Your First Two Settlements: A Five-Point Opening Checklist

Setup is short. Each player gets maybe 90 seconds of real thinking across two picks. Then those two settlements pay you, or fail to pay you, for the rest of the game. Every card you collect in your first several turns comes from those two spots, so a weak opening takes a long time to fix.

This lesson turns that choice into a checklist. Five checks, one point each. By the end, you will be able to score any opening, yours or anyone else’s, in under a minute.

Why do your first two settlements matter so much?

Think about where you stand after setup. You have 2 settlements, 2 roads, and a small starting hand. Your next settlement costs four cards and a road or two to reach it. Until then, those first two corners are your whole income.

A strong opening snowballs. More cards mean earlier builds, and earlier builds mean more cards. A weak opening does the reverse, and it is hard to trade your way out of it.

What is the five-point checklist?

Here it is. Score your two settlements together, one point for each check they pass.

Then read your score:

Now each check in a little more detail.

How many pips is enough? (Check 1)

From Lesson 6, an average three-hex corner has just under 10 pips. Two average spots land near 19. So 20 or more means your opening is at least a little better than average.

Late picks rarely see 13-pip corners. That is fine. Two 10s pass this check, and the other four checks are where late seats catch up.

Why does resource variety matter? (Check 2)

There are five resources and four things to build. If you touch only three resources, you must trade for the other two every single time you build most things. If you touch four, you can usually make one trade and build.

Which one you are missing matters too. Missing wool is often easy to fix, because wool tends to pile up in other players’ hands. Missing brick or ore hurts more, since there are only three hills and three mountains on the board. Lesson 8 explains why.

Why spread your numbers? (Check 3)

Say both your settlements touch an 8. When an 8 rolls, you get a big payday. When anything else rolls, you get very little. That is feast or famine.

Now say your six hexes show five different numbers. Your income arrives in smaller pieces, but on far more turns. Steady income is easier to plan with, and it is harder for one cold number or one well-placed robber to shut you down.

The check asks for at least 4 different numbers. Sharing one number between your two spots is fine. Leaning on one number for most of your income is the trap.

Why do brick and wood matter so early? (Check 4)

Look at the costs from Lesson 3. A road is brick and wood. A settlement is brick, wood, wool, and wheat. Your fastest way to grow is a third settlement, and reaching it takes brick and wood two or three times over.

Without either one, you start the game on the 4:1 bank rate or asking the table for help, and everyone else wants brick and wood early too. Brick is the tighter of the two, with only three hills on the board.

There is one real exception. Some strong players skip brick and wood on purpose, take big ore and wheat spots, and race to cities and development cards. That is a Level 2 strategy. For now, treat a zero on this check as a warning light.

What does room to expand look like? (Check 5)

Look at the corners near your settlements. Remember the distance rule: a new settlement needs at least one empty corner between it and every other building. Is there a good, legal spot one or two roads away?

Then ask two more questions:

• Can someone else get there first? If a neighbor who places after you can take that spot in setup, or reach it with one road, it is not really yours.
• Where does your road point? Your starting road should aim at your best expansion spot. A road pointing at the sea or into another player’s settlement wastes your one free road.

How do you use the checklist in a real draft?

You do not need to pass all five checks with your first pick. Split the work.

• First settlement: lean on Check 1 and Check 3. Take the best pips you can, on a good spread of numbers. You can fix resources later.
• Second settlement: look at what the first one is missing and fill the gaps for Check 2 and Check 4. Your second settlement also pays your starting hand, so a spot touching hills puts a brick in your hand right away.

If you are the fourth player, you place both settlements back to back. Plan them as a pair.

What does a scored opening look like?

Here is Blue’s first settlement: a 6 wheat field, a 9 ore mountain, and a 4 wool pasture. That is 5 plus 4 plus 3, or 12 pips.

For the second settlement, Blue is choosing between two spots.

Option B has more pips, and it is tempting. But Blue would own zero brick and zero wood, and would have to trade for every road. Option A scores 5 out of 5 and can grow on its own. For a Homesteader, Option A is the better start.

For more on placement and the rest of the game, see our guide on how to win at Catan.

Try it this week

Your drill is to score your opening against the checklist after every game for a week.

1. Copy the checklist. Put the five checks on an index card or a note on your phone. Keep it next to you at the table.
2. Check before you place. In setup, run your top two choices through the checks. Pick the one that scores higher, unless you can say why the other is better.
3. Score your opening after each game. Write down your score out of 5, which checks you missed, and where you finished.
4. Score the winner too. Run the winner’s opening through the same five checks. Note how it compares to yours.
5. Look for your pattern. At the end of the week, find the check you miss most often. That is the one to watch in your next setup.