19 terrain hexes (four sheep, four wheat, four wood, three brick, three ore, and one desert). Six sea frame pieces. 18 circular number tokens. A black/grey robber pawn. Four sets of wooden player pieces in four different colors each containing five settlements, four cities, and 15 roads. 25 development cards consisting of 14 knight/soldier cards, 6 progress cards, and 5 victory points. Resource cards of each terrain hex except for the desert. Four building costs cards, one for each player. “Longest Road” and “Largest Army” award cards. Two dice, one red, one yellow. Extra harbor pieces for placement of random harbors (optional).
Each settlement is worth one victory point and each city is worth two victory points. Each “Victory Point” card is worth one victory point. Each special card is worth two victory points. The “Longest Road” card will be awarded to the first person to successfully build a continuous five roads. The card will switch hands whenever a player’s number of connecting roads surpasses the longest continuous road of the cardholder. The “Largest Army” card will be awarded to the first person to play three “Knight” cards. The card will switch hands whenever a player plays more “Knight” cards than the “Largest Army” cardholder.
You may want to place the desert hex on an outside edge, away from any trade ports, to make the game a bit easier. A variation on this way of laying out the hexes is to place all of the hexes face down. They may only be turned upwards when someone places a road or a settlement on that hex. [4] X Research source
Do not place a number on the desert hex. You may also place tokens at random without paying attention to the letters, but this will make the game more challenging.
You should shuffle the development cards, but do not shuffle the resource cards!
After the player with the highest dice roll has chosen his or her color, have everyone else choose and then begin the turns. Turns progress in a clockwise manner.
Roads must always be placed where two hexes meet and border the player’s settlement. A settlement cannot be placed on an intersection adjacent to another intersection occupied by a settlement. There must be enough space for at least two roads between each settlement.
For example, if one of your settlements is bordering a wheat, lumber, and sheep tile, then you get to take one wheat, one lumber and one sheep card. Do the same for your other settlement.
You also get more resource cards if you have more than one settlement bordering a hex. For example, if you have two settlements on the edges of a hex and that hex’s number is rolled, then you get two of that hex’s resource cards. All players are eligible to get resource cards even if they are not rolling the dice. If a number is rolled by another player and you have a settlement bordering that hex, then you get a resource card. The only exception is if the robber is on your hex. In that case, you are blocked from receiving any resources from that hex until someone moves the robber again.
You may only play one development card per turn.
To build a road you need: One wood and one brick To build a settlement you need: One wood, one brick, one sheep, and one wheat To build a city you need: Three ore and two wheat. Cities can only be built in place of an already existing settlement. To buy a development card you need: One sheep, one wheat, and one ore
A “Knight” card allows a player to move the robber to any spot on the board and then gets to take a card from any player that has a settlement or city on the blocked resource. A “Road Building” card allows a player to place two roads on the board. A “Year of Plenty” card gives a player any two resource cards. After a player plays the “Monopoly” card, that player announces one type of resource. Every player must then give that player all of that type of resource card(s) in their hand. A “Victory Point” card automatically gives the player one victory point.
Keep any victory point cards that you draw face down so that your opponents cannot see them.
Keep in mind that the robber blocks players from getting resource from a hex. In other words, if the hex number occupied by the robber is rolled, players with settlements or cities on that number do not get to collect the resource the robber is blocking.
Setting yourself up to build roads and settlements by aiming for lots of brick and wood hexes in the beginning. Monopolizing ports. Try to get a port and at least two cities on different hexes with the same resource, so that you can trade for whatever you need. Targeting the winning player(s) with the robber and Knight cards. Robbing your opponents can keep them from progressing too much while also gaining yourself some extra resources. Building cities (and settlements) as soon as you can. When you have lots of resources to work with, you’ll be able to trade and build easily.
You can extend the game by playing until someone achieves a higher number of points, like 12 or 14 points.
