getting the most numbers. Its very nice if you have like 8 or 9 out of the 10 available numbers... Sometimes its just better to settle for a beginner spot 2-3-4 and one 8-10-11 and then try to get 5-9-12 later on. I always try to get at least 5 different numbers at the start. You also might get lucky a few times with like 2-3-11-12... And I like if your last and 2 players have like 8 and there is a spot open on that tile just go with it. if you are all 3 on that tile no-one will block it... or if they do they also get them self

My family likes playing what we call "explorer mode" your two first settlements HAVE to be on a coastline. The second one doesn't have to be on the coast, but it does have to connect to the first. And we have all the tiles/numbers flipped upside down at the start, and everyone has to explore inwards It's also fun to have the robber actually steal the resources for the player that places it, instead of just deleting the resources. I've found that this house rule decreases the usefulness of the robber for the leading player, as they don't get as much value as a "poorer" player

At 4:29 I loved the little comment at the bottom right under the odds chart. I was thinking that same thing ;) But there are a lot of games based on 2d6 out there and people still don't understand these odds. So it's good to keep showing the chart.

Well done man! Great video and well detailed.

I use the a mix of strategies to win. Strong numbers on wood, brick and another resource for the first village placement. On the second village try o pick up the strongest numbers on ore and wheat. When I start branching out with roads I try to get numbers that I do not already have. A great start is having 6 of the 10 numbers. Getting to a port and connecting roads together is my next objective. Double villages on numbers are also a goal. This allows me to win most games.

I will Watch all the videos on catan to ruin game nights with the family 😄

This was a very good video, just used the cities & dev strat against the rest of my family, glad I watched it

catan is a cool game and I like commenting for algorithms

Citys and knights please

One of my strategies has to do with initial placement. Sometimes you can get the perfect spots that give you 2 wood, 2 clay, a wheat and sheep. This is ideal because immediately make another settlement essentially starting the game with 3. Sometimes I’ll take less desirable spots for that early expansion and it starts a snowball that’s hard for others to overcome.

0% strategy 100% explaining the rules. Thanks for the video bro

A quick "outside of the game" trick I always use. (only works on irl games). When rolling a 7 or using a knight taking another card from a player, the player would most likely unconsciously stares at the card the wish you NOT to take. Since they only want to focus on the important card to see if you are near taking it.

Out of placement and resource the more important is the placement up your towns how much resources you have if you don't have good placement for your towns and cities it doesn't matter, which means the placement of your pieces is more important than the resources. It is not a balance of your resources game it is a balance between resources and placement because if you are lacking in one you have lost.

YES! The algorithm took way too long to suggest this to me. I should've been subscribed. Let's change that.

ive been waiting for thiss thank youuu

Watched this and lost again. Thanks!

please cities and knights expansion. wonderful videos, keep it up

just found ur channel with the monopoly videos and this is a rlly cool video as well. appreciate the hard work! maybe do a munchkin video next that'll be cool especially since ive always wanted to learn the odds of getting the right draws and how to use those numbers to your advantage.

Can you please do a video on the seafarers expansion, that’s my favorite one to play with my family and friends.

I voted for this. Thank you 🤩

hexagon's ARE cool, some might even say that they are the bestagons

we making it out the family Christmas dinners with this one.

An interesting and thought provoking comment about anything. Perhaps, even life changing.

Cool video, next you can make guide to sailors expansion

Taking a look at Traders & Barbarians might be worth a look, especially The Fishermen of Catan variation changes the way the game is played surprisingly much.

Gonna play my first Catan match where we're betting a bit of real money tonight. Thanks lmao

Hexagons, are actually, in fact, the bestagons

Ive always sucked at catan, thx for this

-Always be aware of the resources you opponent have at hand and what they need to proactively propose win win deals -When they really need something that you have- use leverage for very advantageous deals (ex: 2vs1) -Keep a hidden dev card to deter robbers threatening to send back. -Send robber to people that can’t send back if you have the lead or to the leader if you don’t -Do not openly reach 8-9 pts keep hidden as much as possible and convince people to ally against an opponent. -First cards matter a lot, try to put your second settlement (cards you receive) in a way that supports your strategy and 1st planned construction. -If you have a monopoly, 1st trade away the cards you have at hands then recover them through the monopoly. -port and road strategies sucks.

Can you do Ticket to Ride next?I now this game for a lot of time an I used to play it with my family in almost every noon , but that was 6 years ago, I would be glad if you did a video on that game . Also I just noticed that you are so underrated, I would reccomend your channel to my friends but then they will become better at those boardgames so I won't be able to defeat them easily.

question - aren’t cities worth 2 points each? so for a wood brick strategy, you’d need: LR - 2pts 2 Cities - 4pts 4 Settlements - 4pts at least i think so?

I think port strat is really good if you have catan expansions like I have the sea one and the ports are really useful since you are not liekly to get both spots with 3 hexes

After you have a rough idea of the fundamentals, the #1 most important thing to do is to be the kind of player that other players wouldn't mind losing to. If you're too cutthroat and act smarter than everyone, people will gang up on you/embargo you/rob you even if you're not currently the most likely to win.

I would just add that it's better to place on resources that are in the corner and won't be shared and if they will be shared that they are triple shared because if you are on a double shared 5/9/6/8 spot the robber will be there all game long.

I'm the newest player in my group of friends. I've won one game probably outta the 10 I've played and that's why I'm here. I wanna WIIIIIN! lol

Me watching this after getting my ass handed to me for literal years! Definitely more confused after my first watch, but hopefully it'll make sense after a few more.

I have never played Catan but watched the entire video

It's finally here!!!

I would love to see a cities and knights version

Great tips! Thanks for covering this game

I don’t know if this is normal but the house rule I play with places the numbers after the initial house placement

Super video I love this game but we got the expancion of seafarers and that's when the problems starts to grow because of ships and much bigger map (we play the biggest possible)

Hexagons are the bestagons!

Catan is basically like a simpler version of Civilisation.

Another couple of things to consider: - Try to get multiple resources in the same roll. If there’s a 4 on both wood and brick, then you know that every time a 4 is rolled you instantly get a road. That’s much better than building on a 4 and a 9, where once you get your wood you could still be waiting around for a good while before getting that brick. While you’re waiting you’re a bigger target to steal from and more at risk of getting stuck with 8+ cards - If you can, try to place your second starting settlement so that you get the resources you want right away. If you start off with the materials for a road or development card already in your hand you can get a quick head start on your opponents

How to win Risk next please!

The best way to win Catan is to not play. 😅 Sorry I couldn't resist I'm not really a fan. I did give you a like and a comment to help you with the algorithm. And I did appreciate your analysis.

Me watching this not even having heard of this game: *Interesting*

Next non-Catan video could be Wingspan! It’s a new laudable game that is a bit more complex than Catan?

Plz do a strategy vid of Risk

good video, Love it. Now I just gotta get Catan

Never played Catan, and don't even know the rules and here I am watching a video on how to win it lol

One game I recently played we played in “hard mode” so when you place your settlements you don’t know where resources or ports are so I ended up having a 6 brick and the other brick no one was near and was a 12 anyways and because I was the only way to get brick it never got robbed so needless to say, I won, it’s easy when everyone needs your brick.

This is a great video!

This guy got so fed up with Grey never uploading that Catan video that he just did it himself.

Love these videos.

Would love to see a Risk video

Important corollary in initial selection: having no brick whatsoever at the start of the game is usually a very rough spot.

Please take a look at Starfarers of Catan as your "expansion."