The object of the game is to obtain 10 VP [victory points] (unless other victory conditions are selected at the beginning of the game). Victory points can be attained by building board items and purchasing development cards. The game ends as soon as a player reveals that they have 10 VP (done automatically in Catan Universe).



Each player receives the following game pieces:

1. 15 Road pieces
   
2. 5 Settlement Pieces
   
3. 4 City Pieces

There are 25 development cards in the game


















The Knight card allows a player to move the robber and steal a resource card from any of the neighbors to that resource. There are 14 of these in the deck.



















The Victory Point (VP) card gives the player 1 VP. Vicotry points gained this way aren't revealed until the end of the game. There are 5 of these in the deck.










The next 3 sets of cards are what are referred to as Progress Cards










The Monopoly card allows the player to immediately take all of 1 type of resource from all other players. There are 2 of these in the deck.

















The Road Building card allows the player to immediately place 2 road tiles anywhere that they have an existing road, a city, or a settlement. There are 2 of these in the deck.
















The Year of Plenty card allows the player to immediately select 2 of any type of resource from the bank. There are 2 of these in the deck.










There are 19 of each type of resource in the game








Lumber (L)




















Brick (B)





















Wool (W)



















Grain (G)




















Ore (O)
















The game board is made up of individual hexagonal tiles with pictures on the front to indicate each type of resource. On top of each of those hexagonal is a number with dots underneath (those dots will be explained later). Those numbers indicate the sum of the two dice, and players receive the corresponding resources whenever those dice are rolled.
There are also 9 harbors. Each harbor corresponds to Maritime Trade, which is explained below.
Note that while the harbors are generally randomized (1 for each resource and 5 "3:1" harbors) some map scenarios in Catan Universe change this figure.



A random player is selected, and players take turn placing 2 settlements and 2 roads, one at a time using the Dutch Method, in this order:

1. Player 1- 1st settlement and 1st road
   
2. Player 2- 2nd settlement and 2nd road
   
3. Player 3- 3rd settlement and 3rd road
   
4. Player 4- 4th settlement and 4th road
   
5. Player 4- 5th settlement and 5th road
   
6. Player 3- 6th settlement and 6th road
   
7. Player 2- 7th settlement and 7th road
   
8. Player 1- 8th settlement and 8th road

The only constraint to placing settlements is defined under the Distance Rule. The distance rule states that "You may only build a settlement on an empty tile intersection and only if the 3 adjacent intersections are empty." Simply put, this means that you cannot build a settlement at an intersection unless the nearest settlement or city is more than 2 intersections away from your city in any direction.

There are many different things to consider when undergoing the initial placement phase, but this very important facet of the game will be discussed in depth in a later section.



Play will begin with Player 1 rolling the dice. The sum of the dice is taken, and players receive resources corresponding to the roll of the dice and the numbers on top of the resources on the board. Players that have cities or settlements placed on the intersections of those hexes receive:

1 resource card for each settlement on that hex
2 resource cards for each city on that hex


If a 7 is rolled, the robber comes into play. There are a few rules in regards to the robber:

1. Every player that has 8 RESOURCES OR MORE is forced to discard half of their resources (if the player has an odd number, such as 9, that player would round down to 4)
   
   
2. The player that rolled the 7 then takes the robber from his previous position, the desert tile if it is the first time a 7 has been rolled, and places it on the tile of their choosing, provided it's not the spot that the robber was previously in
   
   
3. The player that moved the robber then selects a player with a city or settlement adjacent to that hex and steals a resource from their hand

Players that have cities or settlements on the intersections touching the hex that the robber is on won't receive the resources for that hex whenever that number is rolled on the dice. Furthermore, the robber stays on top of that hex until either a Knight development card has been played or another player rolls a 7.

Each player's turn is broken up into 3 sequences:

1. Roll Sequence: During the phase, players roll the dice once and either distribute resources or perform the robber sequence.
   
   
2. Build & Trade Sequence (Optional): Players may then build a settlement, city, or road, purchase a development card, or play 1 development card. The development card limit is the only limit that applies to the build phase. In addition, players may also either perform Player Trades or Maritime Trades.
   
   Player Trade- A trade between 2 players. There is no constraint to the amount of resources that can be traded in one trade. *Catan Universe Protip* Use the chat box to talk about trades. It's the reason the developers implemented into the game. Idle banter is fun, but I see a lot of people underutilizing the chat box for trading, and this has actually helped me a lot in Catan Universe.
   
   Maritime Trade- A trade between a player and the resource bank. There are 3 different ratios that can be applied to Maritime Trade, depending on whether has a city or settlement build on a particular harbor.
   
   1. 2:1- 2 of any resource for 1 of any resource as long as a player has a city or settlement on a harbor of the corresponding resource type.
      
   2. 3:1- 3 of any resource for 1 of any resource if a player has a city or settlement built on any other harbor.
      
   3. 4:1- 4 of any resource for 1 of any resource if a player controls no harbors.
   
   
3. End Sequence: The player ends their turn and passes play on to the next player.

A player claims victory whenever they can prove that they have 10 VP. At this time, the game is over, and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place players are announced.