The Fastest Victories in Catan (Part 2/2) - The Perfection

Hello and welcome to the second part of The Fastest Victories in Catan. This series discusses how fast you can win a Catan game in a perfect situation where the board, the dice, the dev. cards and other players' decisions all happen in your favour. First and foremost, if you somehow arrive here without reading Part 1, we recommend you do it. Additionally, we apply 02 rules to make trading fairer and more strategic.

• You can only conduct domestic trade with each of your opponents once per turn. That means you have a maximum of 02 domestic trades per turn in a 3-player game, and 03 domestic trades per turn in a 4-player one.

• Domestic trades must have ratios lower than what the bank offers in maritime trades. For example a "04 Brick for 01 Sheep" deal between players is always illegal; however, a "03 Brick + 03 Wood for 01 Sheep" one is allowed as long as you don't have any 2:1 Brick, 2:1 Wood, or 3:1 port.

4-Player scenario

We begin with the scenario for four players because the duration is shorter and the game ends in fewer turns. Overall it is a bit easier for you to comprehend compared to 3-player. As the majority of resources required to win are Sheep, Wheat, and Ore, those shall be collected from the dice rolls. Meanwhile, we make sure the starting settlements yield all the Brick and Wood we need.

In the slideshow are photos of the board before and after players make their first and second placements. We flip unrelated pieces face-down so you can focus better on the happenings (03 pictures).

The turn order is Red -> Green -> Blue -> White, anti-clockwise. After everyone has collected resources from their second starting settlement, the battle is ready.

In the 1st turn (04 pictures), Red rolls a 10. All players collect resources accordingly.

>>Red trades Green 01 Wood for 02 Wheat.

>>Red trades White 01 Wood for 02 Brick + 01 Sheep + 01 Ore.

>>Red trades Blue 01 Sheep + 03 Wheat + 02 Ore for 01 Brick.

Red then ends their turn, passing the dice to Green.

In the 2nd turn (04 pictures), Green rolls another 10. All players collect resources.

>>Green trades Red 01 Wheat for 03 Brick.

>>Green trades White 01 Wood for 01 Sheep.

>>Green trades Blue 03 Brick + 02 Wood + 01 Sheep + 02 Wheat for 01 Ore.

Green then ends their turn, passing the dice to Blue.

In the 3rd turn (04 pictures), Blue rolls an 8. Red and White collect 02 Ore each.

>>Blue trades Red 01 Sheep for 02 Wheat + 02 Ore.

>>Blue trades White 01 Wheat for 02 Wood + 02 Ore.

>>Blue goes on to spend 25 resources including 04 Brick + 04 Wood + 06 Sheep + 06 Wheat + 05 Ore to buy 03 roads, 01 settlement, and 05 dev. cards.

It turns out Blue has won the game even before the 4th player has a chance to take their turn. Blue's 10 VPs consist of 03 settlements, the Longest Road, and 05 Victory Point cards. The fastest 4-player base game of Catan ends after 03 dice rolls only.

3-Player Scenario

Although it sounds plausible in theory, a 3-player Catan game can never finish within the first round. With 09 starting resources and the maximum productivity of 06 resources per turn, the raw number of resources will surely meet your requirement after 03 dice rolls. However, they are not diverse enough to supply your demand for multiple types of resources. As a result, the best option is to win in the first turn of the second round. Applying the same principle, we get all the Brick and Wood needed right from the starting settlements while leaving Sheep, Wheat, and Ore for later.

The slideshow illustrates the board before and after players make their first and second placements (03 pictures).

The turn order is Red -> Green -> Blue, anti-clockwise. Green only picks 9-10-Port as their second settlement for the gimmicky purpose, which will be revealed later. Also, the 2:1 Brick port is shown to clarify Green will be trading legally.

In the 1st turn (04 pictures), Red rolls a 10. All players collect resources accordingly.

>>Red trades Green 01 Wheat for 03 Sheep + 01 Ore.

>>Red trades Blue 01 Ore for 01 Brick + 01 Wood + 01 Sheep + 02 Wheat.

Red goes on to spend 02 Brick + 02 Wood + 02 Sheep + 02 Wheat + 01 Ore to buy 01 road, 01 settlement, 01 dev. card.

Red then ends their turn. Green is next.

In the 2nd turn (03 pictures), Green rolls 10 again. All players collect resources.

>>Green trades Blue 01 Wheat for 01 Sheep + 01 Ore.

>>Green trades Red 03 Sheep + 01 Ore for 01 Wheat.

Green then ends their turn, passing the dice to Blue.

In the 3rd turn (03 pictures), Blue rolls yet another 10. All players collect resources.

>>Blue trades Green 01 Wheat for 02 Sheep.

>>Blue trades Red 03 Sheep + 02 Wheat for 01 Ore.

Blue then ends their turn, passing the dice to Red.

In the 4th turn (04 pictures), Red rolls an 8. Red collects 03 Ore while Blue gets 01.

>>Red trades Green 01 Sheep for 02 Wheat.

>>Red trades Blue 01 Sheep for 02 Ore.

>>Red activate the dev. card which is a Road Building. They connect their road segments to take the Longest Road.

>>Red goes on to spend 05 Sheep + 05 Wheat + 05 Ore to buy 05 dev. cards.

Red declares victory with 10 VPs from 03 settlements, the Longest Road, and 05 Victory Point cards. Hadn't they built a settlement on the 8 Ore hex, they wouldn't have had enough Ore in the final turn. By the way, Green placed their second settlement on 9-10-Port to intentionally reduce the number of starting resources. Doing so allows all three players to retain one and only one Sheep in their hands when the game concludes. The fastest 3-player base game of Catan ends after only 04 dice rolls.

We really appreciate the fact that you have spent your time digesting our over-the-top controversial 2-part series. Scenarios like these would and should never happen in real life. Despite this, they help improve your logical thinking a lot, similar to solving those chess quizzes. If you have any questions or feedback, please leave them in the comment section below. Once again, thank you for reading our article!