How to score Catan
Catan is a race to 10 victory points: 1 for each settlement, 2 for each city, 2 each for Longest Road and Largest Army, and 1 for each victory point card. You win the moment you have 10 on your own turn. The Scorepad below works as a Catan score tracker for the final count.
- 3 to 4 players
- About 60 to 120 minutes
- 10 points, on your turn
- Two bonus cards worth 2
Tabletales is free on iPhone and iPad.
This is the real Scorepad, live, on Highest wins: settlements, cities and bonus cards, added on the keypad.
Catan
- BGG #625
- 60 to 120 min
A trading and building game: roll for resources, trade with the table, and turn roads into settlements and settlements into cities. Two bonus cards change hands along the way, and a few points stay hidden until the end.
Year, players, time and rank from BoardGameGeek.
How to play Catan, in brief
Your settlements on a hexagon island gather resources, which you trade and spend on roads, more settlements and cities. The first to have 10 victory points on their own turn wins.
- Place your first settlementsBuild the island. Each player starts with 2 settlements and 2 roads on it.
- Roll for resourcesStart your turn by rolling two dice. Each hex with that number gives a card to every settlement on its corners, and 2 to a city.
- Trade and buildTrade with other players, or 4 of a kind with the bank for 1. Then build roads, settlements and cities, or buy development cards.
- Look out for a 7A 7 pays nothing. Anyone holding more than 7 cards discards half, and you move the robber onto a hex, which stops it paying out, and steal a card from a player there.
Buildings, two bonus cards, and a few hidden points.
Your points are on the board in front of everyone, except the victory point cards in your hand. Everyone starts with 2 settlements, so everyone starts on 2 points.
What scores
| Piece or card | Points |
|---|---|
| Each settlement | 1 |
| Each cityIt replaces a settlement, so an upgrade adds 1 point, not 2 | 2 |
| Longest RoadFirst to an unbroken road of 5 or more; a longer road takes it | 2 |
| Largest ArmyFirst to play 3 knights; more knights played takes it | 2 |
| Each victory point cardKept hidden until you reach 10 or the game ends | 1 |
- Count the board1 for each settlement and 2 for each city. A city sits where a settlement was, so it is worth 2 in all.
- Add the bonus cardsLongest Road and Largest Army are worth 2 each, to whoever holds them right now. Either can change hands.
- Add the hidden pointsEach victory point card is 1 point. Turn them over on your turn to reach 10, or show them once someone wins.
- Win on your own turnThe game ends the moment a player has 10 points during their own turn. There is no tie, because only one player can be taking a turn.
Dev builds a city and reaches 10.
Three players. On his turn Dev, sitting on 9, upgrades a settlement to his third city. That is 10 on his own turn, so the game ends there. This is the game on the Scorepad above.
| Player | Settlements, cities, then cards | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Dev | 2 settlements, 3 cities, Longest Road2 + 6 + 2 | 10 |
| You | 3 settlements, 2 cities, Largest Army3 + 4 + 2 | 9 |
| Mara | 4 settlements, 1 city, and a point card shown at the end4 + 2 + 1 | 7 |
The board keeps the race. Tabletales keeps the result.
Tabletales is a scorepad and scrapbook for game night. In Catan you count the points on the board. When the game ends, type each player’s count: Tabletales adds it up, marks the winner and saves the game with the night.
- Count it on the keypadType each player’s count, or type it the way you read the board (2 + 6 + 2) and Tabletales adds it up.
- 10 is on the padSet Play to a score at 10 and the goal sits at the top of the Scorepad. The app does not know whose turn it is, so the table calls the win.
- Catan gets its own pageHow many times you have played, who with, and who wins most, all built from the nights you save.
- And the night is keptSave it with who played and a photo of the island. The photos stay with the game they belong to.
- Everyone who was there
- Photos from the table
- Catan, with its scores
Common Catan scoring mistakes
- Counting a city as 3The city replaces the settlement, so it is worth 2 in all.
- Winning on someone else’s turnEven if a bonus card moves to you and puts you on 10, you wait for your own turn to claim it.
- Counting every branch of a roadOnly the single longest unbroken line counts toward Longest Road.
- Handing a cut road’s card to a tieIf the holder is no longer longest and two or more others tie for it, the card is set aside until one road is clearly longest.
Catan scoring, answered
- How many points do you need to win Catan?
- 10 victory points, and you have to have them during your own turn. The game ends the moment you do.
- How many victory points is a city in Catan?
- 2. A city replaces one of your settlements, so upgrading adds 1 point to your total.
- How many points are Longest Road and Largest Army worth?
- 2 each. Longest Road needs an unbroken road of at least 5 segments, Largest Army needs 3 knights played, and either moves to anyone who beats it.
Catan score sheet
A victory point tracker for up to four players: each kind of point on its own line, with the total at the bottom. Fill it in pencil, since bonus cards change hands.
Score another game
These are the base game rules for 3 or 4 players, from the 2020 printing on catan.com. A review of the 2025 sixth edition reports the rules unchanged. Rules checked on 19 October 2026 against the Game Rules & Almanac, UltraBoardGames and Wikipedia. Catan is a trademark of Catan GmbH. Tabletales is not affiliated with it.
Keep score tonight. Keep the night for good.
Tabletales adds up every hand, then saves the whole night: the games, the scores, the photos and who was there.
