Catan Strategy: Settlement Placement (201610)
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- Let's practice one of the most important decisions in Catan: the initial settlements.
FAQ
Q: What site is this?
A: Prior to its closure on May 31, 2018, PlayCatan. Afterwards, Catan Universe.
Q: How do you calculate the “points” of an intersection?
A: The number tiles have pips beneath them that represent the frequency that number will be rolled (e.g. 6 and 8 have 5 pips under each representing a 5/36th probability of rolling that number). If you add up all the pips of an intersection, that is the productive value of that intersection. For example a 5/8/10, would be worth 12 points. 5 = 4 pips, 8 = 5 pips, 10 = 3 pips. 12 pips = 12/36 cards per turn, or 1 card every 3 turns. If you upgrade that intersection to a city, you would get 2 cards every 3 turns. I recommend memorizing the pips of each number to quickly recognize the best producing spots on the board. It also helps when you play craps!
Q: Where can I find a complete set of your “rules”?
A: Inspired by the movie Zombieland, I created these rules for Catan. They are a work in progress, but a way for me to say thank you to all the folks who have encouraged me along the way. Good luck!
Placements
Rule #1 Ore Wins
Rule #2 Production, Production, Production
Rule #3 No Wheat = Defeat
Rule #4.1 Get All Five Resources, if Possible
Rule #4.2 However, Ore/Wheat/Sheep Is Still Very Strong
Rule #5 Think About Ports
Rule #6.1 Good Ratio of Wood:Brick is 1:1
Rule #6.2 Good Ratio of Ore:Wheat:Sheep is 5:3:2
Rule #7 Point Roads to Coasts or Desert
Rule #8 Don’t Be Greedy (7-8pt Spots Will Be Contested)
Placements Cont’d.
Rule #10 When First, Check the Edges
Rule #11 When Third, Take Rare Resources
Rule #12 When Second, Predict Last Placement
Rule #13 Free Road? Yes, Please
Rule #14 Same Numbers Mean Feast or Famine
Trading
Rule #15 Trade Before Building
Rule #16 Trade Freely on Your Turn
Rule #17 Trade Freely for Resources You Don’t Produce
Gameplay
Rule #20 Track Who’s Going for Largest Army & Longest Road
Rule #21 Get to a Port
Rule #22 Largest Army is Better Than Longest Road
Rule #23 Table Talk Works
Rule #24 When Ahead, Buy Dev. Cards
Rule #25 Don’t Make Yourself a Target
Rule #26 Know Your Win Condition(s)
Rule #27 When Behind, Build Cities
Rule #28 Avoid Confrontations
Rule #29 Wood/Brick Player Should Take Risks
Development Cards
Rule #30 Use Knights Before Rolling (Except When Holding 7 Cards)
Rule #31 Save Monos for the End
Rule #32 Beware of Monos
Rule #34 Road Building? Plan Ahead
Rule #35 Use Invention for Rare Resources
Rule #36 Don’t Take Army Too Early
Rule #41 Track Dev. Cards Remaining
Robber
Rule #50 Block/Rob the Leader
Rule #51 Unfair Robber? Play Tit for Tat
Rule #52 Block Resources You Produce
Rule #53 Racing Someone? Rob Him & Block What He Needs to Win the Race - Ігри
With these initial settlements, orange would crush the competition if he/she was able to build on the brick port. There's no way that the 8/4/10 with all the brick would/should be left toward the end like that. I know that new players put way to much emphasis on brick, but you're putting too little emphasis on brick with your placements here.
Hey, I remember you! You commented on my 8 Point Play Catan video 2 years ago. You told me playing against the computers was lame so I took your advice and have since been playing online. Thanks for the comment and I have completed a lot of Catan challenges since then!
if I am red and in the fourth spot, I am taking the 4,8 on the brick port and then placing my second settlement on the 4,8,10 double brick and heading towards the sheep port. Then I am on great brick for my brick port, and on a great sheep for my sheep port, I also have decent wood and wheat
DyLighted referenced you in a relatively recent video. I love the way you go through the placement options interspersed with your RULES. I'l be looking through all of your stuff to help my game. Thanks!
Wow what a coincidence I just start watching some of your older videos today and now you make a new one
Thanks Arash! Hope you enjoy the videos!
Do more videos, gameplay! Love to watch them so much with your commentary!!!!!
Thanks man! I'll post a video later this month. I appreciate your encouragement!
Hi, i don't know how to play on this java pc catan game, they forced me tp download a 3d one that's worse gameplay.
I'm sorry. Playcatan.com isn't accepting new registrations. It's really a shame!
thanks, I will keep learning from your game prior to participate in some clasification tournaments the following weeks.
Good luck! Gattaca is one my favorite movies too! :-)
So glad to see a new video, this is one of my favorite channels! Please keep them coming!
Whenever im playing, its always “who has the brick because i need a road”
Thanks for uploading! Good to see you back with the insightful videos
My first settlement would have been the 8 3 10 with ore wheat and sheep. It's a bit lower production than the 10 9 5 but you guarantee the three best resources and head for a port. There was no guarantee that blue would get clay and on a board with the desert near the middle you have to go for the sure thing over slightly higher production.
I love all your videos! Please keep them coming!
Thank you so much! Sorry for the delay!
Hey Neonate, just want to say how much I enjoyed this style of video. Would like to see more inital settlement analyses with varying board layouts. Thanks.
Thank you. I've been swamped with moving, but I'll try to make another one of these initial settlement videos in July.
Here are my choices and reasoning:
Blue: 5,6,11. Road towards 12
I'm taking strong production of wheat with some sheep and am looking to get some ore for my second city or a port city.
Orange: 8,3,10 Road towards 4
A strong multi-resource production square. Road towards 4
Red: 5 wheat,9,10 Road towards 12
Obvious designs towards the wheat port
White: 4,8,10 Road towards the coast
Bite the bullet, going for trading clay
White: 6,2, Harbor Road along the mountain towards the 3:1 harbor
Red: 5 field, 9,10, Road towards the coast
Great square which harmonizes red. Red is producing everything in good amounts.
Orange: 12,9, wheat port road towards the 3:1 port
Another harmonizing square and grabbing the wheat port from rivals
Blue: 3,6, Harbor, grabbing the ore for a city strategy and a 3:1 trading port.
Blue: Card grab and build up towns to cities
Orange: Go for the ports (wood and 3:1) closest to the 8,3,10 and expand quickly with new towns first with the 84 wood port
Red: Similarly, expand quickly with towns, get to 3:1 10 port and then the ore port and then 3:1 9 port.
White: Go all out on ore: go to the 3:1 6 port. Use the 2:1 clay port to trade clay for wood. Use whatever wheat your get to convert to cities. Also go for the sheep harbor clay city. Card grab only a knight and hold it as a way of getting rid of a robber.
Yay! Great video! I thought the game's servers were down forever, but only today discovered they are back up. Really enjoy your content.
Thank you so much!
sick videos, keep up with the posting. i actually started rewatching your old vids now that i understand the game a lot better. i enjoy watching a full gameplay but a settlement placement video once a week or something would be great practice for us still learning the game. just a thought
Thanks Chris! Glad you like 'em! Yeah, these settlement placement videos are a little bit easier to put together, so hopefully I can turn them out more quickly!
Woo hoo you are back!
Nice! Good to see a new video.
Thanks for watching!
I just starting playing catan and am new to your channel! Thank you so much for putting these together! Subscribed and looking forward to checking out your other videos 👍👍
Thank you sir. Good luck. I hope to post more videos soon!
Yay! I think you should just play a whole day of Catan and record like 10 videos. That would be awesome.
Thanks lol! I could play 10 games no problem. It's the editing that kills me!
I can imagine. As a viewer, it's hard to see the edits/cuts though (which is a good thing!) but I'm curious, how long are these matches originally before editing down to the 20-35min length the videos are at?
I'd say games are 25-40 minutes. I cut out seconds here and there where nothing is happening so the edits are less noticeable. Thanks for watching!
Supreme overvalue of ore. Not to mention you could choke off others ore with the 8,4,10 double brick plus wheat placement. I agree with first choice but second choice would've easily been the double brick wheat and then start with two lumber hopefully on second choice.
good voice for video tuts! ty
Thanks man, I appreciate the kind words!
I think White's 2nd drop would be better at 5/9/10 to diversify number. With double 6's paired with 11 & 3, it's a boom or bust.
I see notes on your videos that say Rule #... is there a list of your rules/strategies somewhere online? As someone just starting to play Catan I'd be curious to look at them. Thanks
horray! videos return!
I read in Someone's commentaries (maybe yours) about being singled out due to popularity. After doing some research and thanks to your analysis I win the majority of my games and have became a target before even getting started. Do you have a counter strategy when this comes into play? These guys know my table talk now (after a couple months of play) so it's more challenging not to get robbed. I find myself having to take fewer points and really diversify.
Congrats on improving your game and winning consistently! And yes, I know how frustrating it can be to be "ganged up" on. It sounds like you're approaching it the right way: (1) keep up the table talk - talk up other players' progress and threats, protest unfair robbers, lay low when ahead, and (2) buy development cards. If you're coming from behind, which is likely the case when you're being attacked from the beginning, build cities to catch up.
Nope, you are now not going to enjoy the game. I have one friend who’s only gameplan is to block me and prevent me from doing anything. The game now sucks because it’s 90% luck and chance and most dice don’t roll in my favor.
If I was going first on this board I would place my first settlement on the 3/4/8 (Wheat, Wood, Ore) and then my second settlement on the 2/6 (Sheep, Ore) with the Wood Port assuming it hasn't been taken. From the 3/4/8 I would point my road towards the 8/10 (Sheep, Ore) in order to gain a 10 hex and gain a 3:1 Port. From the 2/6 I would point my road towards the 2/9 (Sheep, Wood) in order to gain a 9 hex that would also compliment my Wood Port because there is no doubt someone will take the 5/9/10 (Sheep, Wood, Stone) spot. Then while 2 other players fight for the Wheat Port, I would on the sly be trading in my wood for ore and wheat to build up my starting 2 settlements into cities. And since brick will be in abundance this game, it shouldn't be too hard to get 2 brick to help build the 1 road and 1 settlement to get the 8/10 (Sheep, Ore) and 3:1 Port. Once I have the 4 aforementioned spots built up to cities, I would then play the development card game until I got Largest Army and there's my 10 points!
I would have monopolized the brick. I think that brick is the most important resource in the early game because people are mostly building settlements and roads. If you monopolize the brick you basically get a head start to try to chase after the wood.
The first blue road should've been pointed to 2 sheep location. Closer to variety of resources + 3:1 port.
For the first player second placement, I probably would have put it on the 9 brick on the right corner. It's only one resource but it's paired with the 9 wood, so you have the perfect road balance. Then he could build to the 10 wheat, which is also paired with his 10 ore for city upgrades. And with good roads he can make his way to the 6 ore (since white has neither wood or brick). I don't like that it's only 1 resource each but the 9 road is pretty good, it gets him everything, and balances perfectly. Thoughts?
The 9 brick seems too slow (low production, no wheat immediately), but I like the idea of continuing on to the 10 wheat. I think I'd prefer the 3/8 (go to the sheep port).
The rules popping up on the left occasionally are really helpful. Do you have a list somewhere I could look at?
Many are in the description.
What about 4 8 10 for first player to go with double strategy go for a 3rd vilage wheat port or 3rd vilage brick port or simple 8/4 brick port as second placement . What do you think?
Ore can be great, but without wheat, it's virtually worthless. Wheat is the straw that stirs the drink in this game. Unless you have some amazing port action going on, you're not gonna win without wheat. That 5/9/10 spot has a nice balance of resources and numbers, but the big numbers are on the least important resources, which are wool and wood, so I'm honestly not loving that spot. The most important resources are wheat, ore and brick, and which spot is either on or adjacent to all of those resources? That 8/4/10 spot is with brick and wheat, which is also right next to a little ore. Poor players put too much emphasis on brick, but knowing that shouldn't deter you from taking that spot, because you'll also get some good trades for brick early on. Someone could potentially put an initial settlement on that 8/3 brick ore coast spot if he/she is dumb, but no one is gonna build on the 4/3 spot next to the desert, so that 3 ore will very likely be yours one way or another if you build on that 8/4/10
"Wheat is the straw that stirs the drink" - love that. I'm not convinced 4/8/10 is the best pick going first. The best complementary spot would be 4/6/11 which will probably be taken by the players who take the 5/9/10 and 3/8/10. I'd predict you'd have to take the 4/8 brick port (which isn't bad)...
I don't necessarily think it should be the very first pick, but it probably shouldn't be the seventh pick, either, in my opinion. Orange would just be too hard to stop if he got that brick port.
Thanks for the videos, Nate. I really appreciate your insight into the game. You're obviously an elite player. Also, thanks so much for responding to the comments. I honestly have learned a lot from you.
You are too kind!
@Benjamin McMullan There are only 3 brick-generating hexes as opposed to 4 for lumber.
What's the point of pointing any road towards the desert?
Wait, but isn’t there a rule that doesn’t let you put a village for 3 squares
Can you explain the "points" system and what the "7/36 cards per roll" metric means?
It means the likelihood of a number to roll up. So for example, the odds of a 4 roll are 3/36 since out of the total of 36 ways the two dice can fall, 3 of those ways add to 4: 1+3, 2+2, 3+1. Note that 1+3 and 3+1 count as 2 different ways along with 2+2, yielding 3 ways total.
In some versions of the Settlers, there are little dots on each of production circles that indicate how often that number comes up, and the dots correspond exactly to the odds above -- 1 dot on the 2 and the 12, 2 dots on the 3 and 11, and so on
New content! Thanks neonate! Do you play mobile catan at all?
Thank you! I haven't played the mobile app in a while, and never multi-player. How is it?
Man, I believe it's quite good. The game changer is the fact you can't table talk (no chat but they do have emoticons). You can't really influence the table but also find that slightly refreshing.
I would go with the 6-4-3 and build a road in the direction of the 8 sheep
hey nice vid, where i can find your dicussion page? thx
at 3:40 you mention that somecone can build at 5/9/12 if you have already chosen 5/9/10. My 'settlers of catan' doesnt allow me building settlement within one road distance. Why is this version different?
Lol, you may have misheard me - I said someone could build at the 5/6/12.
Also I'd be curious how strategies change for a 3,5, or 6 player game
I can't offer much advice, as I generally favor four player games.
Hi there,
I'm a new player so wanted to know that how are you calculating the points on the board when you place the settlement?
as in how did you come to the conclusion that this specific place is a low production space or this resource is rare.
In the physical board game, the number tiles have pips beneath them that represent the frequency that number will be rolled (e.g. 6 and 8 have 5 pips under each representing a 5/36th probability of rolling that number). If you add up all the pips of an intersection, that is the productive value of that intersection. For example a 5/8/10, would be worth 12 points. 5 = 4 pips, 8 = 5 pips, 10 = 3 pips. 12 pips = 12/36 cards per turn, or 1 card every 3 turns. If you upgrade that intersection to a city, you would get 2 cards every 3 turns. I recommend memorizing the pips of each number to quickly recognize the best producing spots on the board. It also helps when you play craps! Thanks for watching!
Hey great videos neonate. I was wondering how did you get your game to look so good, mine is always either too small for my screen or too large. I tried playing in browser and the downloadable playcatan but the aspect ratio is still wrong even though it says it supports my resolution.
Thanks Pablo. I play on the downloaded game too. I fiddled around with the different resolution options until I found one that worked best. Good luck!
Are you going to start making videos with Catan Universe?
I haven't checked out Catan Universe in a while - has it improved? It sounds like you're having a tough time finding enough players...
There are plenty of online players. I could play 3-player games all day, but I just haven't figured out how to set up 4-player games with random online players. Catan Universe seems like it's geared toward making friends with online players and setting up 4-player games with them exclusively, but I'd rather play with random players, which can be done, but it's just not user friendly enough, yet. Otherwise, I think that it's improved a lot from six moths ago. It's definitely an adjustment from PlayCatan, but it's not all bad, just a little different. I still don't like it as much as I liked PlayCatan, and you won't, either, but PlayCatan will eventually will be phased out. It sounded like you had an issue with the trading in Catan Universe, and it does suck, but I've found that you just have to communicate more to make trading work.
what are you playing on? is it a website?
How do u know what each hex is worth ?
Nevwrmind read description
Thanks, check the video description FAQ for the answer.
Hi! How can you still play on PlayCatan? I cant create account..
My understanding is PlayCatan is no longer accepting new accounts. I'm sorry!
what are these "points"?
They are basically the odds of generating ore.
There are 36 possible rolls. A hexagon with the number "8" has 6/36 points(2+6, 3+5 , 4+4, 4+4, 5+3, 6+2), whereas a number "2" hexagon has 2/36 points (1+1, 1+1,).
Try to maximize the total amount of points when placing settlements.
"2" has 1/36 only (1+1), the "3" gets 2/36 (1+2, 2+1)
This is wrong. Your numbers are not suppose to be placed until your settlements are already put down. And do not disagree with me because the game itself is german. And that is the original rules.