The best Catan house rules, tested in 20,000 bot games

How we tested the house rules

House rules get argued about and almost never measured. We measured three that are common enough to be built into online tables.

Four Veteran bots, Hearthsea’s strongest quick level, played 5,000 four-player games on the standard island for each table: the normal rules, the friendly robber, a discard limit of 9 (discard only on 10 or more cards) and balanced dice. Boards were dealt fresh each game. For each table we counted game length, how often the player ahead at round 12 went on to lose (a comeback), the first seat’s win rate, sevens and discards.

With 5,000 games a table, differences under about 2 points in the percentages are within chance.

A higher discard limit: the rule that changes most

The rulebook makes you discard half your hand on a 7 if you hold more than 7 cards. Raise that to 9 and discards fell from 9.0 to 3.8 a game, 58% fewer. Games got shorter too, 16.0 rounds against 17.5, because players kept the cards they were saving for a city.

It suits tables where people feel robbed by the dice. It also weakens the robber as a check on someone hoarding for a big turn, so the player who builds a city and a development card in one go gets to do it more often.

The friendly robber barely changes the game

The friendly robber can’t be placed on a hex touching a player with 2 or fewer points. It is the most recommended house rule for new players, and in our games it changed almost nothing: 17.2 rounds against 17.5, comebacks 35.8% against 35.0%.

That fits how the robber is used. Players aim it at the leader, and the leader rarely has 2 points. The rule protects a beginner from an early, demoralising steal, which is a fine reason to use it, but it doesn’t rebalance a game.

Balanced dice: fewer droughts, same winners

Balanced dice deal the 36 combinations of two dice like a deck of cards, so every number comes up as often as the odds say over 36 rolls. In our games they nudged comebacks up from 35.0% to 37.1% and left game length and sevens where they were. They don’t make the game fairer for the first seat. What they remove is the game where your 6 never rolls. Our post on balanced dice covers how they work.

Eight more house rules worth trying

• Poverty tokens: take a token on every roll that pays you nothing, and trade tokens for a card at a rate equal to your points. A catch-up rule that rewards players who are behind.
• No robber before round 3: 7s do nothing in the opening rounds, so nobody is robbed before they have built. A gentler friendly robber.
• Re-roll doubles: roll again on doubles, as in Monopoly. More production, faster games.
• Combine 2s and 12s: a 2 or a 12 pays both the 2 and the 12 hexes, so the worst numbers are less dead.
• Farming robber: move the robber to an empty hex to take two of its resource instead of stealing.
• Open hands: everyone plays with cards face up. Good for teaching, and it speeds up trades.
• Trade before the roll: allows trading at the start of your turn, which helps players dodge a 7.
• Random start: roll for who places first instead of choosing. Our bots won 27.8% of games from the first seat against an even 25%, so it is worth not always being the same person.

House rules as table settings

Hearthsea has several of these as settings when you set the table, so nobody has to remember them: the friendly robber, any discard limit from 5 to 12, balanced dice, the robber switched off, a random first player and a turn timer. Set them once in a room and everyone plays by them. The bots play by them too.

Questions people ask

Sources

Our numbers come from 20,000 four-player games between Veteran bots, run on 19 October 2026. House rules described by players:

1. Catan house rules, Colonist blog
2. Best house rules, r/Catan
3. Friendly robber until 3 points, r/Catan
4. What house rules do you have? r/Catan

Keep reading

• Catan rules people get wrong
• Balanced dice vs real dice: what changes
• We simulated 10,000 games of Catan

CATAN is a registered trademark of Catan GmbH. Hearthsea is an independent game and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Catan GmbH or its publishers. Other game names belong to their owners and are used here only to describe and compare.