Initial Placement Guide

The dots under each number show how many of the 36 possible dice rolls add up to that number. Settling next to tiles with more dots usually means steadier resource income.

At first, focus on placing settlements where you can collect resources often. As you get more comfortable, start thinking about other factors too.

On most boards, at least one resource is harder to produce—its tiles tend to have numbers with fewer dots underneath.

Hard-to-get resources are also harder to trade for later. Claim scarce tiles early with your first settlement, before other players take them.

Among the five resources, wood and brick are needed more early on, while sheep, wheat, and ore are needed more later—but you will use all five throughout the game.

If your initial setup leaves you short on two or more resource types, the game gets much harder, so try to avoid that.

Conversely, rather than forcing a perfect balance of all five in your initial placement, it is often stronger to settle somewhere that produces a lot of what you can get, even if you miss out on one resource type.

In Kaitakushi and official CATAN, players who collect plenty of ore and are short on at most one resource type tend to win more often.

Conversely, if you lack ore, you may lead early but struggle to upgrade cities or buy development cards later—and often lose.

So even though we said missing one resource type can be fine, we recommend prioritizing ore in your initial placement.

For your first setup settlement, prioritize spots that touch many high-number tiles and give you plenty of two or more resource types.

As you get more comfortable, also consider resource scarcity and try to claim resources that are scarce on this board.

For your first road, building inland often gets blocked by other players' settlements, so it is usually better to build toward the coast. Even better if you can build toward a 3:1 port.

Check what your first settlement already provides, and place your second where it covers the gaps. Unless ore is almost unavailable on the whole board, we recommend securing ore in your initial setup.

For your second road, build toward resources you're short on or toward a 3:1 port. Compare with your first settlement and build in the direction that makes it easier to reach scarce resources or a 3:1 port.