How to Win: Victory Points, Longest Route, and Largest Army

You know how to set up, how a turn works, and what a 7 does. The last piece of Level 0 is the finish line. Catan ends the moment one player reaches 10 victory points on their own turn, and there are only five ways to earn them. Learn all five and you will never again be surprised by someone flipping over cards and announcing they won.

Where do victory points come from?

Here is the complete list for the base game.

Roads score nothing by themselves. Neither do Knights, Road Building, Invention, or Monopoly. They help you score in other ways.

Older editions call the road bonus Longest Road. The 6th Edition calls it Longest Route. Same tile, same rules.

How do settlements and cities add up?

Settlements and cities are the backbone of almost every win. Every game starts you with 2 points from your two starting settlements, so you need 8 more.

Building a city does not add a new building. It upgrades a settlement, so you gain 1 point (from 1 to 2), not 2. It also doubles what that corner collects, and it needs no new spot, no road, and no wood or brick. That is why cities are such good value later in the game.

The piece limits shape the endgame:

• You have only 5 settlements. Once all 5 are on the board, you must upgrade one to a city before you can place another.
• You have only 4 cities.
• So the most you can ever score from buildings is 4 cities (8 points) plus 5 settlements (5 points), or 13 points. In practice you will usually win with far fewer buildings, plus a bonus or two.

How does Longest Route work?

The first player to build a continuous route of at least 5 roads takes the Longest Route tile and its 2 points.

A few details matter:

• Only one unbroken path counts. If your roads fork, count the longest single line you could trace without doubling back. Branches do not add up.
• To take it, you must beat the holder. If someone already has the tile with 6 roads, you need 7. Tying is not enough.
• Routes can be broken. If an opponent builds a settlement on an open corner in the middle of your route, your route is cut in two at that point. If that leaves someone else with the clear longest route, they take the tile right away.
• It can leave the table. If a break leaves nobody holding a single clear longest route of 5 or more, the tile goes back to the supply until one player clearly leads again.

Longest Route can change hands many times in one game. That makes it a great comeback tool and a tricky thing to rely on.

How does Largest Army work?

Every Knight card you play stays face up in front of you. The first player with 3 Knights played takes the Largest Army tile and its 2 points.

As with Longest Route, a challenger must beat the holder, not tie them. If you hold Largest Army with 3 Knights, another player needs 4 to take it from you.

Unlike Longest Route, Largest Army cannot be broken. Played Knights never leave. The only way to lose the tile is for someone to play more Knights than you.

Why do Victory Point cards stay hidden?

Five of the 25 development cards are worth 1 point each. You do not play these the way you play a Knight. You keep them face down until you can win.

That makes them sneaky. When you look around the table, a player showing 8 points might really have 9 or 10 in hand. A good habit is to count everyone’s development cards, not just their buildings. A player sitting on several unplayed cards may be closer to winning than they look.

When the moment comes, you may reveal as many Victory Point cards as you need, including one you built this very turn. That is the one exception to the rule about not using a development card on the turn you get it.

When do you actually win?

The rule is simple: if you have 10 or more points at any moment during your own turn, you win right then. Reveal any hidden Victory Point cards, count it out for the table, and the game ends.

Two things to know:

• You cannot win on someone else’s turn. Points can shift during another player’s turn. For example, if Red breaks Blue’s route and you now have the clear longest route, the tile comes to you on Red’s turn. Even if that puts you at 10, you must wait. If you still have 10 or more when your turn begins, you win.
• Declare it. Players sometimes miss their own tenth point. Count your points every turn, and the moment you reach 10 on your turn, stop and declare the win. It is a good habit now and an essential one at a tournament table.

How do winners usually reach 10?

There is no single right way. Here are three common shapes, each adding up to exactly 10.

Notice that most winners hold at least one bonus tile. Those two tiles are 4 points sitting in the middle of the table, and they are worth watching even when you are not chasing them. Level 2 has a full lesson on when to chase, contest, or ignore them.

That is all of Level 0. You can now set up, play, and finish a game of Catan without the rulebook. Congratulations, Settler.

Try it this week

Your drill is to play three games and record how each winner reached 10. You are learning to see the game the way strong players do: as a set of paths.

1. Make a simple score sheet. Five columns: settlements, cities, Longest Route, Largest Army, and Victory Point cards.
2. At the end of each game, fill in one row for the winner. Do the same for the runner-up if you can.
3. Note the turning point. Write one sentence on the moment the winner pulled ahead. A city on a big number? Stealing a bonus tile? A surprise card?
4. Compare the three games. Did the winners take the same path or different ones? How many winners held a bonus tile?
5. Bring your sheet to Level 1. These notes become your first data set when we start studying openings.