The 8 Truths of Trading in Catan
Behind the Scenes
Rough Script & Storyboard
The Card
Trading Matters (Early & Often, Back scratches, 2:1)
Focus on Game Objectives (Stick to the Recipe, Swap unnecessary ingredients)
Value Check (Objective Value & Situational Value)
Trade On Your Turn/Terms (Be a Hub, How may I help you?)
Denial Trades (Spend To Defend Your Objectives)
Accepting Offers (Yes On My Turn, What are you going to do with my resource?)
HandshakeTrades (Pinky Swears)
Game Winning Trades
Intro
If YOU are having trouble trading in the settlers of Catan, that’s not good news because the game of Catan is won or lost by trades. Or said another way, those who win more often are those who make better trades. So let’s make better trades.
Trading is a heavily discussed topic in Catan and you’ll find hundreds of articles about trading and in doing so see hundreds of ways that people go about it. But ain’t nobody got time for that.
(side wipe to “Make Better Trades”, with headlines covering type, then meme)
Instead, I’ve condensed all the ideas people have about trading into the most commonly recommended best practises and stuffed it all into this handy dandy reference card,
(card gravity sucking headlines in and the meme, shiny reveal like hearthstone)
which you can download to your phone to reference during a game of Catan, link in the description below.
(show’s right click save image as over the card)
It’s like a cheat sheet with carefully titled concepts that will help you remember what to pay attention to when trading. The titles will make sense as you we through this video and by the end of it, you’ll be able to remember the concepts at a glance.
(showcase the titles, they pop out)
And although this video alone won’t win you any tournaments, it will put you well above average when it comes to thinking about trading.
(normies, YOU, tournament winners)
Concept 1, Trading Matters
If you aren’t trading, you aren’t winning. Period. And that is simply because
the players that are trading and gaining more access to more of the resources they want, meanwhile you are sitting there waiting for the dice to be nice.
Trading is super duper important, especially in the early game because that is when resources are most scarce and the players that build the quickest, grow the quickest.
And a lot of it comes down to politics.
The more you scratch each other’s back, the more likely you’ll continue to do so later. And conversely, the more you make antagonising trades where you piss someone off, the less likely they will trade you again.
Remember, trading is one of the best ways to generate additional & inaccessible resources throughout the game and if you play your cards right (haha, get it), you can consistently get 2:1 trades.
(show a number for cards in hand, then show 2:1 trades and show the number increase in your favor)
Concept #2, Trade for Game Objectives (title)
The first thing on your mind before making a trade is whether it helps your game plan. Are you trying to build roads and expand? Or are you focusing on converting settlements to cities? Whatever it is, you need to make sure your trades are progressing your objective.
Even if you are getting two cards for one in a trade, if those two cards are useless to your objective, you just gave your opponent a card that is useful to them. Always keep in mind what your next objective is and trade accordingly. And at the same time, this means you know what resources you don’t need and can trade those away to get the ones you want.
Hoarding won’t help you. Trying to accomplish too many goals at once is going to slow you down a lot, meanwhile another player
is focusing on completing one task at a time, one road, one settlement, one city and is now generating more resources. Know your game objective first, then trade.
Concept #3, Value Check (title)
When you’re making a trade, you’ll want to know how each player values the cards being discussed. Sometimes that’s not obvious so let’s start by making a baseline of what resources are objectively valuable in your game.
Starting with the number of dots for each resource on the board. You’ll want to count these at the very start of the game and then keep a mental note of which resources are scarce and abundant, and rank them from most scarce to least. Then you’ll want to give ore and wheat a slight bump in value, just because of their intrinsic value to the overall game.
That’s objective value, now let’s get subjective.
If you notice the person you are trading is trying to build a city, then they are that much more eager to get that ore from you and so you should assign more value to your card. And the best way to do that is to notice any excess cards in their hand that is more than what they need to build that city. Those excess cards are easy pickings for 2:1 or even 3:1 deals.
You should also consider whose turn it is. A trade is far more valuable to the person whose turn it is as they can immediately act on the trade. And as such, if you are trading someone a card on their turn, you should assign more value to your card.
If the calculated value of your card is hitting a lot of these checkmarks, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask for 2 or 3 cards in return for it. It’s useful to make clear how valuable your card is to help them accomplish their goal.
Concept #4, Trade On Your Turn/Terms (title)
Ideally you are trading on your turn because it gives you a lot more options, the biggest being that you can build things on your turn and immediately start reaping the rewards.
Another reason is that you are a hub for trades, which means that because you are the only person everyone can trade with, you can be the middleman when other players are trying to trade each other. But remember, you don’t want to be a hub to help other players complete their objectives, so only propose and accept trades that progress your goals.
Proposing a trade is much harder than replying to someone else’s trade, because proposing immediately signals that you are the one looking for something. And as such, you should treat your proposal as a friendly suggestion.
“Hey Ken, if you are trying to build a road there, I have a brick you can use if you’d like.” This is the bread and butter approach to trade proposals. You choose a specific player, you address them by name to establish a good relationship, you have already assessed their needs and are directly addressing them, and you present a resource that is useful to them without specifying the price of that resource.
(typography quote, show brackets about saying name etc)
Then you give them a moment to consider. Meanwhile, you should have a sense of how much that brick is worth to them. You either get a minimum of 2 cards for it, or you get 1 card that is highly useful to your goal. Otherwise, why trade? All your trade should either be a win/lose, in your favour, or a win/win. Rarely should you accept a lose/win trade.
(me talk, half screen 2:1 or good 1:1, slide screen, win/win etc)
Now If they are taking too much time to consider, move on to the next player and offer them the same thing in their context. “Hey Hailey, I have a brick to finish your settlement if you’d like.” Ideally you want to cause a bidding war over your resource. This is not always possible but something you want to look for as it can secure you at least 2 cards in the deal.
(me talk, hailey, bidding war)
When proposing, you should first ask the person who you think is most likely to have the card you want, then make your way around after. If someone bites, you can say,
“I can give you the brick for an ore and a throwaway card.” A throwaway card is any card that is not important for them to complete their immediate objective and thus more expendable. Also notice we didn’t call it an extra card, as that implies they are giving away too much.
If a bidding war ensues, start raising the price, both by number of cards or the specific cards you are looking for. Always prioritise the cards you are looking for over the number of cards.
(me talk, quote, throwaway card visual, prioritise important cards)
If the bidding war doesn’t start or go well, you can reluctantly bring out the big guns, and I mean reluctantly.
“I was hoping we could do a trade deal because I don’t want to use a knight to steal from you.” This might change their mind but if not, always follow through with your threat and knight them. Just don’t present it as a threat. Encourage them again by reminding them that the knight will stop them from getting a lot of resources and that this trade would just make things easier. This should be a last resort as it will antagonise the player and make trading harder with them later.
(me talk, quote, knight about to stab player, stabs player, resource falls out, me talk)
Let’s talk ports real quick. If you have a 2:1 sheep port, you can only use it on your turn. And not only that, you can use it to trade other players. “If someone wants to use my sheep port, you can give me 2 sheep and an ore for whatever card you want.” This is assuming you are looking for ore. This basically has your opponent pay for the cost of your sheep port and both of you get a resource you want. Just be careful to check who is getting the better side of this deal. If they are, you can suggest 2 sheep, an ore and a throwaway card to balance the deal. This is still easier for them than trying to trade 4 of a kind to the bank.
(me talk, port math visual)
As a side note, try to prioritise trading with players who are losing because they are less of a threat to you. And if the deals with them are not great, it’s not a big deal. Oh and after a successful trade,
leave a positive review on the trade with the player. This encourages smoother future trading and subtly builds a sense of alliance.
(yelp review, “Ken is a good trader, I’m glad I traded with him. Would trade again!”)
If nothing else, remember this. The most important thing when it comes to trading is understanding what is important to the other player. If a player with minimal access to wood is engaged in a battle for the longest road, they will pay more for wood. If a player has a 2:1 port and plenty of access to resources, they are hard to trade with. If a player gets anxious and announces that all they need is a wheat, they are a prime target for deals.
(me talk)
Concept #5, Trade Denial (ttitle)
Now as your turn ends, so does your incentive to trade. But not completely, now is the time to play defence. If another player is racing you to a settlement position that you consider important, then you must deny them getting the trades they want to make that happen. Even if it means you do a lose/win trade. It’s okay to give away cards to do this because board position is more important than losing a card or two. Besides, your turn just ended which means you have several more turns of dice rolls to get some cards back.
Keep an eye on the players who are a threat to your board position and what cards they are looking for, if an offer comes up with those resources, be the first to reply so that you get first dibs.
You can respond with a quick “Oh you’re trading brick?” and then wait and see if your opponent tries to interject.
(third player thought bubble turns into a speech bubble)
If they do, immediately give the person who proposed the trade a better offer, like a 2:1 with throwaway cards to stop your opponent from getting that resource. Even if they don’t take the trade, the price of the trade has now increased and will cost your opponent more to get that resource from them.
And finally, collusion trading. If a competitor is a danger to your board position, you better start looking for their competitor and present yourself as an ally. The enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of thing, and try to focus on trades with them.
Concept #6, Being Offered Trades
If someone directly proposes a trade with you on their turn, it’s okay to say no if it’s not appealing to you. But frame it as a yes. “Yeah for sure, we can do that trade on my turn.” This allows you more options as your turn comes around and you may not need to trade after all.
(p2 asking for trade, you say “yes” but in small text “on my turn”)
If someone directly proposes a trade with you on their turn, like “my wood for your wheat”, and that wood is a card you want. You want to reply quickly with something like, “that sounds good, what are you going to do with the wheat?” This puts them on the backfoot and they must now answer to you. They have already stated their want for wheat, now it is a matter of how valuable that wheat is to them compared to how valuable the wood is to you.
Don’t be too combative about accepting trades, you want people to be open to trading with you and you won’t always get perfect trades.
(me talk)
Concept #7, Handshake Trades
This is an assortment of trading ideas that you can use as trading incentives. None of these are in the rules and are more of a handshake agreement. They should be used sparingly and wisely as they are hard promises to keep and therefore potentially diplomatic disasters. But, they can also be strong incentives if you REALLY need to secure a trade. It’s best to use these early to secure critical resources early. For example,
“I can also promise to move the robber off of you the next time I knight or roll a 7.”
(trade + robber)
“I can also promise I won’t robber or knight you the next time I knight or roll a 7.”
(trade + robber)
“I can also promise to trade you a bonus card the next time we trade.”
(trade + bonus blank card)
“I can also promise to not trade Ken so that he can't build a road there.”
(trade + X on a road)
“I will build away from you if you give me that wood.”
(trade + road change, one road is dotted outline)
“I will let you use my port for cheap for the rest of the game.”
(trade + port sale)
And so on. If you have ideas for handshake trades be sure to share them in the comments.
Concept #8, Game Winning Trades
The closer you are to winning the game, the harder it is to get favourable trades. And as such, you should expect to have more lose/win trades as long as it is helping you complete game objectives.
(you, other players ignoring you)
Don’t fall for desperation traps, you will naturally get anxious about how close you are to winning and may accept deals without paying attention to the consequences.
(drool at trade request)
Cards are in abundance at this point and circulation might be wild and crazy or completely dead, either way pay close attention to what you need to win. What is the least number of resources needed to secure victory? And what are they exactly? Everything else is a throwaway resource that you can trade to get that final resource you need for a victory point.
Now this might seem like a lot to take in but really it’s not something you have to memorise. It’s more of an awareness game. Are you aware of what your next game objective is? Are you aware of the value of the resources in play? Are you aware of what your opponent is looking for? Keep these in mind as you trade throughout the game and the game will play out in your favour, unlike dice rolls am I right? The dice in Catan are notorious for never landing on your numbers, and that randomness is really annoying for a lot of players. Watch this video next for a bunch of fun and interesting ways you can fix the randomness of Catan. Until next time, happy trading!