Thoughts on developing a strategy in Catan

By Dan Zuccarelli . May 23, 2007 . 3:16pm

Thoughts on developing a strategy in Catan images I really wasn’t sure what to make of Catan when I first sat down to play it. I’d never even heard of, let alone played, the board game version. So to me this was gonna be a completely new thing. Had I only bought this game right away instead of Double Dragon I’d not only be 5 dollars richer but much happier having played Catan instead of the broken mess they made of Double Dragon.

The game incorporates elements of chess, risk and poker, while placing a healthy emphasis on diplomacy and kindness among your fellow players. You and your 3 opponents will have to trade resources if you have any chance of getting ahead. Of course you don’t really want to help them along, but just enough for you to get what you need. The game quickly moves from the board to the mind, where you’ll try and coax the resources you need out of your fellow players while not giving them what they need.

What’s great about the Xbox 360 version of the game is the 4 player online play, it’s a totally different experience than the single player against the AI. They’re both difficult and fun, but for totally different reasons.

What I quickly learned playing a few games out against the computer that the game can be easily lost in the first step, placing your first two settlements. It wasn’t apparent to me until late in each game where I went wrong but at time goes one this has become the most crucial step to me. Do you put yourself in place for the resources or the ports to lowing trading limits? Those are out of the way and don’t leave you in strong position to spread your settlements out. It’s almost always difficult to position yourself in a good spot for all 4 resources (wood, wool, grain, brick, ore) so you need to plan a strategy building what you can and trading for the rest. This idea too shifts when playing against human opponents.

Thoughts on developing a strategy in Catan images

It’s a little too easy to strong arm the AI opponents into making trades most people wouldn’t make. When playing the computer I usually just take the brute force method of trading, I just start throwing combinations of resources out there until one sticks giving me what I want. It’s blunt but it works like a charm. Conversely, against humans everyone keeps their cards close to their chests. Most turns trades aren’t even suggested, no one wants to look weak or needy. When a trade does pop-up, there’s a rock, paper, scissors moment when everyone is waiting for someone else to make a move first. It’s very tense and having the right resources early on give you the leverage.

Because of the cut-throat nature of the human matches, it’s far superior to the AI matches. Of course that’s only if you’re into that. It reminded me of online poker, of trying to guess someone’s hand, and where they need help. When I first started my first match the game seemed pretty simple and easy, but nothing could be further from the truth. With each match I played (online and local) more strategies presented themselves, and the true give/take plus/minus nature of the game came into focus. It’s impossible to be strong in all areas, doubly impossible to win without any help from your opponents.

In the end the one strategy axiom I can impart is this… No man is an island, and that’s especially true in the world of Catan.

Thoughts on developing a strategy in Catan images

TAGS: Catan, Microsoft, Playtests, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade

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John H.

I've played a great deal of Catan over a couple of years. This is what I've figured out:
- One strategy for placing initial settlements is to count the dots. I don't know if the dots are in the X-box 360 Live version, but they're useful in the physical game version. The numbers that determine resources have dots under them that indicates how common those numbers are. 6 and 8 have five dots, 2 and 12 just one. Each dot is a roughly equal measure of a certain amount of resource over the long term. Usually, the most dots you can get surrounding a settlement is 12. A settlement placed on a 12-dot location will be relatively sure to bring in a lot of resources during a game.
- Another strategy is to try to cover as many different numbers as you can. If you can get your starting settlements on 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10, you'll receive resources on nearly every turn, making you less vulnerable to the dice.
- One of the genius things about Catan's design is that the different resources are worth more to different players generally, and at different times in the game. At the very start wood and brick are extremely important for roads, later on wheat and ore become important for cities. The least useful resource is almost always wool (a.k.a. sheep), but it's still needed to build settlements and buy development cards. Further, since wool is generally less useful, sometimes the other players ignore it, allowing a canny player to build up a good supply of it and then snag the wool port.
- It is very, very important to expand outward as quickly as possible. At times, even being a single turn behind another player in building your initial settlement can cost you the game. There are two kinds of point sources in Catan, development points (for settlements and cities) and "empty" points (victory point cards, Longest Road and Largest Army). Both are useful in getting to 10 and winning the game, but earlier, you're much better served going after development points, since in the process of obtaining them, you also get production bonuses. But as soon as you obtain the 10th point you win, so later on the victory often comes down to players trying to top each other's roads.
- Development cards are an often-ignored aspect of the game. The deck contains 25 (if I remember right) soldier cards, but only five victory point cards, and a smattering of other types. It is hard to win on development cards, but if you're hopeless behind and with a surplus of sheep, it can deliver a win once in a while.
- When placing the Robber, at the beginning of the game, targeting a player with an early lead can outright cripple him. Because of that, in our group, we generally refuse to target a player with the Robber until someone gets a good lead. I do not think the computer players will respect that reasoning, though, so it's open season on them!