Catan Resources Explained: Which Resource Wins the Most Games?
Wheat and ore get the headlines. The data says one of the other three is the resource you actually want a 7+ pip hex of.
By Henrik Mølmer · Editor & Founder, Cartographer's Almanac
7 min read ·
TL;DR
Wheat and ore get the headlines because they build cities. The actual highest-impact resource in winning openings is brick — because brick is the bottleneck for road expansion, and road expansion controls placement late-game. Wood ranks second, wheat third, ore fourth, sheep fifth. The data is counter-intuitive but consistent across thousands of tracked games.
Ask any Catan player which resource matters most and they'll say wheat or ore. Wheat builds cities and dev cards. Ore builds cities and dev cards. Cities are 2 VPs each. Therefore wheat-and-ore wins. This is the conventional wisdom and it's almost right. But across thousands of tracked online games, the resource that most often appears in winning openings isn't wheat or ore. It's brick.
Why brick wins more games than you'd expect
Brick is the rarest-spend resource. Each road costs 1 wood + 1 brick. Each settlement costs 1 wood + 1 brick + 1 wheat + 1 sheep. So brick is required for two of the four core builds, but the board only has 3 hills hexes (vs 4 each of forest, fields, pasture, and 3 mountains). Less production, equal demand.
The compounding effect: players starved for brick can't expand. Players starved for wheat can still build settlements (just slower) and make dev cards via ore-sheep. Players starved for ore can't build cities, but can still make settlements. Brick starvation is the only resource shortage that hard-stops your placement game.
The five resources, ranked by win rate
1. Brick — the bottleneck
Strong brick production unlocks road expansion. Road expansion unlocks placement options. Placement options unlock everything else. Brick is the meta-resource.
What you want: a 7+ pip brick hex in your opening, ideally paired with a 2:1 wood port (since brick + wood is the road combo).
2. Wood — the partner
Wood pairs with brick for everything road-related. The board has more wood (4 forests vs 3 hills), so wood is generally easier to come by. But for a road-race opening, you want wood production at least matching brick production.
3. Wheat — the closer
Wheat is needed for everything: settlements, cities, dev cards. The board has 4 fields hexes — adequate but not generous. The conventional wisdom is right that wheat matters; it just isn't the rarest bottleneck.
4. Ore — the late-game accelerant
Ore is the city/dev-card resource. You don't need it early (you're building roads and settlements first). You do need it from turn 15 onwards. Aim for at least one 7+ pip ore hex in your opening, but it can wait for your second pick.
5. Sheep — the slow burner
Sheep is needed for settlements and dev cards. The board has 4 pastures, but sheep gets used slowly (1 per dev card or 1 per settlement). You'll have sheep surplus by mid-game on most boards. Lowest priority for opening pip-counting.
The exception: red-number ore
If a board has a 6 or 8 ore hex, the calculus shifts. Ore on a red number produces fast enough to fuel city builds and dev cards in parallel. Tournament players rank red-ore corners as their top placement target on most boards.
Resource hexes vs resource diversity
Don't confuse "I want strong brick production" with "I want only brick." Concentrating on a single resource is fragile — one Robber move on your best hex and you starve. Diversify: aim for 2–3 resource types across your two starting corners, weighted toward brick + wood.
What about Cities & Knights?
C&K changes the resource calculus. Forests now produce paper (Trade), mountains produce coin (Politics), pastures produce cloth (Science). This shifts the ranking:
- Mountains rise (the Politics commodity track is the strongest).
- Pastures rise (sheep + cloth = double duty).
- Hills (brick) drops slightly because road races matter less in 90-minute games.
(See C&K strategy.)
What about Seafarers?
Seafarers adds gold hexes (which produce a "wild" resource of your choice when activated). High-pip gold is the strongest single hex in Seafarers — better than any specific resource — because it adapts to your shortage. (See Seafarers map generator guide.)
Resource production stats (per 36 turns)
| Resource | Hex count | Avg pips per hex | Expected production over 36 turns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brick | 3 | ~6 | ~18 |
| Wood | 4 | ~6 | ~24 |
| Wheat | 4 | ~6 | ~24 |
| Sheep | 4 | ~6 | ~24 |
| Ore | 3 | ~6 | ~18 |
The math is balanced by design. The strategic difference is in spend rate, not production rate. Brick gets spent on every road, doubling its effective demand. That's why it's the bottleneck.
Practice this on a balanced board from the Cartographer's Almanac generator. For the full opening framework, see opening placements.
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