Opening placement

1. Count the odds

With two dice, some numbers come up far more often than others. Each tile shows its number on a token. 6 and 8 are the best, 2 and 12 the worst.

Number	Ways to roll it	Chance per roll
6 and 8	5 of 36	about 14%
5 and 9	4 of 36	about 11%
4 and 10	3 of 36	about 8%
3 and 11	2 of 36	about 6%
2 and 12	1 of 36	about 3%
7 (the robber)	6 of 36	about 17%

Add up the chances for the three tiles around a corner. A corner touching a 6, an 8 and a 5 collects on about 39% of rolls. A corner on 2, 12 and 11 collects on about 11%.

2. Balance your resources

A great number on the wrong resource can still stall you. Think about what you'll build first:

• Wood and brick for roads and settlements. This is the expansion plan, and it chases Longest Road.
• Ore and wheat for cities and development cards. This is the city plan, slower to start and strong late. It's how Juno plays.
• Sheep goes into settlements and development cards. It's easy to have too much of.

Between your two settlements, try to touch at least four of the five resources.

3. Use your second settlement

Your second settlement pays you one card of each resource around it straight away. Pick it partly for those cards: if your first settlement has no brick, a second one on brick lets you build a road on your first turn.

4. Leave room to grow

Point your roads toward open corners you can actually reach, ideally ones that will still be free in a few turns. If a rival is clearly heading for a spot, taking it first is strong, but it starts a grudge. Taking the corner someone was building toward is one of the things the rivals resent most.

5. Think about harbors

A settlement on a harbor lets you trade with the bank at 3 for 1, or 2 for 1 for one resource. If you have lots of one resource, its 2-for-1 harbor makes it worth far more. Harbors also matter more in Grudge Isle than you'd expect: when rivals stop trading with you, the bank still will.