Objective

Get resources to buy various buildings and development cards, and try to be the first player to reach 10 points.

Setup

• The board consists of hills (brick), forest (lumber), mountains (ore), fields (grain), pasture (wool) and a desert (nothing) at random places.
• Each terrain except the desert has a number of 2-12 on it. The desert starts with the robber on it.
• Each player places 2 settlements and 1 road next to each settlement on the board, then they receive resources for each terrain around the second settlement.

Gameplay

Rolling for resource production (obligatory): On your turn, roll 2 dice and calculate the sum.

• The terrains with that number produce resources for all players who have settlements or cities next to them (if the robber isn't blocking them): 1 resource per settlement and 2 per city.
• If you roll a 7, no one gets any resources and players with 8 resources or more must discard half of them (rounded down). You must move the robber to a new terrain and steal 1 random resource from a player who has a settlement or city next to that terrain.

Trading (optional): during your turn you can trade resources

• • with all other players (domestic trade)
• • with the bank (maritime trade) at the standard rate of 4 identical resources for 1 or at a preferential rate of a harbour if you have a settlement next to it.

Building (optional): finally, you can build roads and settlements, upgrade settlements to cities or purchase a development card by paying the resources needed.

• • roads must connect to the initial settlements and cost 1 brick + 1 lumber (worth 0 points)
• • settlements must be connected by roads to existing settlements (except at start) and cost 1 brick + 1 lumber + 1 wool + 1 grain (worth 1 point)
• • cities replace an existing settlement and cost 3 ore + 2 grain (worth 2 points)
• • development cards cost 1 ore + 1 wool + 1 grain and include
  • • 14 knight cards that allow to move the robber to another terrain and steal a resource
  • • 2 road building cards allowing extra roads to be built
  • • 2 year of plenty cards providing two free resources of choice
  • • 2 monopoly cards giving all other players that help gathering resources or building road•s
  • • 5 victory point cards

You can play a development card at any time during your turn, even before rolling the dice, as long as it was bought on a previous turn and is not a victory card.

Scoring

• • Settlements: each is worth 1 victory point.
• • Cities: each is worth 2 victory points (1 Point from the settlement + 1).
• • Victory point cards: some development cards are worth 1 victory point. They are kept hidden until you have sufficent points to win.
• • Largest army: the player who has played the most knight cards at any time (at least 3) gets the largest army card which is worth 2 points.
• • Longest road: the player with the longest continuous road at any time (at least 5 segments) gets the longest road card which is worth 2 points.

If there is a tie, the original owner keeps the achievement cards.

End of game

If a player has 10 or more victory points during their turn (including victory points cards), they reveal them and the game ends with their victory.