Utility of Development Cards

This is a much debated topic in Settlers. There is obviously some value in them, but how much?
Overestimating that value is sure to end up in wasting resources buying more than you need.
Underestimating that value is sure to end up in wasting resources buying things you need less.

This is called opportunity cost. Again, this should remind you of any “Introduction to Macroeconomics” class. So, how do we decide how valuable Development Cards are?

Let’s start off with figuring out what Development Cards we’re dealing with before we judge value. In the original Settlers game, there are 25 development cards:

• 14 Soldiers/Knights (I’ll call them Knights from now on)
• 5 Victory Points
• 2 Road Building Cards
• 2 Monopoly Cards
• 2 Year of Plenty Cards