Scan the board for spots
Paint the board you are actually drafting on, drop the settlements that are already taken, and this sweeps every remaining intersection. It is a completeness check, not a verdict — the point is that a decent corner nobody eyeballed does not go unnoticed while the table argues over the obvious spots.
2 settlements placed · 14 legal spots left
Every legal spot, scored
The top spot is worth 0.25 cards a turn against 0.11 for the middle of the board. 14 of the 14 legal spots sit within a card a turn of it, so the top of this list is a shortlist rather than an answer. 14 of them lean on numbers you already cover — flagged below, because expected cards cannot see that.
| # | Numbers | Pips | Cards/turn | Blanks | Resources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 · 9doubles up on 6, 9 | 9 | 0.25 | 75% | Wood, Wheat |
| 2 | 5 · 11doubles up on 5, 11 | 6 | 0.17 | 83% | Sheep, Wood |
| 3 | 6doubles up on 6 | 5 | 0.14 | 86% | Wood |
| 3 | 6doubles up on 6 | 5 | 0.14 | 86% | Wood |
| 3 | 8doubles up on 8 | 5 | 0.14 | 86% | Brick |
| 3 | 8doubles up on 8 | 5 | 0.14 | 86% | Brick |
| 3 | 8doubles up on 8 | 5 | 0.14 | 86% | Brick |
| 8 | 9doubles up on 9 | 4 | 0.11 | 89% | Wheat |
| 8 | 5doubles up on 5 | 4 | 0.11 | 89% | Sheep |
| 10 | 4doubles up on 4 | 3 | 0.08 | 92% | Ore |
| 10 | 4doubles up on 4 | 3 | 0.08 | 92% | Ore |
| 10 | 4doubles up on 4 | 3 | 0.08 | 92% | Ore |
| 13 | 11doubles up on 11 | 2 | 0.06 | 94% | Wood |
| 13 | 11doubles up on 11 | 2 | 0.06 | 94% | Wood |
Top 20 of 14. “Blanks” is how often the spot produces nothing at all on a turn — two spots can average the same cards and blank on very different schedules.
What this cannot see
Quite a lot, and it is worth saying before you take the top row as an instruction. A competitive player reviewing this tool put it bluntly: expected cards per turn is pip counting with two more decimal places, and it is not what decides a real pick.
- Ports. Nothing here models them. A 2:1 on a resource you produce heavily is a game-winner, and the same port next to hexes that make none of it is a wasted settlement.
- Blocking. A spot that shuts an opponent out of their expansion lane can be the correct pick over a strictly better producer. A lower row here can be the right choice for a reason this table has no column for.
- The draft. Snake order means what will still be available on the wrap-around often matters more than what is best right now, which is why the highest-scoring intersection is frequently the wrong first pick.
- Number overlap is flagged, not priced. Two settlements on the same numbers are correlated — the turns that feed one feed the other and the dry spells hit both together. The flag tells you it is happening; how much it costs depends on the rest of your board.
What it does enforce is legality: the distance rule means you cannot build within one edge of any existing settlement, so occupied-adjacent intersections are left out of the list entirely rather than ranked and then disclaimed.