Learn The Catan Placement Traps That Kill Your Games

Here is the lesson of the week, and it's a super important one - Avoiding the placement traps that hurt your game immensely!
Your ability to consistently calculate placements with good fundamentals and is key.
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- DandyDrew
Looking forward to hearing your successes!
- DandyDrew

[@Apfelstrudl]

Awesome.. One of the best catan videos on KZbin

[@baller34725]

I don't think you can leave the 8-5-3 to purple, gotta take that as 4th pick and point up to the 3:1. And then you pair that with the 8-3-4 and point left to get to the 8-10.

[@rollwithem]

I would do this move without much debate. I wouldn't even have considered the move 4th position actually made in the game. 8-5-3 up, 8-4-3 left

[@sonny-spencer]

@@rollwithem I agree, but I think the 8 4 3 road is down. More flex. Wheat port is solid, 3:1 with doubling your wood production to keep wood : brick ratio close 1:1. You'll still get the 8 10, just a little later in the game. It's marginal either way.

[@insertphrasehere15]

this was exactly my picks. You still have lots of southward expansion, but it blocks the god set up that purple gets otherwise.

[@SuckMyT0e]

I would have taken 8 5 3 and 9 6 12

[@Sykar24]

Exactly this.

[@connorpierce2734]

You should make a series breaking down mistake new players tend to make and what your line of thinking should be to avoid making those mistakes. Loved the video! Keep it up!

[@dandydrew]

Hold my beer

[@seanmcdonald1124]

Very instructive video. Would love to see more of this! I recently discovered Catan about 6 months ago and it's safe to say now I'm fully addicted to it!

[@dandydrew]

Welcome to the club!

[@mikewilliams7143]

Love this sort of content Drew please keep it coming! I think 2024 is about to be a wild year for catan 💪

[@AntidoteNL]

Thanks for this speed course on placement! In the pause moment I would go for 9 4 11 point left (to possibly get to the 5 or 6 ore later on) and the 8 3 4. This way I can play for road.

[@Leinnn]

4:40 8-3-10 point brick port 1st placement > 6-9-12 point toward 12-11 2nd placement for the 2 brick 1 wood and blow white on 2:1 brick port

[@Leinnn]

lol I got it right :D

[@fernandoochoa4516]

For fourth i was thinking 358 to deny that spot from white/purple (pointing right) and as second spot i picned 834 pointing down towards the wheat port, that with the road in hand could take away the 8/10 from black+ tons of wheat to trade on the port. No ore at the beggining, but you could either trade it or port for it to build to 10

[@CosmicIceCream]

These were my picks as well for similar reasons, I don't think going oreless hurts you very much given you'd be the wheat king and can probably get the wheat port uncontested. But I also think first position should have taken the 834 pointing down as it's solid production that is also super flexible - they can go either wheat port or 3:1 (or both), neither placement is going to get plowed, and there are a lot of good or at least ok 2nd placement spots for that position.

[@oom_boudewijns6920]

@@CosmicIceCream Ichose that as well, i think we are better than this kid on KZbin lmao. Our pick is better

[@gteche]

This is super helpful. Thank you.

[@kennykwong1028]

Thanks man. I really need to work on my road placements. So many inefficient starts cuz of it

[@mikewilliams7143]

I do agree your road setup theory the most in this spot. It essentially destroys anyone’s chance of fighting for road. Cities could be an issue, but with the brick port you’re in a pretty fantastic spot. 8/5/3 is a great defensive pick, but I don’t see that placement winning often

[@davidkooyman2359]

Great content, from you and Hubbsy. What a random game... Black taking army with no Ore or Port.... And yet they were close to winning with the longest road as well (one road more road gave them 10 roads, and assuming they have a VP in hand, then they have the win!)

[@Jojogrec]

My placements for fourth position would have been 3-8-5 and 10-3-8. The main reason for taking the 10-3-8 instead of the 3-8-4 is that it would allow me the possibility to get the brick port in addition to the wheat port and the 8-4, as well as preventing the risk of white settling on the brick port before I could settle on the 10-8, making me completely lose out on ore production. But I'd also like to have gain at least 2 from my only source of ore in the mid game, to combine with my strong wheat production, and the 10-8 wouldn't be the best choice for a city and it's even possible that someone else could take it. (The same could however be said about the 8-4, instead removing the potential wood source.)

[@mikewilliams7143]

I am considering 2/9/4 pointing left and 8/4/3 pointing left with a starting road.. road settle on 5/2 as first settlement. 8/10 and 6/2 are great settlements for later in the game with a chance to connect road thru middle or around left edge of board

[@arop9756]

Does Colonist have a tool for setting up the board as the users choose? Would be really awesome to be able to play the same board multiple times

[@ColeCorkran-li6mi]

Hey dandy great video. I know there is a risk of black with 10 wood rolling on the first turn and getting plowed before you can get to the wood port but if that doesn’t happen I think 3, 5, 8 right and 6, 9, 12 is a great setup. Settle 10 9 for longest road connect eventually after you settle wood port with free road at the start. You have at least 5 pips of all resources except for ore from the get go. Lmk!!

[@Mangobeans]

White is in dire need of wheat. They're always building on the 8 wheat if there's an open spot

[@DidierPilon]

@@MangobeansI think the risk is too high to ever gamble it, but I don’t think they’ll “always” do that. Even at top level, different players play very differently.

[@foryoutubecomments2029]

yo dandy, it's josh from Lollapalooza! my picks as 4th would be 8 3 5 point road right (monopolize the rare wheat, maybe snipe the wood port if it's open w the starting road), then 8-3-4 road down (let's you plow to wood port and nice 10 wood if open, you have an uncontested 3:1 port on bottom of board so nbd not pointing up on first settlemenet, and wheat port is nice with double 3 wheats, plus you likely have space to expand to the 10 ore)

[@rollwithem]

Isn't 6-9-12 very likely to be open for black at the end of this sequence? Beating you to the plow?

[@loafes1352]

I play a lot of 1-1 Catan and one my favourite things to do is to bait first into plowing when it actually hurts their game. Players froth when they can plow you but sometimes it hurts them. Did it the other day where I pointed to a strong spot knowing he would take the starting plow only now he was playing without wheat and I had the whole board to myself

[@Sez___]

I was thinking of locking down that 8-10 wheat wood. Probably that 8-10-3 maybe the 3-4-8. You start on a wood and with a single road and settlement you can get the brick or wheat port and then the kther later one. You csn play however you want. You'll have tons of brick and decne twood with the 4 wood just around the corner snd can olay for road. With the 8 and 3 on wheat snd 10 on stone you can go for dev cards and citys because you have access to a combination of 3 ports

[@jonathandeman9051]

I was debating on pairing the 3 5 8 with either the 10 8 3 or the 8 3 4, in the end I probably would go for the wood since it is a little faster and there is a lot of ore on the board, white will go 8 10 and hopefully go for 9 10 with wood port after, leaving the 8 10 but otherwise it's fine and you can go 4 11 port after getting the wheat port

[@Jaylevation]

I like this video a lot! This is essentially a Catan puzzle that kinda forced me to deeply think about all 8 placements, several times actually :') I agree with most of what you said but as 4th I'd definitely take the 853 on top (best wheat and sheep; although double shared so blocked a lot) and take the 843 with the starting road towards the 810 (brick ore that no one is gonna take), later on taking the very nice wheat port. In my opinion, longest road is possible. The upper settlement goes to the 3:1 port. I wonder why you opted for occupying the whole bottom of the board instead. Is it because of number diversity? My setup heavily relies on 8s and 3s which -tbh- is a weakness. Would love to read your thoughts about this.

[@dandydrew]

853 is a bit of a trap imo and a bit too defensive for my own taste. I want to find a setup that gives me a sure win chance to take road and it feels like the 853 is putting you into a build to 10 situation. If you are picking a win con you need to be hyper focused on the setup that secures it and my road idea does just that.

[@RenphOfficial]

For first example as 4th I'd pick 385 pointing right, then 834 pointing down for wheat port since we have a strong wheat game. Road in hand for black plow. Edit: WIth new information about white probably taking the wood port settle the only change I'd make is pointing up with my 385 settle. Edit 2: With concept of road as win con I'd take 1038 pointing left for brick port and 10 9 pointing left to settle at 6912.

[@andeol92]

I would feel a bit more comfortable with the 8-10 right + 3-8-10 left: _sheep is easy to trade early on this board _you still have access to a lot of good spots early/mid, and way faster than other players will. _you can choose either to a road game or to dev game later with your 3 strong ports (wheat, brick and wood). _it forces other players to fight for wheat, which means purple will be robbed a lot _it can force black to go for a really bad second spot (like 3 wheat port point left or 5-2 port point up), which will hurt other ows players

[@insertphrasehere15]

before looking at your picks... I would go 853 and 843. I don't think anyone would place on the 8-10 (purple and white don't need the ore, and black doesn't want the brick, so you get a prime first settle spot that gives you great ratios and production to take over the game.

[@Znernicus]

as 4th, I like 835 on top and 834 on the bottom, I expect purple might take 4911 for maximum OWS, white takes the 810 wood port because they still need wheat and black is in a bad spot at the end of it all with no good wheat spots available

[@manu-ey3ke]

385 double wheet as first pick, point up . Second pick i think is the 10 3 8 owb point right. I think the 8brick and 4 wood will be open. But you start without wood… but you have strongest wheet, sheep and brick. Would love to get a response. :)

[@manu-ey3ke]

Whatch till the end now. Isnt there a lot of value in denying purpel the 8 wheat? If hes good he will lock the bord with the 4w 9, 11 s, whitebtakes the 8 10 and black doesnt get wheet and hat to take somthing like the 6 2. With my setup you likely wont get army or road, but you ll hava all 5 recources once you build on the 84, and pretty good numbers. Every other player will have only 3 or 4 recources, without getting to the 5th. But i gues if they are good traders it could work out fore them. What are you guys thinking?

[@salmas3242]

As 4th I would have gone 843 853 taking into account the wheat port and and a potential settle on the 810, that pretty much forces purple to take 4911 or 810

[@jerdab]

I’m new to this. What does OWS mean?

[@ThonanTheFirst]

I would pick the 2:1 wood port, 810 and after the 6912, lots of wood and brick, start with a road and make my way to the 358 double wheat sheep with the road in hand

[@Mythkos]

Pos4 I would have went 8/5/3 Wheat, and 3/4/8 starting with a road in the bottom left pointing down for the ports. Gives a good game for Wheat port, and extra settle to the 3/1 port in lieu of having Ore

[@DiscombobulatingName]

I'd take the 9-4-11 and the the 8-4-3 starting road. Lets me get moving on the board fast towards the 8-10 which should be available, kills the 9 sheep, space on the bottom the board.

[@Hoyawolfgang]

As fourth player I’d pick the 3,8,5 pointing to the 8, 10, then the 6,9,12 pointing to the coast... hoping to plough player 3 ? Also trusting that they wouldn’t double up on lumber and brick by going on the 8,4

[@climbscience4813]

Okay, here is my pick: The 8-10 with the wood port and the 6-9-12. Number-wise this is just very good and the 2 woods with the port seem a good combination to me. Let's see what the result of the video is.

[@kwikstah]

In 4th, I picked 3-8-5 point up, then 10-3-8 point left. My thinking was that I would take advantage of the wheat port.

[@emilinochkin9003]

I would have taken 2-4-9 left + 8-4-3 left as last position. After getting a 3:1 you got all 5 resources and a nice port. Then 8-10. High production and very flexible. You can fight either road or army or even double play in some cases.

[@Applefanatic1000]

I have player 4 going 8-5-3 (road up towards 3:1) on their first placement and then 10-8-3 (road down towards the 3:1 and wheat port).

[@brentsmelser]

Honest question: I thought during set up an initial placement that you could put a settlement one path away from another settlement. If I was red, I’d go 8-5-10

[@kaas1993126]

I was thinking 8-5-3 up and 8-4-3 left to the 8-10. And after that go wheatport. Mainly because you would take the best ows potential away from purple and white with that. Tho I get the argument of not having a very strong wincondition yourself that way.

[@woop7]

I'm at the 4th position spot, funny enough in my calculation I picked the exact same spots the players have but i did point up with the 5 9 10. But anyway at 4th Id likely go with the 835 and 8310 and play off the brick and wheat port.

[@leafofufo3264]

3wh/8wh/5s point right, 8b/4w/3wh point to the left. starting road plow black to wood port

[@augustinwai6399]

For fourth, I'd take the 8-10 wood port then point to the 10-9 wood. Second placement 8-3-10 to start with three resources and point left towards the brick port. This gives purple the 8-3-5 for their dream setup but I think it ensures that they are always going to be blocked in key locations that can hurt namely being the 6 ore or the 5 sheep. White is likely to take the 6-9-12 as they already are pointing to the brick port and then point their road right to the 9 ore port as they already have the 5-10 ore. What we are banking on is that they will have no access to wheat and the other players should not trade them wheat as they will look scary with access to two ports where they already have good starting positions. Black will place 9-11-3 and have the option to point upwards to 4-5-11 or to their right. They get a lot of flexibility and likely the longest road. Red's game plan would be to deny access to the brick port as a priority, build a settlement on the 10-9 wood, and then get that 8-4 brick wood area. The point is that they look like they are in the weakest position, are unlikely to be robbed from, and no one has an incentive to take their settle spots except for the brick port fight in the beginning where the board should deny white. The win con would be to fight for longest road by expanding along the bottom of the board, while having easy access to sheep via trade and the ability to use the wood port.

[@augustinwai6399]

After seeing your suggestion, I see I was thinking along the same lines of getting the longest road win condition with a lot of space at the bottom of the board but yeah the 6-9-12 is definitely a superior idea. Let white take the responsibility to block the wood port for black while it's definitely beneficial for them as well.

[@sonny-spencer]

8 5 3 point up, then 8 4 3 point down. A little risky if 8's don't roll, but 8 10 (brick/ore) should be open for later and wheat port is nice, especially when those 3's roll late game!

[@insertphrasehere15]

843 point left would be my pick. Get to the 8-10 before white can plow you, get on the ore so that you can build an early city when the 10 rolls a couple times.

[@CoreggonOfficial]

8-10-3 + 6-9-12 pointing to both brick and ore port, building the brick port first, thats what I would do as 4th

[@joegerhardstein7316]

No 6 9 3. Unclear how to proceed

[@solomonbailey6327]

As 4th id pick 9 2 4 left and 8 4 3 down opening up the 8 10 but I’m not really sure if anyone takes in since that would kill the brick port

[@JamiePopple]

I picked 3,8,5 and 10,3,8 pointing to the wheat port

[@risenjoker923]

So the tips at the end might make sense if you are playing against mid to high level players. But right now the people i play in rank will just not trade period. So getting the to the brick port would take half the game.

[@oralon99]

As 4 th I picked tbe 8,5,3 then the 8,4,3. If I get the 8,10 then it is a great setup

[@chucknorristroll]

I was at 1038, 4511, but I agree with you having seen your arguments

[@rollwithem]

I think the 8-10-3 right, 6-9-12 right approach Dandy suggested in the video still loses to purple.

[@CosmicIceCream]

I think so, too. It feels like a mistake to leave the 358 to purple, that side by side is a mean city and dev machine that's just too good. Then again, Dandy is a far better player than me, so what do I know? :)

[@insertphrasehere15]

@@CosmicIceCream Probably you can win quicker with road and more settlement options... looks like purple would have to fight for army quite hard, which slows the game down, but my pick was the 853 up and the 843 left.

[@YoungYonk]

853 and 843 take free road settle on 8-10 and eventually get to wheat port and expand on the bottom

[@joecamerer2865]

3/5/8 point right and 3/4/8 up to the left. I could also see 6/9/12 as second pick

[@arjen3112]

8 5 3 right and 3 4 8 left. You will start with a road to plow black and probably win the race to 8 10 for an ore spot

[@CosmicIceCream]

Ooh, I didn't see that opening but I really like it. Only risk is losing 8 10 to a starting settle.

[@ryantimestrategy]

So would you take the 8/5/10 as the first pick?

[@amagicalpotato]

Yeah red really dicked when he shoulda ducked. I would have started with the 8-10-3 too but would it be a good Idea to shoot southeast to the ports down there?

[@isaacyoung1868]

i picked 6/9/12 followed by 10/8/3.. both pointing left. all in on brick port

[@isaacyoung1868]

after watching further, very pleased with myself that you had the same idea lol!

[@calebshort2169]

I would take the 4w-5s-11s point right first then I’d take the 8b-3w-10o point left

[@Messageinabottleproductions]

I think in 4th I go 8,5,3 up and then 6,9,12 right I'm ready to build a road up to the 3,8 port and try to beat Purple to it.

[@charles-olivierfortier7719]

3 8 5 to the right and then 3 8 4 down (you get road so you can plow black for 2-1 wood port)

[@SuckMyT0e]

But then black will just take 6 9 12 lol

[@slayer7214]

I would go for 8-5-3 (road up) + 8-10-3 (road towards wheat port) as a 4th player

[@Jojogrec]

With how I've made the placements in my head, there isn't really any isn't really any great spot for player 1; they would always end up with a subpar second spot, being in the worst position (or tied for meh) of the 4. But I may have missed some possibilities.

[@MrPiGuy314]

I’m looking at the 8-5-3 point up then the 8-10-3 point left. I like this but am concerned with the duplicate numbers.

[@connorlokey107]

I liked 8 3 10 as a first pick. Is that crazy?

[@Kalexand]

i think there is a case for 8 10 3 / 8 5 3 with wheat and brick port

[@binuuu6751]

For some reason I thought of taking the 10, 3, 8 and then the 8,10? Having two 2:1 ports? idk

[@matthewjohnson9413]

What is OWS?

[@mrlove1528]

I would have picked 358 point up and 348 point down and take the free road to beat purple to the 3:1 port. It's a worse setup for purple, who will probably go 4 9 11, and white will still pick the 8 10. Black has a terrible setup irrespective of the last pick.

[@SuperSorcerer]

ב"ה As 4th I would take 8-10-3 left to the brick port and second is 6-9-12 right to the 3:1 port

[@Mukhaliniov]

i would have picked 3 8 5 and then 3 4 8 for the road to plow back into the wood port

[@boostin_blue_5744]

First 3-8-5 up to 3:1, second 6-9-12 left

[@TheBaron48]

4:40 i picked 5 4 11 to the 6 11 and 8 4 3 to the 3:1 port

[@oscarw1060]

Noob here but I'd probably go 6-9-12 and 10-3-8 and go for brick port

[@mattymin10]

im so good i picked everthing right!!!

[@mattymin10]

but also maybe thoguht 8 5 3 potential too but if whote takes i thnk its fine

[@zachegan1458]

At 4th I'd go 8/3/4 with a road down and then 8/10 to the right.

[@outdoors3659]

3 10 8 point left for first settle, 9 4 2 point up for 2nd

[@haynespaynes]

I'd take the Wood Port to the 9 10 then the 8 3 4 to the 4 11, you could Port a Lot of Wood and wouldn't have to race anyone.

[@skoriox6868]

1. 10,3,8 left 2. 2,4,9 left

[@nionioniosmeg]

I picked 8103 then 6912

[@KaneYork]

My answer: 385 left, 384 down

[@jordanmartin1932]

8103 853. Play off the wheat port and brick port was my choice in 4th.

[@jordanmartin1932]

your idea is better though. Right idea on the brick port, and allows you to take road which I missed.

[@jonni88100]

8/5/3 and 8/3/10

[@user-ox3ov2qt5o]

385 up 384 left

[@-JoMar28-]

Like, comment, learn

[@YoungYonk]

I miss Hubbsywubbs!

[@showtell3621]

385 into 384

[@theah771]

I'm so confused.

[@weaponizedpinata6398]

8 5 3 then 10 83