The object of game is to be the first to either:
- Gain *10* victory points (VPs).
- Lead in an area for *200* years of in-game time.
VPs are earned by
- building structures
- buying cards
- earning accomplishments such as “Longest Road” and “Largest Army”
-- Settlements => 1VP
-- Cities => 2VP
Acheving 10 VPs is one of the ways to win the game.
Being the leader in any area awards you 2VP. For example:
- "Longest Road" special → first person to build a continuous *5* roads.
- "Largest Army" special → first person to combine *3* battalions.
Maintaining leadership in any area for 200 in-game years is one of the ways to win the game.
Determine the turn order. Every player rolls two dice to start. The player who rolls the highest number gets to select his or her color and take the first turn. There are four colors included with the Base Catan 3-4 player set: red, blue, white, and orange.
- 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.
Place the first settlements. The first player places one of his settlements at an intersection, where three terrain hexes meet, the adjoining hexes are the resources he will earn if the number on that hex is rolled (so choose wisely!). Next, he places one of his roads on one of the three possible places next to his first settlement. The next player then takes her turn in the same way, but must place her settlement in a different area.
- 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.
Place the final settlements. The last player gets to place two settlements and two roads (one for each settlement) and then going counter-clockwise, the first players place their second settlement and second road until each player has two settlements and two roads down on the board.
Generally each player attempts to expand quickly into the unclaimed area around their home, and then use those resources to achieve the revealed public goals, which usually involve control or expenditure of resources, technology, or units (currency) in order to score VPs. It is not generally necessary to engage in combat in order to win the game.
Initially, half of the secret objectives (2VP) involve control of Desirable Region, and controlling it grants the most power over other players of any region in the game. These facts and its central location usually lead to conflict surrounding Desirable Region.
A decisive factor in most games is the choice of the Imperial Strategy card. Executing the card's strategy immediately scores the controlling player 2VP, and reveals the next public goal card (the only way outside of the secret objectives to score victory points). With a group of players that have previously played the game, the Imperial Strategy card generally circulates regularly around the table, with each player taking it as a first choice when possible, and a player who succeeds in taking the card out of turn is usually seen as a threat by the other players. The card effectively acts as a clock on the game, since it is almost always chosen each turn.
Many fans were unhappy with the original Imperial Strategy Card, which they saw as far too powerful, and an alternate was included in the expansion, which allows a player to qualify for multiple objectives, instead of the usual one.
- Fire
- Cooking
- Clothing
- Speech
- Hex map layer
- Surface map layer