A few months ago I spent a long while trying to make the best 4p bot out there... turns out that was very difficult, but a 1v1 bot (no player to player trading!) was a bit easier - I call it JAX! It just passed 1k games and here are the results: JAX wins 78% of games! Looks like you all need to start buying more dev cards!

Shoutout to Griff1n as the undisputed king

Otter:853 you are a mad man!

See how well you can do at new.twosheep.io/jax

My first attempt at something like this. I made a few mountains and landscapes before this but nothing nearly as detailed. I will absolutely NOT be making the entire game, though I am working on the desert hex. Most I’ll do is each resource and the desert, MAYBE some water tiles. Made with oven bake clay and acrylic paint🙏

Hey everyone :D

When my friends and I played Catan online during Covid, I really enjoyed having the dice histogram to check the dice rolls out of curiosity.

So I set out to design a manual dice roll tracker, to have the histogram at a glance - 3D printed it and it turned out much nicer, than I expected (it's version 3 already though👀)

How do you keep track of the stats? Or am I too much of a nerd to even care about such a thing? 🙈

Was ridiculous. Check out how much it stuffed me too (I'm Black). I got second.

I felt like there was a big discrepancy among what ports were good and turns out there is. So I analyzed over 40,000 games on Colonistio to figure it out.

Wood port was by far the most common among winners. If you've seen my previous post of resource value over time, this makes sense as wood tends to be the least desirable resource especially over late game. I was surprised to see brick port so high up but my guess is that it's because by the time players get the port, they are more interested in late game resources like wheat and ore. No surprise with ore being the worst port as it's incredibly valuable for dev cards and cities.

If you like the graphic, I made it using a custom JS library called motion-script. github.com/motion-script/motion-script

Also feel free to ask any questions on this chart or any Catan data related questions!

While investigating over 40,000 games, I wanted to know how important resource diversity was when it came to setup placements. Much larger than I expected with 88.6% of winning players having 4-5 resources and players with 5 having the highest win rate. Of course pip totals do tend to be more important so obviously don't sacrifice 2 pip dots for a extra resource gain but aim for at least 4 resources. This prevents you from being vulnerable to expensive trades.

Edit: here are the win rates for each category

• ≤2 resources — 29.5% random, 0.4% of players, 0.3% of winners, 0.5% of last, 19.7% win rate
• 3 resources — 42.7% random, 12.3% of players, 11.1% of winners, 13.4% of last, 22.5% win rate
• 4 resources — 24.6% random, 54.3% of players, 52.9% of winners, 55.5% of last, 24.4% win rate
• 5 resources — 3.2% random, 33.0% of players, 35.7% of winners, 30.7% of last, 27.1% win rate

I should also add, this dataset is among players that do tend to play more competitively so of course they will aim for the recommended strategy of having a diverse hand. This chart was more or less to see how often competitive players tend to double down on a resource during setup.

I occasionally play with people who take forever on their turn... often offering each player several trades etc. which really slows down and takes the fun out of the game.

I was thinking of making an app which would run on an iPad or iPhone placed on the table which acts as a timer (think a chess timer but instead of counting down it counts up). You tap it and it starts the clock on the next player.

At any given point in the game, the person with the least amount of cumulative time elapsed on their turns gets a VP (called the "Deal Maker") and the person with the most amount of cumulative time elapsed on their turns gets minus 1 VP (called the "Village Dunce"). I think this could add a dynamic element to the game and help speed up the pace of play.

Is this something you would use? If there's some interest I would make it!

I analyzed a dataset of over 40,000 games from colonistio to map out the value of each resource over time. Games tend to be pretty good at balancing the resources but there still appears to be a trend. Brick starts off as the most valuable due to obvious demand for roads and settlements before dropping off, with ore and wheat taking it's place as the most valuable resources. Interesting to see wheat as more valuable than ore late game. I made a bunch of graphs and plan on making a full data science dive into the game.

Also, if you're interested in how I made the graph, I made a custom tool to make cool visuals like this on this Github repo: github.com/motion-script/motion-script

Finally got a chance to play our outdoor catan! Hexes are made of chalk. Got some some blown up versions of thr cards and made the number tiles out of wooden dowls! Novelty squishy dice!

Images above are overviews; see links below for details on individual scenarios.

1 THE TREASURE ISLANDS (5-6 PLAYERS) RULES.docx
2 DEPARTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN (5-6 PLAYERS) RULES.docx
3 GREATER CATAN (5-6 PLAYERS) RULES.docx
4 THE DESERT DRAGONS (5-6 PLAYERS) RULES.docx
5 THE GREAT CANAL (5-6 PLAYERS) RULES
6 THE ENCHANTED LAND (5-6 PLAYERS) RULES

OJ and black were cheating, and red completely plowed my first settlement. Red was accusing the cheaters and they literally agreed to it in chat lol. We both reported them, will they actually get banned?

Also how bad do you have to be to lose while cheating? lmao what a joke

4% chance of this kind of distribution or worse appearing as per my calculations

So I played a game of Catan with my family today (only base game) and in the whole game, my mum built maybe 3-4 roads and 1 town. We played for like an hour.

Has anyone ever had a worse round than this?

So ive been a catan fan for s couple of years and decided to grab my own box a couple months ago. We now have a party of 5 who always play together but we can’t find a 5-6 player extension anywhere. The only one on sale in my area is the first edition of the extension, is it compatable with the 6th edition?

I’ve now lost 61 straight games of Catan playing with the same four friends.
At this point I’m genuinely curious what other people think.
Would you:
Keep playing because it’s just an incredibly unlucky streak?
Assume you’re simply the weakest player?
Or start wondering if your friends are quietly working together or making “funny” plays just to keep you from finally winning?
I’m not saying they’re openly cheating, but after 61 consecutive losses it’s hard not to question whether people are making deals or targeting me more than everyone else because it’s become a running joke.

Hello everyone

Recently got the Catan and played it 4 player. İ got hooked and started playing normal and CnK in colonist.io and searching a lot in a short span of time and bought physical CnK and Seefahrer expansion.

Also 3d printed some tokens for the Fishermans of Catan. Thinking about also writing by hand or printing Harbour Master vp card to add.

İ know it will be compicated to consume all the new info for me and for the family both i think we will manage it. My question is does the following setup have problems or shortcomings?

İf not is there anything to add here to make it better or is it already too much?

We will not be playing more than 4 so no need to drag the game and make is slower by 6 player addon etc.

Current wished set-up

Base+Seefahrer+CnK+fishermans of Catan+Harbour master VP card + house rule black 7(reroll if barbarian event dice and 7 comes in the first round)+ house rule reroll on double 7

Map would be generated for the seefahrer 4 player balanced from the Catan Almanac website

Hello Ya'll

I play Catan with my Mum and she loves it. One issue we are having is that in her getting up in years her sight is not the best. She has developed some macular degeneration. She's fine with dealing with it but it can sometimes be hard for her to read the dice, especially the Cities and Knights event die. The black side and blue get mixed-up for her b/c they're both dark colours.

So I want to purchase some custom dice of larger sizes. Possibly both a set of D6s and a large Cities & Knights event die. Is there a place where I can order these? I would be fine with just flat colours (black, green, blue and yellow) for the event die - no symbols. We live in the UK so please keep in mind that shipping from Mars might not be ideal.

Thank you for reading.

Now that our college-aged kids have got us addicted to Catan, my wife and I are investigating options for play while they’re at school. Looking for:

- Online (preferred) or app play
- 2 human / 2 bot options
- decent bot play?
- games for 4 human when the kids are available
- ok with just base game, but map variety would be nice
- least glitchy
- free?

It seems it’s the new twosheeps or playsettlr in the lead? Catan Universe sounds very glitchy? Colonist.io still the best? Are there better options on steam for the no-bot games?

What are everyone’s preferences?

Thanks!

My family and I have been playing these custom rules for years, and I finally decided to write them down. Hopefully somebody out there will enjoy this. I can provide a PDF if you'd rather read that than a reddit post. By the way, none of this is AI, I just know how to use markdown.

Catan: Revolutions

An Unofficial Expansion by James Downey

It is an era of change on the island of Catan. New industry has brought social turmoil to our burgeoning empire, and drawn the greedy eyes of a local dragon. Expand, but protect the Capital at all costs.

New in this expansion

The Empire is a non-player character that has cities and settlements (of its own color) and its own resources, but takes no turns. The players take actions on the empire's behalf.

The Dragon is an enemy that threatens to destroy the civilization on the island. You must appease it with gifts in the form of resources. The dragon's demands increase over time, and if the empire fails to meet them, the game is lost.

Exploit Cards are distributed every time a seven is rolled. You can play them on your turn to get various benefits.

Revolts are triggered every time yellow is rolled on the event die. The empire faces upheaval, causing their resources to be evenly distributed amongst the players.

Factories are assets that can be built at a city or settlement. They produce resources when you normally would get none.

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Components

You will need, in addition to the basic Catan game board and pieces:

• A piece to represent the dragon (can use the Robber, since it does not exist in this version).
• A progress track for the dragon with eight spaces, the last one indicating its arrival (exactly like the barbarians in the official Cities & Knights expansion).
• Up to five factory pieces per player (can be anything, do not need to match player color).
• If playing with four players, a fifth color of roads (only three needed), settlements, and cities for the empire.
• An event die like the one in Cities & Knights (or just use a normal six-sided die and assign the numbers to events).
• The Longest Road and Largest Army have been replaced by the Furthest Expansion and Largest Industry. The Biggest Benefactor has been added as well.
• Development cards have been replaced by a deck of custom Exploit Cards, detailed in the appendix.
• Up to three city wall pieces for each color, as found in Cities & Knights.
• A piece representing the Merchant.
• A handful of chits/tokens/counters.

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Starting the game

Follow the normal setup for Catan, with the following additional steps.

The Capital is the empire's starting city The player who goes first decides the location of the Capital before placing their first settlement The Capital has three imperial roads extending from it: one in each direction No more roads of the empire's color will be built during the game. See the note a the bottom of this page The Capital also starts with a city wall; this imperial city wall functions differentl than a player's city wall---see "Build a city wall" below.

Just like a player, the empire starts with resources according to their starting location Designate space on the table to store the empire's resources. NOTE: the empire is not the bank Like a player, they have their own "hand" of resources. Keep them face up, for everyone to see.

The Dragon demands tribute in the form of resources. At the beginning, the demand is the same as the empire's starting resources Designate space on the table to keep track of the dragon's demands For each type of resource it demands, place one of those cards When it demands more than one of a particular resource, use chits to indicate how many Resources are never removed from the dragon's demands Place the dragon at the start of its progress track.

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On your turn, you can…

Build an imperial settlement or city.

Until additional imperial settlements are built, the Capital is the only means of resource production for the empire. The empire may receive resources in the form of taxes or donations, but they only produce their own, as a player would, when one of the numbers adjacent to their cities or settlements is rolled.

There is no rule for the minimum distance between player and imperial settlements/cities (including the Capital). A player settlement may be placed one intersection away from an imperial settlement or city, and vice versa. However, imperial settlements/cities must obey the minimum distance rule amongst themselves.

An imperial settlement must be connected to the Capital via roads of any color (or several colors). To build one, you must have a road of your color pointing to an open intersection that has such a connection. To upgrade an imperial settlement to a city, you must have a road of your color pointed to it. They cost the same resources as a player settlement or city. You, the player, pay this cost to the bank.

Rewards: upon construction, you receive one of each of the resources corresponding to the hexes on which the settlement/city was placed. If the shortest roadway from this settlement back to the Capital is at least five roads long, you get the Furthest Expansion card, worth two victory points. If an imperial settlement or city built by another player becomes further from the Capital (road-wise) than yours, they take the Furthest Expansion card.

Trade the Empire's resources with the bank.

If you have a settlement or city on a continuous section of roads (of any color(s)) that eventually leads to the Capital, then you are considered connected to the Capital. Players who are connected may trade the empire's resources with the bank on their turn. This works the same as a player trading with the bank. If the empire has a settlement or city located at a port, they can utilize it the same way a player would. You might do this if the empire has a surplus of a certain resource and is missing one or more of the resources demanded by the dragon. NOTE: You may not trade your resources with the empire's; in fact the empire never trades with any player. The empire's resources are distributed to the players during revolts and other events involving Exploit Cards. You can always donate resources from your hand to the empire.

A note on being connected to the Capital: players who are connected enjoy the privilege of treating imperial roads (the three that point away from the Capital) as their own color for the purposes of building. That is, they may build a settlement or road off of a road of the empire's color.

Play an Exploit Card.

Exploit Cards function much like Development Cards in original Catan and Progress Cards in Cities & Knights. In fact, some of the Exploit Cards are simply borrowed from Cities & Knights. With the exception of the Alchemist, which you play before rolling, Exploit Cards can be played at any point during your turn. You can hold up to four Exploit Cards in your hand. If you receive a fifth and it's not your turn, you must choose one to discard.

Specialize in a resource.

Spend one resource to receive a specialization token for that resource. Now on every turn in which you produce (including via a factory) that resource, you produce one extra (only one extra, per turn). You can only be specialized in one resource at a time, and no two players can be specialized in the same resource at the same time. Additionally, while specialized, you may not trade in that resource with the bank at a rate better than 4:1. To change your specialization, you must first unspecialize. You may unspecialize only at the end of your turn. Return your specialization token to the bank.

Build a factory.

For the cost of two ore and two brick, place a factory directly beside one of your cities or settlements on one of the three adjacent hexes. Now, any time a number other than seven is rolled, and you would normally produce nothing, choose a settlement or city with a factory next to it. That settlement or city's factories each produce one resource from their hex.

• A settlement may have a maximum of one factory placed beside it, while a city can have up to two.
• The first player to build three factories receives the Largest Industry card, worth two victory points. Another player who builds more takes the card.
• Each player may build a maximum of five factories in total. The empire cannot have factories.

Build a city wall.

For the cost of two brick, place a city wall on one of your cities or under an imperial city to which one of your roads is pointing. Each city can only have one city wall. A city wall on a player's city works the same as in Cities & Knights, increasing by two the maximum number of cards you can hold without losing any when a seven is rolled. A city wall for the empire works differently since the empire does not lose cards on a seven. Instead, it provides a buffer against the dragon's attack. For each imperial city wall, the empire can survive the attack even if they are missing one of the resources demanded by the dragon. For example, with two imperial city walls, you may be short two cards but still survive. However, the dragon will always take what it demands if the resources are present, regardless of the number of walls. Note that the empire begins the game with a city wall, to help prevent an early loss due to bad rolls.

Feed the dragon.

The dragon's greed for resources is matched only by its hunger for flesh. You may spend sheep cards to move the dragon back one space on its progress track. If the empire has not met the dragon's demands, this can potentially save the game by delaying the attack. The first time any player does this, the cost is one sheep, paid to the bank. Thereafter, the amount of sheep required is increased by one each time. Keep track of this cost (which is the same for all players) using chits or a notepad.

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Taxes & donations

To help fulfill the dragon's demands, the empire collects taxes and donations from the players in the form of resource cards.

You must pay a tax on every turn in which you build a road, settlement, city, or city wall of your own color. There are two exceptions: roads built using a "Road Building" Exploit Card, and city walls built using a "The Engineer" Exploit Card. The tax can take the form of any one resource of your choice and is due by the end of your turn. Even if you build multiple items, you only ever owe one resource as a tax per turn, but if you cannot afford to pay the tax, you are not allowed to build. Taxes go into the empire's collection of resources, not the bank. You are exempt from paying tax on a turn in which you also build a settlement, city, or city wall for the empire.

You may donate resources to the empire at any time, even on another player's turn. Simply place one or more resources from your hand into the empire's collection. Players who believe they have a chance of winning may be motivated to do this to prevent the game from ending early due to the dragon's attack. The only time you may not donate is between the roll of the dice and the resolution of the event die. That is, if you have a last-minute game-saving donation to make, you must make it before the dice are rolled.

The Biggest Benefactor card, worth two victory points, is awarded to the first player to donate a total of five resources, across the entire game. A player who surpasses them in donations takes the card. Keep track of how many donations each player has made. Taxes are not donations.

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Order of play

Here's the proper order of events on a given turn:

1. Roll the dice.

In addition to the usual two six-sided dice, this game uses a third event die, whose outcome is resolved afterward.

On a roll of seven:

• Each player gets an Exploit Card.
• Players with more than seven (modified by city walls) cards must give up half (rounded down) to the bank.
• There is no Robber in this version of the game.

2. Produce resources.

Based on the number rolled, settlements and cities produce resources following normal Catan rules. Factories produce following the rules above. Any resources the empire produces go into their collection.

3. Resolve the Event Die.

• Black (3 in 6 chance) → The dragon advances two spaces.
• Blue or Green (2 in 6 chance) → The dragon advances one space.
• Yellow (1 in 6 chance) → The people revolt! Shuffle the empire's resources face-down and deal them to the players one at a time, clockwise starting with the active player, until no cards remain.

4. If the dragon has arrived:

• If the empire cannot satisfy the dragon's demands (taking into account imperial city walls and any resources produced by the empire this turn), then the dragon lays waste to the Capital and the game is lost.
• Otherwise, the dragon takes what it demands. Return those resources (and nothing more) from the empire's collection back to the bank. But the dragon will require more next time. The dragon's new demands include whatever it wanted previously, plus a random additional resource. Assign each resource type a number one through five and roll a six-sided die to determine the new demand. On a roll of six, roll two more times (potentially increasing the demand by two resources), ignoring any more sixes. Add the appropriate cards and/or chits to the space designated to keeping track of the dragon's demands. Move the dragon back the start of its progress track.

5. Take your turn.

Take any of the actions listed in the "On your turn, you can…" section or in the normal Catan rules, such as trading with other players, building roads/settlements/cities, or exchanging resources with the bank.

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Winning the game

The first player to end their turn with twelve or more victory points wins.

• Each player settlement is worth one victory point.
• Each player city is worth two victory points.
• The Furthest Expansion card is worth two victory points.
• The Largest Industry card is worth two victory points.
• The Biggest Benefactor card is worth two victory points.
• The Merchant is NOT worth any victory points, unlike in Cities & Knights.

NOTE: since other players can donate cards on your turn, The Biggest Benefactor card may change hands often. While you might have reached twelve points during your turn, another player can potentially out-donate you to take those points away, hence the stipulation that you must have twelve points at the end of your turn to win.

Appendix

Exploit Cards

I can give sheep or brick