Catan Assist – Board Generator

Kay Bogerd

About this app

Catan Assist is a board game assistent for the board game Settlers of Catan. It contains a board generator and dice simulator for the Catan base game and its expansions: Seafarers; Traders & Barbarians; Explorers & Pirates; Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers; and Cities & Knights.

The board generator is designed to create fair and engaging games of Catan. Play on the original board or select one of the many senarios from the expansions (Seafarers; Traders & Barbarians; Explorers & Pirates; or Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers).
The board generator contains multiple algorithms that you can use to create a game the suits your needs:
• Place resources non-adjacent to the same type or place them randomly,
• Distribute the numbers fairly over the board or place them randomly,
• Place the ports close to, or far from their resource or place them randomly.

The dice simulator can be used to reduce the luck factor during the game. By reducing the probability for numbers that have occurred more frequently than expected, the game will contain less luck and become more strategic. Of course, the amount by which the "luck is filtered" can be adjusted and by setting it to zero is becomes a completely normal game again.

This app is now provided for free and without advertisements.

Please note: This is not the Settlers of Catan game. It is a tool to help and improve the gameplay of the board game Settlers of Catan and its expansions.

Ratings and reviews

Great App! This makes random setup so much quicker and easier. I really like some of the extra scenarios, especially for Seafarers. One bug we found today was in "Fog Island" 3-4 player scenario there was one too many sea hexes. I have tried most of the other board generators and this is by far the best. One thing that might be nice is to add a Cities and Knights switch to add a couple points to the scenario. 2021/01/01 - Still have not found a better app than this.

In my opinion, this is the best Catan map generator you can find. It works great with the base game and is easy to use. However, there’s one major issue with Seafarers: the map size seems to be based on an older edition. The app generates a 5×5 layout, while recent Seafarer editions (starting from 2007) use a slightly smaller frame. Without the 5–6 player extension, you can’t build a map of that size. On top of that, most of the extra tiles are just unnecessary border ocean tiles.

Edit: Thanks for adding the legend for the colors! I've put my rating up to five stars. Great app for assisting with Catan.

What’s new

- Added more scenarios and support for the Explorers & Pirates and Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers expansions.
- Added the option to lock the board, and the ability to view previously generated boards.
- Added a legend that explains which resource each color on the board represents.
- Some minor bug fixes and other user interface improvements.