Cartographer's Almanac

Reference

Catan Setup Checklist

Last updated: June 2026

A consolidated, printable setup walkthrough for base Catan and all four major expansions. If you're using this site's generator, skip steps 1–3 in each section and load the share URL instead — the generator hands you a balanced board in seconds.

Base Catan (3–4 players)

What you need: 1 base Catan box. Estimated setup time: 5–8 minutes.

  1. Frame the sea border. Assemble the six sea frame pieces into a hexagonal border on a flat surface. The frame fixes the board outline and holds the 19 land hexes in place.
  2. Shuffle and lay the 19 land hexes. Bag count: 4 forest, 3 hills, 4 fields, 4 pasture, 3 mountains, 1 desert. For a random layout, shake the bag and place hexes one by one in a spiral from the centre outward.
  3. Place number tokens. Token count: 18 (one per non-desert hex). Lay them face-down, mix thoroughly, then deal them face-up in alphabetical order starting from a chosen corner, skipping the desert. For balanced placement, use the "no adjacent reds" rule: if a 6 or 8 lands next to another 6 or 8, swap one with an unused number from the next position.
  4. Place the robber on the desert.
  5. Place the harbour (port) tiles. Nine ports: three 3:1 generic and one 2:1 for each of the five resources, plus one extra 3:1. Place them face-up on the sea-frame edges at the prescribed alternating positions (every other edge).
  6. Distribute starting materials per player: 5 settlements, 4 cities, 15 roads (in your colour), one build-cost card, one chosen player colour.
  7. Determine turn order. Each player rolls one die; highest goes first. In case of a tie, the tied players roll again.
  8. Initial placement, pass 1 (forward turn order). Each player places one settlement on an empty intersection and one road on an adjacent edge.
  9. Initial placement, pass 2 (reverse turn order). Each player places a second settlement and a second road. The second settlement's adjacent hexes yield starting resources (one of each adjacent terrain).
  10. First player rolls. The game has begun.

Base Catan + 5–6 player expansion (5–6 players)

What you need: base Catan box + 5–6 player expansion box. Estimated setup time: 10–15 minutes.

  1. Frame the sea border. Use the longer sea frame pieces from the expansion box.
  2. Shuffle and lay 30 land hexes. Bag count: 6 forest, 5 hills, 6 fields, 6 pasture, 5 mountains, 2 desert. Layout: rows of 3-4-5-6-5-4-3 hexes.
  3. Place 28 number tokens. Same no-adjacent-reds rule as base game; with three 6s and three 8s, this step takes longer.
  4. Place the robber on the first desert. The second desert remains dead space.
  5. Place 11 harbour (port) tiles. Six 3:1 and five 2:1 ports, alternating positions on the longer sea-frame as in the rulebook.
  6. Distribute starting materials. Five or six players, each receiving the standard piece counts (5 settlements, 4 cities, 15 roads) in their assigned colour.
  7. Determine turn order, then run two-pass initial placement as above.
  8. Confirm the build-phase rule with all players. Many groups forget the 5–6 expansion's build-phase rule (non-active players build at end-of-turn). State it explicitly before turn 1.

Seafarers (3–4 players)

What you need: base Catan box + Seafarers expansion box. Estimated setup time: 10–20 minutes depending on scenario.

  1. Choose your scenario. Heading for New Shores is the standard introductory layout. Each scenario sheet specifies the hex placement, gold-field positions, discovery-island layout, and victory threshold.
  2. Lay out sea hexes and land hexes per the scenario sheet. The Seafarers box adds sea hexes that are placed between or around land masses.
  3. Place gold-field hexes at the positions indicated by the scenario sheet (usually 2 for 3–4 players).
  4. Place number tokens. Tokens go on every non-desert, non-sea land hex including gold-fields. Apply the no-adjacent-reds rule across all islands.
  5. Place the robber and the pirate. Robber on the desert, pirate on the central sea hex per the scenario sheet.
  6. Place ports. Scenario-specific positions; check the scenario sheet.
  7. Distribute starting materials including 15 ships per player (in their assigned colour from the Seafarers box).
  8. Determine turn order, then run two-pass initial placement. Initial settlements must be on the main island unless the scenario specifies otherwise.
  9. Read the scenario-specific rules. Each scenario adds twists: bonus VP from discovery islands, special pirate behaviour, scenario-only progress cards, etc.

Seafarers 5–6 (5–6 players)

What you need: base Catan box + 5–6 player expansion + Seafarers expansion + Seafarers 5–6 extension. Estimated setup time: 15–25 minutes.

  1. Choose the 5–6 player variant of your scenario. Each scenario sheet has separate 3–4 and 5–6 player layouts.
  2. Lay out the larger main island (26 land hexes) and the three discovery islands (3-hex, 2-hex, 1-hex by default).
  3. Place 3 gold-field hexes and 31 number tokens across all land hexes.
  4. Place robber, pirate, ports, and starting materials per the scenario sheet.
  5. Run two-pass initial placement. Initial settlements must be on the main island.
  6. Confirm the build-phase rule — applies in Seafarers 5–6 as in any 5–6 game.

Cities & Knights (3–4 players)

What you need: base Catan box + Cities & Knights expansion box. Estimated setup time: 8–12 minutes (the board is the same as base Catan; the additional time is component layout).

  1. Set up the standard base-game board (steps 1–6 of the Base Catan setup).
  2. Place the barbarian ship at the start of its track (position 0).
  3. Set up the three city-improvement tracks on the side of the play area: politics (yellow), trade (green), science (blue). Each track shows five levels and the rewards at each level.
  4. Sort the progress card decks: politics (yellow), trade (green), science (blue). Place each face-down within reach of all players.
  5. Distribute knight, wall, and improvement components per player: 6 knight pieces (2 basic, 2 strong, 2 mighty — face them up/down to indicate strength), 3 city walls.
  6. Determine turn order and run two-pass initial placement as in base Catan.
  7. Important C&K-only rules to state before turn 1:
    • Victory threshold is 13 VP, not 10.
    • Sevens advance the barbarian ship instead of triggering the standard rob (the robber moves only on Bishop cards or successful barbarian attacks).
    • Cities produce commodities on forest/pasture/mountain hexes only after being upgraded with the relevant improvement.

Cities & Knights 5–6 (5–6 players)

What you need: base + 5–6 expansion + Cities & Knights + C&K 5–6 extension. Estimated setup time: 15–20 minutes.

  1. Set up the standard 5–6 player base board (steps 1–6 of the 5–6 expansion setup).
  2. Place the barbarian ship at position 0 on its track.
  3. Set up the city-improvement tracks as in 3–4 player C&K.
  4. Distribute knight, wall, improvement, and metropolis components in two extra player colours from the C&K 5–6 extension box.
  5. Run two-pass initial placement, confirm build-phase and 13-VP threshold with all six players.

Traders & Barbarians (3–4 players, any scenario)

What you need: base Catan box + Traders & Barbarians expansion box. Estimated setup time: 10–20 minutes depending on scenario.

  1. Choose your scenario. Each T&B scenario has a dedicated scenario sheet. Fishermen of Catan is the gentlest starting point.
  2. Set up the standard base-game board (steps 1–6 of the Base Catan setup) unless the scenario specifies a fixed layout (notably the title T&B scenario).
  3. Place scenario-specific components per the scenario sheet:
    • Fishermen: attach fishing-ground tiles to coastal intersections; place the lake tile at centre; shuffle the fish bag.
    • Rivers: replace three land hexes with river hexes at indicated positions; set out gold-coin tokens.
    • Caravans: replace the desert with the oasis tile; place desert cities and camel pieces; lay out the caravan path.
    • Barbarian Attack: place three barbarian camp tiles on the indicated forest hexes; set out scenario-specific knight pieces.
    • Title scenario: use the fixed layout from the scenario sheet (castle, glassworks, marketplace, wagons, barbarians); ignore steps 2–3 above.
  4. Distribute starting materials including any scenario-specific pieces (camels, knights, etc.).
  5. Determine turn order and run two-pass initial placement. Initial placement restrictions vary by scenario; check the sheet.
  6. Read the scenario's victory threshold and special rules out loud before turn 1. Most scenarios use 10 VP; the title T&B scenario uses 13 VP.

Traders & Barbarians 5–6 (5–6 players)

What you need: base + 5–6 expansion + Traders & Barbarians + T&B 5–6 extension. Estimated setup time: 15–25 minutes.

  1. Choose the 5–6 player variant of your scenario. Fishermen, Rivers, Caravans, and Barbarian Attack scale; the title scenario is not recommended at six.
  2. Set up the standard 5–6 player base board.
  3. Place scaled scenario components from the T&B 5–6 extension (more fishing grounds, additional camels, extra barbarian camps, etc.) per the scenario sheet.
  4. Distribute starting materials in six colours and confirm the build-phase rule.
  5. Run two-pass initial placement.

Universal pre-game checklist (apply for any session)

  1. Bank check: ensure resource and commodity card stacks are sorted face-up in their slots, with the appropriate counts for your player count. If the deck looks short, count it before turn 1 (running out mid-game disrupts play).
  2. Die check: confirm both dice are present and not loaded (rare but worth a roll-test if borrowed from another game).
  3. Rules edition check: confirm everyone is playing from the same edition's rules. The 2025 reprints clarified several edge cases; if a player learned from an older edition, walk through the changes briefly.
  4. Soft-rules decisions: agree before turn 1 on contested house rules — Friendly Robber, Harbor Masters, table-talk rules during the build phase. Decisions made mid-game are harder to enforce.
  5. Time budget: set a soft cap if the group has a hard end time. Catan has no official timer, but games can run long.

Using the generator to skip steps 1–3

Every section above starts with "lay out hexes and number tokens." If you're using this site's generator, that work is already done — load the share URL on any device, and the generated board is exactly what every player at the table will see. Then resume from the robber-placement step. The generators are organised by configuration: