The Catan box seen at an angle: red and yellow box with the gold CATAN title, 'Trade Build Settle', and a painting of a sunset over wheat fields with three settlers on a path — The box: the 5th-edition design that Funskool sells in IndiaPhoto: Funskool

A game in progress on a wooden coffee table: the island board with roads and settlements, cards and pieces around it, and the Catan box on the shelf below — A game in progress on the coffee tablePhoto: Toycra

Friends playing Catan at a wooden table, one holding a fan of cards, with the board, cards and snacks in front of them — Friends mid-game: most of the fun is the tradingPhoto: Funskool

Top-down view of the assembled Catan island: coloured terrain hexes with number tokens inside a blue sea frame with harbours — The island board, set up and ready to playPhoto: Funskool

Everything in the box laid out on white: the hexagon island board assembled in the middle, surrounded by resource and development cards, wooden roads, settlements and cities in four colours, two dice and the cost cards — Everything in the box, laid outPhoto: Funskool

The cardboard parts before setup: six blue sea frame pieces, nineteen terrain hexes, eighteen round number tokens, nine small harbour pieces and the building-cost and bonus cards — The cardboard parts before setup: terrain tiles, number tokens, harbours and the sea framePhoto: Funskool

Close-up of the board: an orange and a red wooden city, wooden roads and a blue settlement sitting on terrain hexes with number tokens 5, 6, 11, 3 and 10 — Close-up: wooden cities, settlements and roads on the boardPhoto: Hamleys

Three terrain hexes (hills, desert, pasture) next to three development cards: Monopoly, Library and Year of Plenty — Terrain tiles and development cards (Monopoly, Library, Year of Plenty)Photo: Toycra

Players trading during a game: one hand reaches out across the table while another holds resource cards, with the board, wooden pieces and dice on a wooden table — Trading resource cards across the tablePhoto: Crossword

Overhead view of players sitting cross-legged on a bed around the Catan board, with cards spread in front of them — A game on the bed: it works anywhere you can spread out a boardPhoto: Funskool

Video

Strategy game · Indian edition available

Catan

Trade wheat for brick, build roads, and race to ten points.

Trading and bargaining Dice rolling Route building

3–4best with 4
60–90 minper game
About 20 minto set up
10+years
Medium
Littlereading

The official listing, on Amazon.in

Made in India

Buy on Amazon.in

We couldn't confirm whether this listing sends the Indian or the imported box. Amazon shows today's price, the seller and delivery.

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The game in a nutshell

Catan is a trading-and-building board game for 3 or 4 players aged 10 and up, and a game takes about 60 to 90 minutes. It suits families and groups of friends who enjoy bargaining and don't mind some dice luck, and who want something with more strategy than Ludo or Monopoly without heavy rules. Funskool has made an official edition in India since 2024, so there is no need to pay for an imported copy.

Is Catan right for you?

Great if

Groups of 3 or 4 who enjoy talking, bargaining and making deals
Families ready to move on from Monopoly to a modern strategy game
Weekend game nights where a game of an hour or more is welcome
Buyers who want an official made-in-India edition at a fair price

Skip it if

You mostly play as a couple – the base box needs at least 3 players
Your group hates luck – a bad run of dice can leave you short of resources for a while
You want something that finishes in under 30 minutes

A place on the honours list

Good company to be in.

Recognition from beyond our table.

Winner · 1995

Spiel des Jahres

Germany’s Game of the Year: the jury’s top family-game honour.

Meet the jury’s choice ↗

More recognition 4

Deutscher Spiele Preis, 1995 (1st place)

Origins Award, Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Board Game, 1996 (Winner)

Origins Hall of Fame, 2001 (Inducted)

Games Magazine Hall of Fame, 2006 (Inducted)

How Catan plays

The board is an island made of hexagon tiles: fields, forests, hills, pastures, mountains and one desert. Each tile gets a number token. You place your settlements on the corners where tiles meet, and those tiles become your income.

Time to teach: about 15 minutes.
Reading and language: Resource cards are picture-only. Development cards and the rulebook are in English, but the text is short, so a table that mixes Hindi, English or any other language can play once one person has explained the rules.

How to Play CATAN · CATAN (official channel) · Official

If this creator doesn’t allow embedded playback, watch on YouTube ↗.

Your turn, step by step

1
Roll
Roll two dice. Every tile showing that number pays its resource to anyone with a settlement or city on its corners, so you collect cards on other people's turns too.
2
Trade
Swap cards with the other players, or trade with the bank at 4 for 1 (3 for 1 or 2 for 1 once you've built on a harbour).
3
Build
Spend cards on roads, settlements, cities and development cards. Settlements score 1 point, cities 2, and the first to 10 points wins.

Read the official rules (PDF)CATAN – Game Rules & Almanac (3–4 players) · English

What things cost

RoadBrickLumber
SettlementBrickLumberWoolGrain
City (upgrade)2 Grain3 Ore
Development cardWoolGrainOre

The full explanation: how a game of Catan goes

At the start of your turn you roll two dice. Every tile showing that number produces its resource – grain, lumber, brick, wool or ore – for anyone with a settlement or city touching it. So you collect cards on other people's turns too, which keeps everyone involved.

Then you trade and build. You can swap cards with other players (this is where most of the table talk happens) or trade with the bank at a worse rate. Resources are spent on roads, new settlements, upgrading settlements to cities, or development cards.

A roll of 7 produces nothing. Anyone holding more than 7 cards discards half, and the player who rolled moves the robber onto a tile, blocking it and stealing a card from someone next to it. It stops people from sitting on a big hand.

Settlements are worth 1 point and cities 2. There are bonus points for the longest road and the largest army (built from knight cards), and some development cards are hidden points. The first player to reach 10 points on their turn wins.

What's in the box

19Terrain tiles
forest, pasture, fields, hills, mountains and one desert
6Sea frame pieces
9Harbour pieces
18Number tokens
95Resource cards
19 each of brick, lumber, wool, grain and ore
25Development cards
knights, victory points and progress cards
4Building cost cards
2Bonus cards
Longest Road and Largest Army
20Settlements
5 in each of 4 colours
16Cities
4 in each of 4 colours
60Roads
15 in each of 4 colours
2Dice
1Robber
1Rules and almanac

Box: 30 × 24 × 8 cm, 1.37 kg. Handy to know for gifting and travel.

This is the 5th-edition contents list that an Indian listing gives for Funskool's box; Funskool's own page doesn't list the contents.

Where to buy

Amazon.inEdition not confirmed

The official listing, on Amazon.in

We couldn't confirm whether this listing sends the Indian or the imported box. Amazon shows today's price, the seller and delivery.

Buy on Amazon.in

Opens Amazon.in in a new tab.

Catan is one of the few hobby board games with a genuine Indian edition. Funskool makes and distributes it under licence, and catan.com lists Funskool as the official partner for India. Imported Catan Studio or Kosmos copies are also sold here. For the base game there is little reason to pay extra for an import unless you specifically want the 6th-edition art.

How to make sure you get a genuine copyA little care before you click.

Look for the Funskool name on the box and listing. Funskool's product code is 4935600, and its barcode, 8901383493569, starts with 890, India's barcode prefix; imported boxes carry Catan Studio, Kosmos or Asmodee barcodes instead.
The Funskool edition should show a BIS (ISI) mark and Funskool India Ltd's Chennai address; an Indian listing quotes BIS number 6100094797.
Avoid listings with near-miss spellings such as 'Cattan' or 'CATAaN', or sold under toy brands unrelated to Catan.
Be wary of a new base game that costs a fraction of the usual price; much cheaper sets sold under the name come from other makers.
Look closely at listing photos: blurry printing, thin tiles or no rulebook shown are red flags.

We link to one Amazon.in listing that we've checked against the maker's own information. We don't show prices: Amazon shows today's price, the seller and delivery. Paid link. We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.

What reviewers and players say

Catan is the game that took trading-and-building board games to a mass audience, and reviewers still recommend it as the natural next step after Monopoly or Ludo. Experienced players often say newer games now do its job better and that the dice can decide too much, but most agree it is easy to teach and lively at the table. Indian players mainly talk about price: the Funskool original costs far more than look-alike copies, and community advice leans towards buying the original if you'll play it often.

What people love

Simple enough for people who only know Monopoly or Ludo, yet where you build and what you trade really matter.
Trading keeps everyone talking, and you collect resources on other players' turns too, so nobody sits around waiting.
The island is laid out differently every game, so it rarely plays the same way twice.
No one is knocked out early, and expansions let you add more once the base game feels familiar.

Common complaints

Dice luck: a strong starting spot can still go cold for several rounds, and one player can end up stuck with little to do.
Seasoned players find it basic and a bit slow next to newer games, and trading can turn into arguments or ganging up on the leader.
In India the original feels steep next to cheap copies; players who weighed it up mostly advise buying the original.

Based on 10 reviews and discussions

Review Catan review (Katie Wickens, first published October 2024) · GamesRadar+
Review The Settlers of Catan Review (Tyler Nichols, April 2013) · Board Game Quest
Review Games We Love: Catan (Tom Franklin, March 2020) · Meeple Mountain
Review Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre (Andrew Curry, March 2009) · WIRED
Review CATAN 6th Edition Review: The Classics Get Classic-er (Noah Cochrane) · GameTyrant
Players Is The Settlers of Catan overrated? (January 2026) · Reddit r/boardgames
Players Buy Original or First Copy? (Delhi buyer weighing Funskool Catan against copies, June 2026) · Reddit r/indianboardgamers
Players CATAN INDIA IS MESSY (Indian buyer on price vs copies, April 2026) · Reddit r/Catan
Players Why isn't Catan popular in India (June 2026) · Reddit r/boardgames
Award Die Siedler von Catan – Spiel des Jahres 1995 · Spiel des Jahres

Summarised in our own words from the sources above. We don't use Amazon reviews or ratings.

More like Catan

Our picks if Catan isn't quite right

Feature	Catan	Ticket to Ride	Splendor	Jaipur
Players	3–4	2–5	2–4	2
Best with	4	4	2-3	2
Play time	60–90 min	30–60 min	30 min	30 min
Age	10+	8+	10+	10+
Rules	Medium	Easy	Easy	Easy
Indian edition	Yes	Import	Import	Yes
Why look at it	This page	Another family classic, with no trading and less dice luck; plays 2–5	The same build-up-your-economy feeling in 30 minutes, and it works with 2	A trading-and-collecting card game for exactly two, for when Catan's three-player minimum is a problem

Also made or sold in India by Funskool

Dixit

Give a clue for a dreamlike picture, but not too obvious

3–8 players30 min8+

Sequence

Play a card, claim its space, and make five in a row.

2–12 players20–40 min7+

Rummikub

Rummy with tiles: build runs and groups, then rearrange the table

2–4 players20–60 min7+

Dobble

Race to spot the one picture any two cards share

2–8 players15 min6+

Othello

Trap a line of discs, flip them to your colour

2 players15–30 min8+

More trading games

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Business

India's own property game: buy cities, collect rent, build hotels

2–4 players1–2.5 hrs8+

Monopoly

Roll, buy property, collect rent, and bankrupt everyone else

2–6 players1–6 hrs8+

SHASN

Indian-made election game where your policy answers fund your campaign.

3–5 players2–4 hrs14+

Better with just two players

Wingspan

Calm card game about birds where every new bird boosts your turns.

1–5 players40–70 min10+

Ticket to Ride: First Journey

A shorter, simpler Ticket to Ride made for children six and up

2–4 players15–30 min6+

Connectors: Mission Space

Link picture tiles into a path through planets and galaxies

2–4 players10–20 min6+

Snakes and Ladders

Climb the ladders, dodge the snakes, first to 100 wins

2–4 players15–30 min4+

Shut the Box

Roll two dice, flip down the tiles, leave the smallest total

1–4 players5–20 min6+

Questions people ask about Catan

Is Catan available in India?

Yes. Funskool has made and sold an official licensed edition in India since 2024, and imported editions are sold here too.

Can 2 people play Catan?

Not with the base box alone: it is designed for 3 or 4. The Traders & Barbarians expansion includes an official two-player variant, and Rivals for Catan is a separate two-player game set in the same world. Both are imports in India.

Can 5 or 6 people play Catan?

Only with the 5–6 player extension, which adds extra tiles and pieces and is sold separately. In India it is an import, so check that it matches your base game's edition before you buy.

Is Funskool's Catan the real game?

Yes. catan.com lists Funskool as the official Catan partner for India, and Funskool makes the game under licence from Asmodee. The rules are the standard Catan rules.

Game facts

Designed by: Klaus Teuber
Publisher: Kosmos / Catan Studio (Asmodee); made in India under licence by Funskool
In India: Funskool (India) Ltd – licensed to manufacture and distribute Catan in India since August 2024; listed on catan.com as the official India partner
First published: 1995
Players: 3–4
Language: Little reading – Resource cards are picture-only. Development cards and the rulebook are in English, but the text is short, so a table that mixes Hindi, English or any other language can play once one person has explained the rules.
Box size and weight: 30 × 24 × 8 cm, 1.37 kg
Awards: Spiel des Jahres (Germany's Game of the Year), 1995 (Winner); Deutscher Spiele Preis, 1995 (1st place); Origins Award, Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Board Game, 1996 (Winner); Origins Hall of Fame, 2001 (Inducted); Games Magazine Hall of Fame, 2006 (Inducted)

Sources & photo creditsThe references behind this guide.

Facts on this page come from the publisher, the Indian maker or distributor, and the sources below. Photos are credited under each one.