Objective

Get resources to buy various buildings and development cards, so that you can 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 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 roads
  • 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.
• 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

When you have 10 or more victory points during your turn (including victory points cards), reveal them and the game ends with your victory.