Catan: The Board Game, the Rules and the Expansions

What the Catan board game is

Catan is a board game about building on an island. The board is made of hexagon tiles, called hexes, and each one produces a resource: brick, lumber, wool, wheat or ore. You place settlements on the corners where hexes meet. When the dice roll a hex's number, every settlement touching it collects that resource.

You spend resources to build. Roads let you spread out. Settlements and cities earn victory points. Development cards give you surprises. The first player to reach 10 victory points on their own turn wins.

What makes it a game is the trading. You'll never roll everything you need, so you bargain with the other players. The table talks the whole game. That's why it's on so many family shelves, and why it's not a quiet game for a sleeping house.

The box facts, from the base listing and the 2025 rulebook (CN3081):

• Players: 3 to 4 (base game)
• Ages: 10+ on the listing
• Play time: 60 to 90 minutes on the listing
• Style: competitive, with trading between players
• Expansions: need the base game, and the current ones name the 6th Edition
• Board: 19 terrain hexes inside a sea frame, plus number discs

The rulebook recommends a fixed starting layout for your first game, then a variable setup once you know the rules. I'd take that advice. The first game is for learning the rules, not for an argument about tile placement.

How Catan plays

The rules below are in my own words, from the publisher's 2025 rulebook for the base game, CATAN, The Game (CN3081, version 6). If you learned from an older box, a couple of names have changed. This rulebook calls the long-road bonus "Longest Route," for example. The rules work the same way.

Setup and the first two settlements

Lay out the hexes and the number discs. The desert gets no number and starts with the robber on it. Each player picks a color and takes their roads, settlements and cities. Roll the dice; high roll goes first.

Then everyone places starting pieces in two passes:

1. Going around the table, each player places 1 settlement and 1 road next to it.
2. Then the order reverses. The last player places a second settlement and road, and so on back to the first player.
3. Each player collects one resource card for every hex touching their second settlement.

One rule decides a lot of the early game. A settlement can't sit on a corner right next to another settlement. There must be at least two road lengths between any two settlements, yours or anyone else's. Catan is the only real estate market I know where you can't build next door to anybody.

A turn, start to finish

A turn has two phases, in this order.

Production. Roll both dice and add them up. Every hex with that number produces. Each settlement touching it collects 1 resource card; each city collects 2. Everyone collects, not just the player who rolled. A hex with the robber on it produces nothing.

Action. Now you can do these in any order, as often as your cards allow:

1. Trade with other players. Announce what you want and what you'll give. Anyone can counter.
2. Trade with the supply: 4 matching cards for 1 card of your choice.
3. Use a port if you've built on one: 3 matching cards for 1, or 2 of one specific resource for 1.
4. Build roads, settlements, cities or development cards.

When you're done, pass the dice to your left. One rule people miss: on your turn, other players can only trade with you, not with each other.

When somebody rolls a 7

No hex has a 7, so a 7 produces nothing. Instead, three things happen:

1. Anyone holding more than 7 resource cards discards half, rounded down.
2. The player who rolled moves the robber to a new hex.
3. That player steals 1 random resource card from someone with a building on that hex.

Half of nine is four, rounded down. I've had to explain that to grown adults with mortgages. The robber is the one piece in the box that everybody hates and everybody wants to move.

Building and development cards

Each build has a cost, printed on the player aids. Roads connect your pieces. Settlements are worth 1 point. A city replaces a settlement, is worth 2 points, and collects double. Development cards are drawn face down and kept hidden. The base deck holds Knights, Victory Point cards, Road Building, Invention and Monopoly.

The rulebook's limits on development cards:

• You can play only 1 development card per turn.
• You can't play a card on the turn you built it.
• You can play it before you roll or during your action phase.
• Victory Point cards are the exception: you can reveal any number of them, even ones just built, to win.

Bonus tiles and how the game ends

Two tiles are worth 2 points each. The first player with a continuous route of 5 roads takes Longest Route. The first player to play 3 Knights takes Largest Army. Someone who beats either record takes the tile away.

The game ends the moment a player reaches 10 points on their own turn. Hidden Victory Point cards count, so a quiet player can win out of nowhere. That moment is my favorite part of the game, and also the reason I count everyone's points out loud twice.

Catan editions on Amazon US right now

Our data for this page lists 13 Catan listings on Amazon US as of October 2026. The table above shows the players, age and play time each listing states. A dash means the listing leaves it out. Here's how they group.

The base game and bigger tables

• Catan. The base game: 3 to 4 players, 10+, 60 to 90 minutes, trading and negotiation on the listing.
• Catan 5-6 Player Extension. Listed as a 6th Edition expansion that needs Catan 6th Edition. The listing says 3 to 6 players, 10+, 90 minutes, and names 28 terrain hexes, 25 resource cards, 9 development cards and 2 sets of wooden player pieces.
• Catan + 5-6 Player Expansion bundle. Listed for 3 to 6 players and 10+, and marked as not an expansion, since the base game is in it.

The 2025 extension rulebook replaces the old extra build step with paired turns. On each turn, a second player, three seats to the left of the one who rolled, also gets an action phase. That second player can build but can't trade with other players. It keeps six people from waiting a long time between turns.

The big expansions

Four expansions add new rules to the base game. All four list the base game as required.

• Seafarers: 12+, 3 to 4 players, 60 minutes, needs Catan 6th Edition
• Cities & Knights: 12+, 3 to 4 players, 90 minutes, needs Catan 6th Edition
• Explorers & Pirates: 12+, 3 to 4 players, 90 minutes, needs Catan 6th Edition
• Traders & Barbarians: 12+, 3 to 4 players, 90 minutes, needs Catan

Notice the age. The base game says 10+ and the expansions say 12+. The listings don't say why, and I won't guess, but it lines up with each one adding a layer of rules.

My one opinion for this page: get the base game to the table a few times before you buy an expansion. Every expansion here keeps the robber, the ports, the 7 and the development cards, then adds more on top. If your group still argues about the trading rule from the turn section, an expansion adds a second argument.

Catan Junior and the quick games

• Catan Junior: 6+, 2 to 4 players, 30 minutes
• Catan Dice Game: 1 to 4 players, 15 to 30 minutes, solo mode listed; no age in our data
• CATAN On The Road: a card game, 10+, 3 to 4 players, 15 minutes

Catan Junior is the only box here listed under 10. The publisher's second-edition rules swap the hex board for islands. You roll one die, collect resource tiles for the islands next to your pirates' lairs, then build ships and more lairs. First to build all 7 lairs wins. The youngest player starts. There's a Ghost Captain instead of a robber, and a parrot named Coco on the special tiles.

The Catan Dice Game is a roll-and-write. The publisher's rules give each player a map sheet and a pencil. You roll 6 resource dice up to 3 times, keeping some between rolls, then mark roads, settlements, cities and knights on your sheet. It's the only Catan box in our data that lists a solo mode.

Check the age label on the listing. Catan comes with dice and small wooden pieces, and toys with small parts are a choking hazard for children under 3.

Standalone games and two-player Catan

• Catan: Starfarers: a standalone game; 14+, 3 to 4 players, 120 minutes
• Catan Histories: Settlers of America: a standalone game; 14+, 3 to 4 players, 120 minutes, trading on the listing
• Rivals for Catan + 7 Wonders Duel bundle: 10+, exactly 2 players

Starfarers and Settlers of America are marked as not expansions, so they play without the base box. They're also the longest and the oldest-rated listings here, at 14+ and two hours.

Rivals for Catan is the answer for a two-person house. The base game needs 3. The bundle pairs it with 7 Wonders Duel, another 2-player game, so the listing covers two games in one box.

Which Catan box fits your table

A few quick matches, from the listings:

• A first copy for 3 or 4 players, 10 and up: the base game
• A group of 5 or 6: the bundle, or the extension if you already own Catan 6th Edition
• Kids from 6 to 9: Catan Junior at 6+
• Two players: Rivals for Catan in the bundle
• A quick game or a solo game: the Catan Dice Game
• A group that's played the base game a lot: Seafarers first, since it lists the shortest play time of the four expansions

Lucho's take: "Nobody wants wool until they need wool. Then it's the only thing on the table." He says this every game. He's usually the one holding it.

Who should skip Catan

Skip it if your usual group is two people. The base game says 3 to 4, and the robber and the trading only work with a crowd. Look at Rivals for Catan instead.

Skip it if your table dislikes luck. The dice decide what you collect, and a hex that never rolls can leave you stuck for several turns. Good trading helps, but it can't fix a bad start every time.

Skip the base game if your youngest player is under 10. Catan Junior at 6+ is the one to look at, and it's a short game, at 30 minutes on the listing.

And skip it if your group hates negotiating. Trading is half the game. A table that doesn't talk turns Catan into a slow dice game.

If you like Catan, look at these

Pages chosen by what they share with Catan: a board that changes each game, building for points, and a table of 3 or 4.

• Strategy board games: the wider shelf of planning games
• Ticket to Ride: building routes across a map
• Carcassonne: tiles that build the board as you play
• 7 Wonders Duel: the two-player game in the Rivals bundle
• Splendor: collecting resources to buy points, with less table talk

Set out the hexes, hide the wool, and pass the dice left.