![]() ![]() The last thing that can be built with your Catan resources are Development Cards. As more and more production concentrates in one area, the economy benefits due to economies of scale, knowledge spillovers between local industries, labor market pooling, increased opportunities for local residents, and many other factors. Agglomeration economies in the post-industrialization world mean that cities are the centers of economic activity in modern economies, too. As mentioned before, cities gain resources more quickly, and a city built early in the game can grant a big advantage due to this fact. Cities are built by upgrading an existing settlement using two wheat and three ore. Settlements help you expand, but to realize economies of scale by increasing your economic efficiency, you’ll need cities. Basic economic theory tells us that having more input will yield more output, and on an island where real estate providing those inputs is scarce, it pays to get there first! Realizing Economic Growth via Agglomeration Settlements cost a brick, wood, wheat, and sheep to build, and they allow you to collect more resources when a resource tile they touch has its number rolled.Įxpanding your territory and building on new spaces is quite important, then, especially because each settlement prevents anyone else from building in an adjacent space. In Catan, you need brick and wood to build roads, which let you expand and build more settlements in new places. Some resources are more valuable than others, and the opportunity cost of each one changes depending on the game and your particular economy. Often, this means early cities developed along waterways and in areas with productive soil for agriculture.īut, sheer productivity isn’t everything in life or Catan. ![]() In the real world, especially for developing economies, concentrating production on the most productive land is also the best way to build the foundation for a healthy economy. Those tiles with more likely numbers represent land that is more productive. On average this will yield more resources, putting you at an advantage ceteris paribus. Cities get two.Ĭlearly, it is better to get your settlements and cities on the more commonly rolled numbers. On the board, each resource tile has a number from 2 to 12 on it (except 7 – more on that later), and when that number is rolled, every settlement touching that tile gets one resource from it. This means that possible numbers rolled are between 2 and 12, with the number 7 being the most likely. In Catan, resources are gained by a roll of two six-sided dice each turn. In this article, I aim to shed some light on the economics of Settlers of Catan, and show how it reflects some economics principles and real-world concepts. In Catan, the person who builds the most efficient and fastest-growing economy almost always wins. The game is an interesting one from an economics standpoint, since players must collect and trade resources, invest in the growth of their own miniature economy, barter with others, and make decisions about trade-offs and opportunity costs at every turn. Chances are, you’ve heard of Catan even if you don’t particularly love board games. Catan has nearly limitless replay value - with 3,695,814,682,560,000 ( over 3 quadrillion!) different unique board layouts using just the base rules. Points are gained by building houses (“settlements”), cities, and roads on a heretofore unsettled island rife with natural resources. For the uninitiated, in Catan up to 4 players compete to be the first one with 10 victory points. Klaus Teuber’s Settlers of Catan is a popular board game that has become a mainstay of friendly gatherings across the globe.
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