If you have ever played Catan, you may have been presented of one of two options. A, do I wait it out until I get the resources I need? Or B, do I chance my luck and go for a development card? Some people think going into the side deck is a roll of the dice, but all the Catan Development Cards have a use and each card can put you one step closer to winning if you play them correctly.
Please note, all images that do not have credit on have been taken from the online Catan alternative – Colonist.io. In all examples I am the red player.
Table of Contents
- Catan Development Cards Distribution
- Knights: The Most Common Development Card in Catan
- Victory Points
- Monopoly
- Road Building
- Year of Plenty
- A Catan Development Cards Strategy in Practice
- Development Cards In The Catan Meta
Catan Development Cards Distribution
We did go over this shortly in our Catan Beginner and Intermediate guide, but at the very least it is worth refreshing our minds. In any case, we will go in a lot more detail on all aspects of Development Cards in this article.
There are 25 development cards in Catan, each cost a total of three resources: one Grain/Wheat, one Ore, and one Wool/Sheep – we will call these the core resources for buying development cards.
The card’s distribution is as follows:
- 14 Knights – 56%
- 5 Victory Points – 20%
- 2 Monopoly – 8%
- 2 Road Building – 8%
- 2 Year of Plenty – 8%
Development Cards can be split into three distinct groups: Knights, Progress Cards – Which are Monopoly, Road Building and Year of Plenty; and Victory Points. Doing it this way we get a slightly different split.
- Knights Cards – 56%
- Progress Cards – 24%
- Victory Cards – 20%
According to the law of averages, you will be drawing a Knight over half of the time, a Progress Card almost a quarter of the time and a Victory Card a fifth of the time.
Knights: The Most Common Development Card in Catan
The Knight allows you to move the robber to a new hex and steal from a player adjacent to it. On the face of it, a Knight allows you to steal a resource. This means in term of net loss to buy the development card, -3, you are actually only -2 as you will get a resource from your opponent. Sometimes, you can even guarantee a resource. If your opponent used all of their resources last turn to settle and they only had one successful dice roll, for say brick, this round you know for certain they have brick in their hand. It is important to cherry pick who you steal from.
A more important use of the knight is to remove the Robber from a valuable hex that you occupy. If other players see you having a clear resource advantage, they will try to block it using a robber. If you cannot remove the robber you may go multiple turns without that resource. This is particularly painful if it is your only hex with that resource. In addition, if you are unable to produce a certain resource yourself, when blocked by the robber, it may cause you to make unfavourable trades. For example, if your opponent knows you need a Sheep to settle on a port, but your Sheep resource is blocked, they may make you pay 2:1 or even 3:1 for that resource. Trading in games like Catan is all about supply and demand.
Last, but not to be taken lightly, three knights will give you largest army. This will net you an additional two victory points. From a resource perspective this will save you between 10 (two cities) and 14 (3 roads and two settlements – the cheapest way to settle if you do not already have a road) resources. Largest Army can also act as a “surprise” victory condition. Players will actively try to stop you if they see you are getting too far ahead. Let’s say you’re on 7 victory points. A good position, but still an arm and a leg away from winning. Your opponents will likely target those players on more than 7 points. However, you can win in one turn if you settle and take largest army – getting three points.
Victory Points
Victory points may seem obvious in what they do, getting you one step closer to the win. However, they can be a bit more nuanced than that. In the original game there are actually designated buildings for victory points: A chapel, library, market, university, and great hall.
Victory points offer you a similar “surprise victory” to Largest Army as described earlier. You can posture as being one point lesser than you actually are, which is a very good position to be in. Being lucky enough to get two or three victory cards can put you in a very strong position to win.
The game gets very tight towards the end game. You can only place a maximum of five settlements (for five victory points). If you do not have access to city building resources, your growth can be quite stunted. Victory points help you bridge the gap. If you do have access to Wheat and Ore you are in an even better position.
Thinking again of net resource cost, getting Victory points will put you at a +1 (4 resources to settle) or +2 (5 resources for a city) resource amount if you purchase a development card. They are the single most resource-efficient way to get victory points in the game.
Monopoly
The Monopoly card allows you to designate one type of any resource. All other players at the table must then give you that resource. Monopoly can of course be used to force a resource out of a player who just refuses to trade, but it also has other, better, uses.
Monopoly Cards can be used as an obstacle to your opponent. It is especially useful when your opponent is hording resources; you will typically see this happen if your opponent has a 2:1 port of a specific resource. In addition, if an opponent is dominating a resource, multiple settlements or multiple cities on a hex, it is useful to play a monopoly card then.
Monopoly is especially powerful in a four player game, when there are the most possible resource hexes being occupied. A good rule of thumb when using a monopoly card is trying to double your initial investment, i.e. take six resource cards when three were used to buy the development card. It is normally worth using a Monopoly card in this instance. However, sometimes your hand is forced and if you need that one key resource to settle or build a city, in this case you must take the net resource hit.
Road Building
The Road Building development card allows you to place two roads; it is most useful at the very beginning of a game and the very end. It is useful at the beginning because both brick and wood are hard to come by in the early stages, everyone wants to build roads and everyone wants to settle – this means people are unlikely to trade. It is an especially handy because from any given settlement you can branch out and place another settlement straight away, this can be a surprise for your opponent.
Road Building can also be used to block off your opponents roads when you are challenging for a specific hex. In the early game, it can come down to who is able to build a road and settle first, Road Building gives you a huge advantage on this.
At the end of the game, Road Building can act as another surprise card. If you are competing with another player for longest road it can be used to pull out ahead and sometimes secure a win with the plus two victory points. It is a card that should not be underrated.
Year of Plenty
As far as Development Cards go, sometimes Year of Plenty does not get enough love from Catan fans. On the face of it, it does put you at -1 net resources. You put in three resources to get two back. However, looking deeper, this -1 is not necessarily as harmful as it seems. First, if you have excess sheep or wheat buying a development card does not put you at risk of not being able to settle – ore is not used to settle, only build cities. Development cards also do not cost wood or brick, so there is no risk to building roads in the early game.
There are two important things to consider with Year of Plenty. First, it can give you access to scarce resources. It is rare you will manage to get a good resource spread in a game of Catan, even rarer in a 4 player game where everyone is fighting for space. It is likely you will be lacking in one resource and Year of Plenty will give you instant access. Opponents will likely make you trade over the odds for resources that you have low chances of rolling for, so Year of Plenty prevents this extortion. Second, robbers cannot steal Year of Plenty. The frustration in having that one resource stolen that you need to settle or build a city is beyond annoying. Year of Plenty essentially secures key resources for you.
A Catan Development Cards Strategy in Practice
The Development card strategy focuses on, well you guessed it, buying as many development cards as possible. In order for this strategy to work there needs to be a few key conditions present on the initial board. You will need good access to Wheat, Ore, and Sheep to pull this off – the resources needed for development cards. To be honest, this is all you need: a good start. There is no real art to this strategy, you just need to get as much of the core resources as possible. Building future settlements should also be with the mind-set of increasing core resource production. The following distribution of resources is recommended Wheat: Ore: Sheep – 2:2:3 – so slightly less than double the amount of sheep.
The benefits of this strategy are as follow:
- High likelihood of Largest Army for 2 additional victory points.
- Resource security as you are protected from the robber by multiple knights.
- High likelihood of additional development card victory points. Often this will be greater than 2 additional victory points – three of four are not unheard of.
- In a good position to build cities as you have good Wheat and Ore production.
Cons of this strategy:
- It is hard to expand. With no Brick and no Wood it is hard to build roads and settlements
- Similar to the above, you will be out of the race for longest road. You just do not have the potential to compete with other players when it comes to road building
- Popularity – Wheat and Ore are good resources because they help you build cities, end game buildings. There will be a lot of challengers for these core resources, especially in a four player game.
Development Cards In The Catan Meta
Catan Development Cards really do not get enough love. There is a fear, especially for newer players, that buying development cards will put you at a resource disadvantage. If you buy one during the early game; you no longer have the Wheat and Sheep needed to build a new settlement. While partially true, development cards actually act as a way to protect your resources. There is an element of luck in Catan with dice rolls, but correct usage of development cards can sharply reduce this. Play your cards right and you will be on the path to a sweet victory.
