Catan Strategy Guide Some helpful pointers so you can build, develop and trade your way to success in the XBLA version of the popular board game ------------------------------------------------------- CCCCCC AAA TTTTTTTTT AAA NN NN CCC CCC AAAAA TTTTTTTTT AAAAA NNN NN CC AA AA TTT AA AA NNNN NN CC AA AA TTT AA AA NN NN NN CC AAAAAAA TTT AAAAAAA NN NN NN CC AAAAAAA TTT AAAAAAA NN NNNN CCC CCC AA AA TTT AA AA NN NNN CCCCCC AA AA TTT AA AA NN NN ------------------------------------------------------- Strategy Guide v1.02 Submitted on 6/01/07 By CaspianX2 (AKA Jake McNeill) Digital Entertainment News (http://www.dignews.com) ------------------------------------------------------- Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Controls 3. Basic Gameplay Rules 4. Getting Started 5. Placing Your Settlements Part I: General Strategy 5A. Revenue Dots 5B. Location 5C. Type of Resource 6. Placing Your Starting Settlements Part II: Order-Specific Strategy 6A. Going First 6B. Going Last 6C. Going Second or Third 7. Early Game Strategy 8. Development Cards 8A. Soldier Cards 8B. Monopoly Cards 8C. Year of Plenty Cards 8D. Road Building Cards 8E. Victory Point Cards (and "soft" victory point totals) 9. Trading 9A. Easy AI Opponents 9B. Moderate and Hard AI Opponents 9C. Human Opponents 10. FAQ 11. Thanks and Credits 12. Legal Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- 1. Introduction ---------------- Before we even get started here, I want to be sure to clarify a few things. First and foremost, I never played the board game Settlers of Catan, and my first experience with the game is on Xbox Live Arcade. Also, I lay no claim to being some super-expert at the game - I’d like to think I’m pretty good, but there are certainly folks out there that are better than me. Still, these suggestions and observations of mine should serve to help those who are just starting out, or trying to improve their game. Because this has been a popular board game for some time, you will probably be able to find strategy guides for it all over the internet. However, this guide is a bit different in that it is specifically meant for the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game, and not only includes advice on strategy, but how to play the game effectively on the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, as well. As such, it deserves mention that some of the advice on offer here isn’t directly about how to play the game, but how to interact with others while playing it. It might seem silly for an article like this to give pointers on courtesy and etiquette, but Catan is a game of diplomacy, and many players on Xbox Live don’t seem to realize that for a game like this, the way you act around other players will have a great impact on how well you can play. In this guide, I’ll also be sure to address ways to improve your interactions with not only human opponents, but AI opponents as well, as they have their own quirks to watch for and make use of. If you have any suggestions for changes or improvements to this article, I would love to hear them, and I ask that you post them on the Xbox section of the message boards of my game website, Digital Entertainment News (http://www.dignews.com). By the same token, if you have comments, questions or complaints, please direct them to the boards as well. Right, so here we go! ------------ 2. Controls ------------ A - Select or confirm an option B - Cancel an option X - Play soldier (before your turn), end your turn (on main menu), skip to your turn (on other players’ turns), select a specific player to trade with (on trade menu) Y - Switch between trade screen and port trade screen, reject offer (in trade screen) Left Analog Stick - make selections Right Analog Stick - zoom in and out and rotate the board. Press in stick and hold to change the position of the board D-Pad - Mostly the same as left analog stick Start - Enter/Exit pause menu Back - See control layout Left Trigger - Hold to see a list of build prices and scoring (you should memorize these) Right Trigger - Hold to check players’ point score, road length, number of cards and number of Soldier Cards played Left Bumper - Hold to check resources in play, see how many revenue dots each player has, how many development cards (and more specifically, soldiers) are left in the deck, and how many roads, settlements and cities you can still build before you run out of peices Right Bumper - Hold to use emote menu Right Bumper + D-Pad - cycle through the pages of the emote menu Right Bumper + left analog stick - change recipient of emote Right Bumper + A, B, X or Y - Use the corresponding emote Left Trigger + Right Trigger - Show tally of revenue dots for all open locations on the board / show available revenue for every tile on the board (when using the robber) Left Bumper + Right Bumper - Show available resources, as well as some other, less important stats Left Trigger + Left Bumper - See a game log (for those that find that sort of thing useful) Right Trigger + Right Bumper - Show dice roll statistics ------------------------ 3. Basic Gameplay Rules ------------------------ The board is set up with hexagonal tiles arranged randomly (in a 3x3x3x3x3x3 hexagon-shaped arrangement), with four wool tiles, four wheat tiles, four wood tiles, three brick tiles, three ore tiles, and one blank "desert" tile with no value where the robber begins play. Then, the numbers 2-6 and 8-12 are assigned to the tiles. When this is done, players begin choosing the starting locations for their first two settlements on corners of the tiles (this is done automatically in a game with "easy setup"). The first player chooses a spot to place their settlement, and then branching out from that settlement, they choose a spot to place a road. Then the second player does this, and then the third, and then the fourth (in a four player game). Settlements cannot be placed closer together than two spaces apart. When this is done, payers repeat the process a second time in the opposite order, with the last player choosing first and the first player choosing last. Each player gets one resource for each tile surrounding their second settlement to start with. Every turn, the dice are rolled (or a dice card is drawn if playing with dice cards). If the number rolled is not a seven, all tiles matching the number rolled produce resources for players who have a settlement or city on that tile’s edge - one resource for every settlement and two for every city. If a seven is rolled, all players with eight cards or more must discard half of their cards. Then, the player who rolled the seven moves the robber to any tile on the map and steals one resource card at random from one player with a settlement on the edge of that tile. Until the robber is moved again, this tile no longer produces resources. On a player’s turn, they may at any time attempt to trade their resource cards with other players, make any number of port trades, buy things with their resources, play a development card (one per turn) or declare the end of their turn. Players can buy road pieces at a cost of one brick card and one wood card, a settlement for one brick, one wood, one wheat and one wool, a development card for one wool, one wheat and one ore, or they can upgrade a settlement to a city for two wheat and three ore. Road pieces are placed along the edges of tiles, and can only be placed next to your own road pieces, settlements and cities. Settlements are placed at the corners of tiles, and must be at least two spaces (road lengths) away from any other settlements. Cities can only be placed in a spot where you already have a settlement. Also, players can only have 15 road pieces, 5 settlements and 4 cities at any given time. When buying a development card, players randomly draw from a deck that includes Soldier cards, Monopoly cards, Year of Plenty cards, Road Building cards and Victory Point cards. Soldier cards allow players to move the robber and steal from a player with a settlement bordering the tile it is moved to, Monopoly cards let a player steal all of one type of resource from every player, Year of Plenty cards let a player get two resource cards of their choice, Road Building cards let a player build two lengths of road at no cost, and Victory Point cards cannot be used but give a player a point that brings them closer to winning the game. Players may only use development cards on their own turn, they may only use one development card per turn, and they may not use development cards on the same turn they were purchased. In a trading session, players may trade any number of their resource cards for any number of resource cards another player has. Any player may offer an exchange, but only the player whose turn it is may make trades. A player may make any number of these trades in a turn. You may also opt to make a port trade, discarding four of any one type of resource card in exchange for another resource card of your choice. If you have built a settlement or city on one of the border of "?" ports located on the edge of the board, you may discard three of any one type of resource card in exchange for another resource card of your choice. If you have a settlement or city on one of the resource ports located on the edge of the board, you may trade two of that specific resource for any one resource of your choice. The Longest Road bonus is awarded to the player who has a road that is at least five lengths long from one end to another, and is longer than any other player’s road from one end to another. Another player may take this bonus if they build a road that is one length longer than this road. The Biggest Army bonus is awarded to the player who has played the most Soldier cards (at least three). Another player may take this bonus if they play one more Soldier card than the one who currently has the bonus. The game is over when one player wins by earning ten victory points. Players earn points for settlements (one point each), cities (two points each), Victory Point cards (one point each), and also for being awarded the Longest Road bonus (two points) and Biggest Army bonus (two points). ------------------- 4. Getting Started ------------------- If you’re just now learning how to play the game, I highly recommend you make use of the tutorials and instructional guides present within the game. Also, play a few sample games against the computer before you challenge live opponents (who may be a bit less patient with you). In fact, I recommend that before you challenge live opponents you win a few games against computer opponents set to Moderate difficulty first (easy computer opponents are pushovers, and hard computer opponents are unrealistically stingy in their trades). I also suggest you get used to single-player games with standard ranked play rules before you dive into ranked play - 4-player games with normal dice, normal robber, normal board setup and so on. You might even want to play with the red/green colorblind scheme just so you’ll be familiar and comfortable with everything before you take on serious, live players. Excessive? Perhaps, but it couldn’t hurt. --------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Placing Your Starting Settlements Part I: General Strategy --------------------------------------------------------------- Where you place your first settlements is extremely important, and poor placement can lose you the game before you even begin. It’s not always easy to avoid these pratfalls, either - the random turn order and random maps make the game’s opening somewhat unpredictable, and adding the human element of what the other players choose to do can make it sometimes impossible to predict. Generally, when placing your first settlements, it helps to follow a few guidelines. The following are the criteria you should follow to determine placement, in the order of importance: --- 5A: Revenue Dots --- The number of revenue dots around a placement is more important than anything else, because regardless of what resources you’ll be getting, it will be of utmost importance that you get them as frequently as possible (and as you should probably know if you read through the game’s instructions, the revenue dots indicate how often a location will receive resources). Revenue dots can be determined by counting the "dots" on the land surrounding the location the settlement will be placed, however, the easiest way to do this is by holding down the left and right triggers, which at any given time will show you the value of every spot on the board. The highest number of revenue dots any location can have is 13 (anything greater would require two tiles with five dots to border each other, and the game prevents this from happening, most likely for balance reasons). As such, a location with a value of 13 is a must-have location that should be pounced on without hesitation. 12 is also extremely good, 11 is great, 10 is average, and anything less should be avoided when placing your first two settlements, unless there are no better alternatives. Unless there are multiple reasons to pick another spot, you should always go for a location with the highest possible revenue dots, and even IF there are multiple reasons, you should never pick a spot with a value of 9 or less unless there are no better alternatives. If the total of the revenue dots of your two opening settlement locations isn’t at least around 20 or so, you can expect to have constrained resources. No, I don’t have any statistical analysis to back up these numbers. These just seem to be about right for a good setup. --- 5B: Location --- Unless there’s some great opportunity you just can’t pass up (or you just don’t have a better option), never place one of your opening two settlements on the outer rim of the board. Not only because locations on the outer rim NEVER have revenue dots greater than 9, but also because you’re pretty much restricting your options for expansion - generally, from any given spot on the board you can expand in one of three directions, but because spots on the rim are so resource-poor, your only reasonable direction to go when you start there is inward. This is too restrictive, and usually isn’t worth it even if you get a port out of the deal. It’s also usually a good idea to stay away from the very center of the board, both because it’s harder to work your way to the ports, and because other players’ settlements are more likely to lock you in. The exception here is if you’re placing your second settlement and it happens to be a stone’s throw away from the first one (again, thinking about that Longest Road bonus). So what do you look for? Well, a spot that’s one or two spaces inland from a port is nice because it gives you a solid chance at getting the port without restricting your ability to expand. Also look for spots that are amongst other good spots to build to (although you should be careful when you do this - if they’re TOO good, other players are likely to put their opening settlements there). As for your second settlement, naturally you want to build relatively close to your first one if you can (again, strengthening your chance to get Longest Road). Even better, if there’s a way you can place it so your two settlements block off a reasonably-sized chunk of land, you’ll not only be giving yourself an opportunity, but denying the other players that opportunity as well. Finally, you can look for spots that mess up other players - such as a location between their two settlements, or between their settlement and a port. Keep in mind that doing this is a good way to ruin your ability to be diplomatic with said player, so if you do it this location should be worthwhile even if it didn’t block off an opponent. --- 5C: Type of Resource --- If you’re looking at multiple spots with relatively close revenue dots in locations that offer similarly lucrative opportunities, pay attention to the type of resource they produce. Each resource has its advantages and disadvantages, and here’s an idea of what they are: Wood: Wood is extremely important early on in the game, and becomes less important later. The board will have four wood tiles, meaning it will generally be a fairly abundant resource, although players will often fight tooth and nail for it early on. Brick: Like wood, brick is extremely important early on, and becomes less important later. However, unlike wood, brick has only three tiles on the board, generally making it scarcer (and thus, more valuable). Early in the game, this is frequently the most-desired resource. Wool: Wool is moderately important throughout the entire game. You’ll always be able to use it for something - either a settlement or a development card. However, unlike every other resource in the game, you will never need it in any great quantity unless you’re using it for port trades. Wool has four tiles on the board, and the fact that players never need a lot of it means it’s almost always very abundant. Wheat: Wheat is the most versatile resource in the game, and the only one necessary for three of the four things you can build (as opposed to just two, like everything else). It is very important throughout the entire game, although the fact that it has four tiles on the board mediates its value somewhat. Ore: Ore is relatively unimportant early on in the game, but becomes extremely important later. The fact that settlements require three ore, and that ore only has three tiles on the board means that later in the game, players will often be in a race to get ore. If I had to venture an opinion, I would generally recommend valuing the resources (at least at the beginning of the game) in the order Brick, Wheat, Wood, Wool, and Ore, although this is highly subjective, and it depends a lot on how rare the resources are. Count the number of dots each resource has across the whole board - this can be quickly checked by holding the left and right bumper and looking at the tallies in the upper-left corner of the screen. Any resource with a total number of 9 or fewer revenue dots is going to be somewhat rare, but also important is disparate values. What I mean by this is that if, hypothetically, brick had three tiles each with 3 revenue dots spread across the board, it would be somewhat uncommon, but if it was a 5 and two 2s, it would be a bit more uneven, especially if these tiles were near the edge of the board, where one or two players could partition them away from the other players. This uneven distribution has the effect of making this resource even more rare - and more valuable for those who have it in greater abundance. It is also worth mention that it’s usually best to make sure your two settlements have access to a healthy variety of resources. While you can always port trade away excessive numbers of a single resource, this is very inefficient (even if you have access to the matching port), and it’s better to ensure that you won’t have to do it too often (although there is an upside - other players won’t be getting anything when you port trade). Most of the time players have to port trade to get their ore, and sometimes a player may do it for the appropriate resource they need at the moment. That’s understandable, but if you’re constantly lacking three or more resources because your choice of placement gives you little or no access to these resources, then your choice of placement is probably hurting you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Placing Your Starting Settlements Part II: Order-Specific Strategy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Your choices will not only depend on the board and your opponents, but also when in the turn order you’re going. The first person to place settlements will have a completely different approach than the last person, as will the people in between. Here’s my advice for each slot in the turn order: --- 6A. Going First --- Going first is probably the most precarious situation to be in - even though you’re getting first dibs on the board with your first settlement, your second settlement will be the last one to get placed, and will almost undoubtedly be the most poorly-placed in the game opening. This causes a few major problems right off the bat - because your opening resources depend on the placement of your second settlement, it’s likely your opening hand won’t be what you want. In addition, the fact that six settlements are being placed between your first and second settlements means that even if your second settlement is in a decent spot, it will most likely be cut off from the first, not only making it less likely you’ll be able to secure the Longest Road bonus, but also weakening your ability to inhibit other players’ expansion with your own. Because you have no clue what other players will do with their settlement placement, your best option with the placement of your first settlement is to stick with what’s safe. First and foremost, if there is a spot with a revenue dots of 13 or 12, pounce on it. This is one of the few perks of being first, so you’d sure as hell better take it. Conversely, if there are no places on the board with more than 11 revenue dots, you can expect to have a tough time early into the game. If there are multiple spaces with an equal number of the highest amount of revenue dots, you’re usually best off picking the one with the highest amount of Brick, Wheat and Wood - you’ll need all three of these more than anything else early on in the game, and you may not have the freedom to pick a spot that has them with your second choice. If your spot is relatively close to a port, build your road in the direction of the port, because odds are good that other players will be taking the spots in the other directions (because, after all, your placement should put you in one of the best areas of the board, being right in the middle of the highest-value tiles), and this is your best way of assuring you’ll build your next settlement as soon as possible. Otherwise, try to place your road in the direction where the revenue dots are evenly distributed (an area with multiple locations that have 6-8 dots is ideal), which makes it a good place to build that isn’t so lucrative that the other players will swoop in and take it. With your second placement, you’ll be at the mercy of the other players. On the last one or two turns before you choose your second settlement, size up the board and look for two or three locations with the highest point values, so you’re ready to make your second placement when it comes back to you. If the other players left multiple locations with comparable point values, try to pick one that’s either close to your first settlement, or near a port that meshes with the resources you have available. Again, build your road either towards the other settlement you want to build, or towards the port. --- 6B. Going Last --- Good news, bad news, good news. The good news is, your second pick will be the best second placement of the game. The bad news is that your first pick will never be the better than everyone else’s (unless one of them picks poorly). However, the good news is that your first pick may still very likely be on par with most of the other settlements already chosen. Going last means that both of your settlement choices will be made in tandem, one after the other. As such, you’ll generally have a good opportunity to set yourself up for Longest Road, and you’ll also be able to actually have a hand in choosing what resources you start out with. Because these choices will be made together, you have to look at the board a bit differently - rather than just trying to determine the single best spot on the board, you should look for three or four of the best spots on the board (because of this, it helps if you start looking while the one or two players before you are placing their settlements). Determine not what the best single spot is, but the best combination of two. So, for example, if spot A is a little better than B and C, but spot B puts you close to spot C where you have a good opportunity to go for Longest Road, you might actually want to go B and C instead of, say, A and B. If your two choices are within two or even three spaces of each other, don’t bother building your roads in between them - other players are unlikely to risk running between them only to get blocked off for their troubles, and you should make use of these roads to give yourself more of an opportunity to expand outwards early on. Whether or not you build your road to your port, however, depends on whether you think you’ll be fighting someone else to get it, and just how important it is to you early in the game. For example, if you expect a healthy supply of wheat, have little or no access to brick and you’re near a wheat port, you’ll want to build towards the wheat port so you can improve your early brick supply. When you have decided your two settlement spots, you need to determine the order you’ll place them. Remember - the second settlement you place determines what resources will be in your opening hand. Brick and wood are the most important here, however, if your only initial access to brick, wood, wheat or wool is via tiles with a low combined revenue dots, you may want to make your settlement near these low-yield resources your second one, because you have no idea when you’ll ever get more again. Conversely, if one of your location choices happens to be amongst wool, wheat and ore, you may want to make that one your second simply so you can buy a development card right off the bat. --- 6C. Going Second or Third --- The best strategy for players who don’t pick first and don’t pick last isn’t as straightforward, as players going second or third have a mesh of the problems and benefits of those faced by players going first and those going last. Going second or third means that both your first and second choices will be pretty good, but before, after and in between them you’ll need to worry about the choices other players make. My best recommendation is to combine my general strategy with your own best judgment. When making your first selection, it’s best to choose a prime location (like the player going first) above all else, but keep in mind how many turns it will be before your second selection (four if you’re going second, two if you’re going third), and keep an eye out for other opportunities. Basically, make your first choice so that you have the possibility to make a second selection that compliments it well, but make sure it’s strong enough that you won’t be screwed if someone else takes that second spot you’re eyeing. Oh, and on that note, it’s important that players going second or third look at the board without moving the cursor around to spots you’re considering when you pick your first settlement. This tends to be a habit players fall into, and while it doesn’t matter much to players going first and last, when players in the middle do this, they are projecting their thoughts to other players, who may very well see the position and decide you had the right idea, taking that spot for themselves. While they may very well take the spot you want anyways, there’s no reason you should help them to see it. ----------------------------------- 7. Early Game Strategy ----------------------------------- Once all the game-opening settlements are placed, you need to decide some of the basics of what your strategy will be. First and foremost, get a feel for the kind of resources you’ll be getting. If you’re fortunate, you’ve got a healthy amount of brick and/or wood to work with, in which case you’ll want to spread outward as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you may be in a better position to buy development cards and possibly upgrade to cities. Also at this point, you should decide if you even want to bother trying to get Longest Road. I know a lot of players view it as an important goal, but you have to weigh how realistic it is - if you don’t have good access to both wood and brick, if another player has severely cut off your ability to expand, or if another player has placed a settlement between your two, you may want to shelve your long-term road-building ambition in favor of short-term resource gathering. If things change later, you may always be able to go back to it, but it’s a waste of time for players to focus their efforts on collecting brick and wood for extensive roads if it’s unlikely they’ll be able to beat a player who’s simply in a better position to do it. Regardless, at this point in the game, 80% of the time your goal should be working a road towards an intersection close to one of your settlements (within two spaces, and preferably within one space of a road you’ve already laid down) that has the highest number of revenue dots. 15% of the time (if you’re not close to any particularly great intersections and/or you have a resource with a high revenue dots that matches a nearby port) you’ll want to work a road towards a port. 5% of the time (if your settlement selections are low on lumber and brick but high on wheat and ore) you’ll want to work towards buying development cards and upgrading to cities. If you and another player are both close to the same spot, you should watch his actions to decide how to proceed - if he’s focusing on another part of the board, you may want to hold on to your resources and risk a roll of seven so you don’t alarm him by building your road towards the prime spot. On the other hand, if you know he’s interested, you may want to hold off on committing a road to that spot anyways until you know you can beat him to it - otherwise you’re wasting your road unless you can split it off towards a "plan B" that you’d find satisfactory. Often this happens when two players are vying for the same port. In these situations, if you can’t be sure whether you’ll win that race, you may want to refrain from branching towards the port in contention until you’re sure you can secure it, and you can always make use of your road in the opposite direction, towards another port. -------------------------------- 8. Development Cards -------------------------------- Here are some helpful things to keep in mind when using development cards: --- 8A. Soldier Cards --- Generally, you don’t want to use soldiers unless someone has placed the robber on your property - it’s a waste of a card you may need later to get the robber off your back. If someone already sicced the robber on you, be sure to use the soldier before your turn, when it gives you the option to roll or use a soldier card. If you’re wondering why it’s important that you use it before and not during your turn, the reason is because, on the off-chance you roll the number the robber is blocking, you will have kept yourself from getting its resource. As for using the Soldier Cards for the "Biggest Army" bonus, it shouldn’t even enter your mind until you’ve already gotten two of them. Any deliberate effort to try to buy development cards specifically for this purpose is just as likely to get you some other card, and it’s a goal that’s only worth pursuing if you’re already close to achieving it (or if you’re absolutely desperate to get your last two points and don’t have any better way to do it). --- 8B. Monopoly Cards --- Unless you get the chance to snag a large amount of resources you will use (rather than trade or port trade), you probably shouldn’t play the Monopoly Mard early in the game. Players won’t have much to steal, and if you just port trade the stuff away, you won’t get as much for your troubles as you would later, when you have a good port to trade them at. Once you get a port, then you should watch resource totals to see when they get high in number - I’d say at least six, especially if you’re port trading most of them. If you see any resource jump to ten or more, you should probably pounce on it. Because you won’t get an opportunity like that very often. Remember, you can see how many of each resource is in play at any time by holding down the left bumper - extremely useful when you have a Monopoly Card you’re thinking of using. Also, before you use a Monopoly Card, try to trade away all resources of the type you’re going to steal - even if it means offering two or three in exchange for one of something else. You’ll just be getting them all right back anyways. A few words of caution, though - don’t offer more than three for one, or people will probably guess what you’re doing. Also, because this kind of pre-monopoly trading is kinda’ rubbing salt in the wound, be aware that you’ll probably piss off the other players by doing this. --- 8C. Year of Plenty Cards --- If you get a Year of Plenty card, be sure not to use it until the resources you get with it can be used to attain what you want this turn. For example, if you want to block off another player from a path two spaces away and get there first, but you have no wood and lumber, you’d better wait until you have at least two wood, two lumber, or one of each. Not only will you have more flexibility in filling your need, but you won’t have overcommitted yourself and wasted a card only to be blocked off the following turn (or worse, have the resources stolen from you). Also, don’t buy resources you’re likely to get anyways unless you absolutely need them right now, and for heaven’s sake, don’t waste a year of plenty just so you can buy another Development Card unless you’re desperately trying to get one last Victory Point Card or Soldier Card. --- 8D. Road Building Cards --- I honestly can’t think of much advice to give regarding the Road Building Card that you couldn’t figure out on your own. Don’t use it when trying to beat out another player to claim a road or settlement location until you can actually do it - nothing sucks more than using a road building card only to have someone beat you out to the spot you were building to before you could finish. Remember, the robber can steal brick and wood from your hand, but no one can ever steal Development Cards, so there’s absolutely no rush to use them until the opportune moment. --- 8E. Victory Point Cards (and "soft" victory point totals) --- These cards seem fairly straightforward, but their existence changes the game’s strategy considerably. First of all, anyone holding onto a Development Card for any lengthy period of time can probably be assumed to be holding onto a Victory Pont Card. However, regardless of how long a player has held a development card, any of them could potentially be Victory Point Cards. As such, it’s probably wise for you to simply assume the worst when looking at victory point totals (hold down right trigger), and include a player’s development cards when trying to determine their overall score. For example, you should act as if someone with five points and three cards actually has three Victory Point Cards for a "soft" total of eight. In other words, even though the point total you see (the "hard" point total) is five, they actually have a possible eight points, and you should treat them accordingly. Use this "soft" total to determine who to send the robber after, as well as a measuring stick for when to brake off trade relations with a player (I’d say to break off all but the most critical trade relations when a player reaches seven "hard" points, or seven or eight "soft" points). Also, if someone has already played two Soldier Cards or is within two lengths of road of achieving Longest Road, assume one of their cards is the final Road Building or Soldier Card needed for Largest Army or Longest Road, adding yet another point to their "soft" total. This strategy may seem overly cautious, but the thing is that even if you’re wrong, you’re not very wrong - think how many points a well-played Monopoly Card could snag, and a well-played Year of Plenty Card could easily bring a player another point. By factoring these cards into a player’s score, you’re getting a better feel for where they really stand, and not just where they appear to be. Conversely, you can expect both your human and AI opponents to assume that your cards are victory points as well. And because AI opponents in particular won’t trade with you (and will consistently send the robber your way) when they believe you’re at least a few points ahead, you may opt to use other Development Cards in your hand sooner rather than later so they’re not mistaken for Victory Point Cards. However, only do this after it has become apparent that the other players are targeting you - it’s entirely possible they aren’t factoring your development cards into your score, in which case there’s no need to tip your hand too soon. ---------------- 9. Trading ---------------- Trading is one of the most important parts of the game, and a good trader can very often turn a bad situation into a good one. This is also one part of the game where dealing with human and AI opponents differs tremendously. Because of this, I’ve included hints and suggestions for playing against both. --- 9A. Easy AI Opponents --- As far as trading goes, an easy AI opponent is generally not really an opponent at all - they are sheep to be fleeced. While they will occasionally be stubborn to give up one or two resources they need, easy AI opponents are eager to please, and will do some really stupid stuff just to deal with you. If you have one wool and they have... let’s say, three of everything, you start by offering to trade one wool for two wood (or whatever). Unless they’re hurting for wood, they’ll generally accept. With easy AI opponents, always try to make two-for-one trades instead of straight trades - generally they’ll let you. Then offer one wood for one wool. Generally, they’ll still accept. Keep doing this until you have all of their resources. Yeah, like I said, Easy AI opponents are pushovers. --- 9B. Moderate and Hard AI Opponents --- While, as previously stated, Hard AI opponents are unrealistically stingy in their trades, they’re still fairly similar to Moderate AI opponents. Your trades with both should be handled one of two ways, depending on whose turn it is. If it’s your turn, you’ll often have to submit your full offer for them to respond, either by matching your request, giving you one of their own (generally one they find to be similar), or refusing you outright. You might want to add one "?" to your "want" pile to see if you can get more, but generally Moderate and Hard AI players shy away from this. The same goes for "two of what I have extra for anything" trades - computer AI players just respond to this by asking for more of what they want in exchange for whatever they’re willing to give (regardless of what you have, want, or are asking for). Most of your deals with AI opponents will likely be on their turn, as they seem more willing to compromise what they’re willing to give (if not take). Generally, they’ll want one or two specific resources, and will generally trade you virtually anything else in their possession to get them. By their nature, computer players will wait to retract an offer until someone accepts it, some time has passed, or all other players have refused it (by pressing the Y button). Because of this, it benefits all of the human players involved (and is just good courtesy) if everyone cancels unwanted offers from the AI as soon as possible to expedite things. The AI will cycle through multiple offers of resources in exchange for what it wants, and if it’s desperate enough, it will even offer two and later three of something in exchange for what it wants. If you see it do this, remember that it will likely do it again on its next turn unless it gets what it wants, even if it refuses that same offer on your turn - like I said, AI opponents are just more willing to deal with you on their turn. If all players leave the trading session with the computer, it will assume no one wishes to trade at the moment, cease trying to trade, and proceed with its turn. Again, as a courtesy to other players, if you have no interest in trading with the computer, exit the trading session to expedite the turn. One more note - if a computer-controlled player uses the "You’re too far ahead!" emote, it will refuse to trade with you until either you start to fall behind the point totals of other players, the AI’s point total goes up, or (in some cases) you use up your Development Cards (thus showing that they aren’t Victory Point Cards). So until this happens, you should just automatically exit the trade screen whenever the AI pulls it up on their turn - you’re just wasting time otherwise. Also, you should take this as a sign that the AI players are gunning for you, and will be far more likely to send the robber after you every chance they get (so take whatever precautions you can). --- 9C. Human Opponents --- Xbox Live is not exactly the perfect place to breed good manners, but if you want to be effective at trading in games with real people, you need to start trying, pronto. Whether you believe it or not, your success at trading will be at least in part dependant on how courteous you are. If you offer clean trades, don’t consistently try to price gouge others, and offer signals to indicate what you’re trying to do and why, you’ll get a much better response to your offers. Conversely, it will only hurt your efforts if you offer messy trades (two for two, three for three), pull "bait and switch" crap, or make it difficult for others to discern just what you want to do. First and foremost, before you even open the trade screen, there are a few things you need to do. One - know what resources are in play by holding the left bumper and checking out the upper-left corner of the screen. If you see there are ten wool in play, for example, you’ll know that those in possession of it are far more likely to part with it. Conversely, if you see that there aren’t any brick or ore, you’ll just be wasting everyone’s time by asking for it. In addition, it helps to have a good idea what building costs are so you don’t have to keep checking back with it to see what you need. Second of all, play every game as if some of the players you play against are wearing headsets and some aren’t. Maybe all of them have headsets, maybe none of them do (heck, I’ve even played games where everyone but myself was speaking Spainish), but learning how to be clear and polite to both types of players at all times by default is a good habit to make no matter how you cut it. This means getting familiar with the emote system. There are four pages of emotes you can switch between by holding the right bumper and tapping left and right on the D-pad. While a lot of players seem to lean towards the "heart" and "fireball" emotes, these are actually some of the least useful - you’re not going to win anyone over with these, and if poorly used they can actually make for a bit of animosity. Mainly, the emotes you’ll want to use will be on the second page. Use "got nothing" if someone is trying to ask for you to trade something you don’t have, "sweeten the deal" if you want to haggle with another player a bit, and "come back to trade" if the other players prematurely leave the trading screen (which often happens, especially when you make an offer none of them like and they leave before you make another one). Also, on the first page, you might want to make subtle use of the "You’re too far ahead" ("target winner") if people have been targeting you with the robber a lot and you want to try and throw them off onto another player that’s in the lead. Proper use of these emotes smoothes over trading for players with and without headsets, although you should be careful not to overuse them - if you are constantly emoting, you’ll annoy other players and you could even be briefly silenced by the game for spamming. On the trade screen, it pays to use a kind of shorthand to indicate what trades you’re willing to make. While some players opt to push forward everything they’re offering and request everything they want, this can be confusing and counter-productive - "Are you offering me one wood, one wheat and one ore for one wool and one brick? Do you want a one-for-one deal, or three-for-two? Sorry, I don’t have brick so I can’t help you..." So here’s what you do. On your turn, always start with what you want (unless, of course, you don’t want anything in particular, and are simply trying to trade away a resource you have in excess). If you were going to offer two resources but there’s someone willing to give you what you want for just one, you won’t ever know if you offer the two resources first. Ask for one thing at a time, too. And, if you have multiple resources you could offer, show this using what I dub the "flick" method or "flash card" method. Offer one resource, then pull it back and offer the next, then pull that back and offer the next, leaving each up long enough to show that your actions are deliberate. If any of the other human players sees something they want, they’ll undoubtedly match your offer, and you can select them and accept their offer. It’s also worth mention that I see few players making proper use of the "?" card. If you have an excess of one resource and you’re willing to trade it for anything, use the "?" to signify this (i.e. "I’ll trade one wool for one ‘?’"). The same goes for anyone willing to trade anything to get a specific card (i.e. "I’ll trade ‘?’ for one wool"). And naturally, if you want to sweeten your offer (or request it sweetened), you can always ask for or offer two "?" or one "?" plus a specific resource. A few notes on headsets: Strategically, it pays to wear a headset even if you’re not going to be speaking into it, so you can hear other players’ comments. However, if you are going to speak into it, again, being polite and considerate will translate into greater success in the game. Turn the microphone off when not in use, don’t swear, don’t use crude or offensive language, don’t insult other players, and try to keep the mood light - you are playing a game, after all. This is important even if you’re playing cutthroat and serious. Here’s an in-game conversation I had recently as an example: Me: (Moving the robber to the other player’s location) Sorry. Him: What? No you’re not! Me: Well... (deadpan) I’m sorry I had to resort to such drastic measures... He and I have a good laugh, and even though I kinda’ screwed him over in the game, he knows it wasn’t anything personal, and doesn’t take it personally, either. Basically, a little friendly banter and diplomacy helped to maintain good trade relations, and also subdue the possibility that this guy is gonna’ get revenge on the brain and start sending the robber my way out of spite. Also, even though you’ll be using the non-verbal shorthand I mentioned above, it still helps to use the headset to coerce players to trade. Saying things like "Does anyone want some wool? I’ll trade two for anything" or "Come on, I know there are ten wood in play - someone’s gotta’ be willing to trade me a few" are helpful in getting players to reevaluate their resources and decide what you’re offering may be worth their while. ------------- 10. FAQ ------------- Q: How should I decide where to place the robber? A: When placing the robber, your aim should be three-fold. One, you want to do as much damage as possible to whoever is in the lead. Two, you want to do as much damage as possible to all other players. And three, you want to steal a resource from someone likely to have what you want. To determine who is in the lead, go back up and read "8E. Victory Point Cards (and "soft" victory point totals)". To determine what spot would do the most damage, hold down the left and right trigger to see what resource tile is providing the most resources (this information only displays once you have started to place the robber), and also keep in mind what resources others are most in need of. As for determining who is likely to have a resource you need, your best bet is to just pay attention to who gets what resources and who uses what resources. Q: How does the game count the road length for the Longest Road bonus? A: The bonus is awarded to the longest single continuous line. To give you an idea, here are some examples of how it works: \ / This is measured as three spaces long, as the longest -- distance from point A to point B is only three spaces long. / \ -- This counts for seven lengths. You can measure this as if / \ the horizontal line in the middle doesn’t exist, or you can \ / count it like one of the two "feet" don’t exist, but it -- works out to be the same. / \ -- Thirteen of the fourteen lines -- / \ here count. It works like this: / \ \ / / / -- -- -- -- / \ __ / / __ / \ / \ / -- -- Do you get the idea? 
You should also keep in mind that many players are crafty and keep their road
peices disconnected until the last minute, in hopes that other players won't
notice they're one step away from getting Longest Road. Because of this, pay
attention not only to the game's count of longest road, but also the potential
players often have to make their road length leap in size by connecting two
stretches of roads.


Q: What’s the best way to decide where I should place my next settlement?
A: Much like when you place your first settlements, you should look at
resource dots first, then location, then the type of resource. Continue to
use the L&R triggers to see the possible settlement locations and their value.
Pay attention to the location of other players, and be careful in deciding
when you need to hurry to snag a spot before the other guy does, and when a
spot is too far to reach in time. Finally, pay attention to the resources
you’ll be getting - what’s most important for you to get right now?


Q: Someone else just got the Longest Road or Biggest Army bonus that I was
going for. Should I still try to get it?
A: You need to take a step back and determine whether or not you're really in
a position to do this. If you don’t have any development cards and the other
player is holding on to two or three, you probably won’t be able to get your
army to catch up to his. At the same time, if the enemy is collecting
resources faster than you, or they’re getting more wood and brick, it’s
unlikely that they’ll give up the Longest Road bonus easily. You should also
press the left bumper to see how many army cards are left unplayed, and
compare how many road peices you and the other player have remaining to plunk
down. In the end, if it’s a close race, it might be worth trying for, but you
should always remember that if you fail to catch up, you will have wasted
valuable time and resources that could have been better spent on settlements
and cities.


Q: How do I know if a trade is worth making?
A: Generally speaking, as long as you get what you want out of a trade, it’s a
good trade. However, there are a few intricacies and exceptions that bear
paying attention to. First off, remember that you shouldn’t trade with someone
who’s too far ahead (read "8E. Victory Point Cards (and "soft" victory point
totals)" for more on this), because no matter how good a deal they give you,
you’re still bringing them one step closer to winning the game.

You should also keep in mind the goals other players may have - if you're
trading an opponent a card they could use to get a road or settlement to block
you off, you're just helping them to defeat you. If they just need one more
Soldier Card to get the Biggest Army bonus, maybe you should hold off on
trading them ore. Sometimes, it's just more important to deny resources to
your opponents, even if it restricts your trade as well.

Also, while occasionally you’ll want to trade two or three resources for one
you really want, never trade four for one - at that price, you might as well
make a port trade and deny the other player a chance to get more cards (and
naturally, the same goes for three-for-one or two-for-one deals if you have a
port that allows for better port trades). Aside from this, just try to keep an
eye on supply and demand.


Q: Supply and demand? What is this, an economics class? What the heck do you
mean?
A: Basically, the more rare something is, the more valuable it becomes. Keep
an eye on both the available resources (hold both left and right bumper) and
the resources in play (hold the left bumper) to get a feel for what resources
are scarce at the moment and what’s going to be scarce in the long-term -
these resources are ones you should be more stingy with, only trading for
multiple resource cards. In fact, if you’re the only one with a steady supply
of a resource, you may want to consider refusing to trade it at all - you’ll
be sacrificing trade opportunities, but you’ll also be constraining the supply
of every other player in the game. Also keep in mind that demand will change
as the game goes on, and while people will often fight tooth and nail for
brick and wood early on, later the focus will generally be on wheat and ore.


Q: Is there ever any situation where I would WANT to make a bad trade?
A: If one player is farther ahead than the others, it is in the interests of
the other players to cooperate. If another player can block off the wining
player's attempt to get the longest road, for example, you may want to provide
him with the wood and brick he needs to do so, even if this means an act of
charity on your behalf. At the same time, you and the other players that are
behind may want to cooperate to try and buy as many development cards between
yourselves as you can, so you have the best opportunity to plague the winer
with countless Soldier Cards. Remember - even though trading is one of the
most important elements of the game, the most important goal is to win,
naturally. And if one player shoots ahead of the others, there are times when
cooperating and making a few bad trades can give you a better chance to win.


Q: Okay, just tell me, what’s the easiest way to win? Settlements and cities?
Biggest Army? Longest Road? Victory Point Cards? What?
A: Actually, it’s nearly impossible to win with just one of these goals as
your focus. Usually, you need to combine two or three. There aren’t enough
Victory Point cards to get you to ten points, and you wouldn’t be able to do
it with Biggest Army and Longest Road combined. As for settlements and cities,
you would need a full five settlements upgraded to cities (or four cities and
two settlements, or three cities and four settlements) to win the game
without any other help - doable, but not easy. As a result, you need to be
sure not to narrow your focus too much. If you obsess over just one goal
instead of trying to make progress on numerous ones, you’re losing sight of
the big picture.


Q: Okay, okay, I can’t just do one of those things. But answer the question -
what should I do? A: First of all, you absolutely need as many resources as
possible, so you’ll want to try to build as many settlements and cities as you
can (usually you’ll go for settlements, but sometimes cities are easier to
build depending on the resources you have access to). However, both
settlements and cities are expensive, and it can’t hurt to space them out a
little with development card purchases. If you get two or more soldier cards,
you can aim for Biggest Army, but don’t even bother with anything less. As
time goes on and you’ve expanded your territory, you can compare your length
of roads to your opponents’ (hold right trigger), and use that to decide
whether you have a chance at snagging Longest Road. Basically, keep building
settlements and/or cities until you see an opportunity to get points
elsewhere.

Really, your best shot at winning is to adapt to the situation as it changes -
sometimes you have to change your strategy if what you were aiming for
previously isn't panning out, and it pays to be flexible enough to allow for a
few contingency plans in case your current strategy fails.


Q: If you had to name one important fact about the game players don't seem to
realize, what would it be?
A: I am constantly running into people who don't realize that they can see how
many of each resource is in play by holding down the left bumper. Seriously,
it makes your trading go a lot smoother, and it is outright essential when
you're using a Monopoly Card.


Q: Anything else people don't seem to know that they should?
A: I can't stress enough how important it is to use Left Trigger + Right
Trigger to check revenue dots. This is incredibly important to so many
aspects of the game and cannot be stressed enough.


Q: Just what the heck is Red/Green Colorblind?
A: This has no bearing on the gameplay, but it’s something that’s considerate
for people with Red/Green colorblindness. Basically, it ensures that the
colors of the four players are always white, red, blue and teal, which are
easy for colorblind people to distinguish from each other (as the name
implies, colorblind people often have trouble distinguishing red from green).


Q: Why can’t I play ranked matches with dice cards?
A: Dice cards solve one problem inherent to the game and add another. On the
one hand, they ensure that the dice will be "rolled" exactly proportionate to
what the odds dictate they should be (hold right bumper and right trigger to
see what has been rolled compared to what the odds show). On the other hand,
they leave a door open for people who can count cards (or people who know to
check the dice odds screen) to know what dice rolls are coming up, which would
make ranked games a bit less fair because of this predictability - people
will see that sixes are due to come up soon, for example, so they start
moving the robber to the sixes. Or they’ll see that seven has reached its
limit, so they’ll know they don’t need to worry about their hand getting too
big until the dice deck is shuffled, because there’s no risk of a seven
coming up to make them discard. Suffice it to say, it throws off the balance
of the game, and while the randomness of dice rolls can often make for a
series of rolls that’s unfair, at least it’s not unfair in a way that
players can take unfair advantage of, if that makes sense.


Q: Is there any advantage to playing the "Living World" style over the
"Classic" style or "Mayfair Games" style?
A: Technically no, but the information is in my opinion more accessible and
easier to see in the Classic style (the color-coordination gives it a slight
edge over "Mayfair Games" style, I think), so I’d recommend serious players
to use that one.


Q: Why can’t I play this version of this game with multiple local players?
A: Part of the game’s strategy comes from the fact that each player’s cards
are hidden from each other, and it would be hard to do this with everyone
staring at the same TV screen. If you want to play a game locally, you’re
gonna’ have to actually buy a copy of the Settlers of Catan board game


Q: I see characters like Lenin and Ceasar in the game’s artwork - why aren’t
they in the game?
A: Supposedly there’s going to be downloadable content in the future that
will add these characters. When it will be released and how much it will
cost, I don’t know.


Q: How does the game decide your rank?
A: To be honest, I don’t know.


----------------------------------
11. Thanks and Credits
----------------------------------

I know that there are undoubtedly many strategy guides out there on how to
effectively play the board game Settlers of Catan, but I did not reference
any of these when creating this guide. As I said earlier, this guide was
created specifically for the XBLA version of the game. This is the first
released version of this guide, and all of the writing and information
presented here is my own, although any comments or suggestions are welcome.

If you would like to comment on this guide, please go to my website, Digital
Entertainment News (http://www.dignews.com) and post a comment in the Xbox
section of the message boards. If I use your suggestion in a future revision
of this article, I will be sure to mention your name here.

In any case, I would like to give my advance thanks to the staff and community
of GameFAQs, not only for making the publication of this guide possible, but
also for being understanding if I've made a mistake somewhere here - this is
my first submitted FAQ, and I'm sure I'll make some mistakes here and there,
so I apologize in advance!


-------------------------------
12. Legal Information
-------------------------------
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed
publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other
web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a
violation of copyright.



Copyright 2006 Jake McNeill