• Catan Universe
  
• The 'Cities and Knights' Expansion
  
• Time (probably lots of it if you are unfamiliar with the scenario)
  
• A working understanding of Progress Cards
  and...
  
• Luck! (you will need the game to give you the correct progress card to continue)

I know the term 'First Steps' is incredibly loaded, especially in the context of Catan Universe, but we all need to be on the same page before you try to tackle this achievement. Please do the following before returning to this guide:

• Download and launch Catan Universe on Steam
  
• Navigate the menu, if you have logged in successfully, until you have reached the Single Player [Play] section of the game
  
• From Single Player [Play], click and scroll down until your cursor is hovering over the Cities and Knights Expansion
  
• Unlock the expansion. You can use free "Red Suns" OR you can purchase the expansion outright for Catan Gold (if you plan on playing it more than a handful of times)
  
• Click on 'Scenario' if you are ready to begin playing and understand the core mechanics. If not, it may be worth trying the simple 'Tutorial...'
  
• Select your opponents. For this achievement, it is best that you play against Master difficulty AI, as they are more likely to outscore you/hinder you and hence, increase the drop probability for the 'Wedding' card. Furthermore, make sure you select 4, not 3, opponents, as this will further increase the odds one or more of your AI's outscores you at some point in the game.
  
• Here's where the choice is up to you...if you'd rather play one long game, set the number of required Victory Points to something unachievable and high (slide the slider all the way to the right). If you'd rather play multiple games and gain more play experience in general, leave the slider alone and begin the game!

Once you are in the game, you will come to see both when you will be placing and what your board looks like. Hopefully, the board has an abundance of Ore, as placing cities on Ore hexes will be key to accessing the Progress Card "Wedding." Here's where you should be placing your settlement and city in order to unlock this achievement:

Before I continue, it is worth noting there are two key strategies. I personally used the first, but using the second could be beneficial in certain situations.

Strategy 1: Play it Safe

Place your first settlement on Wheat, Sheep and Ore hexes (or the best available combination of these three hexes, if no 'Dev Card Factories' are left). If you are able, you will want to upgrade this settlement later in the game. You will need access to Sheep and Ore to build knights which can protect your initial city early in the game. You will need access to Wheat to activate your knights. Locking down access to these key resources initially will provide you with a safeguard against early barbarian raids and enable you to safely accumulate Politics commodities (the importance of which will be explained later in this subsection).

Place your first city on as many good/available Ore hexes as possible. It's ok if you place on two Ore hexes, so long as you have a city that has access to lots of Ore and, by extension, "Politics" commodities.

As for roads, use your best judgement. By now, I'd expect you to have a good understanding of road mechanics and how they should be used.

Strategy 2: Go for (the) Gold

If the board has a LOT of Ore (if you are playing a Special Scenario on Cities and Knights), you could place both your initial settlement and city on ore and hope for the best! This way, you'd maximize your ability to access "Politics" commodities and earn "Wedding" cards faster. However, you run the risk of losing your initial city early on without easy ways to get it back. Without at least one city, you can't get commodities and will have less access to progress card drops. In order to get this achievement quickly, you will need to have the ability to get progress card en masse. Again, be apprehensive about this strategem and use your best judgement.

In this section, I will explain how one gets the Progress Card "Wedding," the best ways to get said card, and some other mechanics that will allow you to play the card once you have it in-hand.

The Card and "Politics" Mechanics

The Progress Card "Wedding" allows a given player to extract two cards from each player with more victory points that himself/herself/themselves. Moreover, they get the choice of what cards to take. This progress card falls under the umbrella of the "Politics" development branch (the other two branches, "Trade" and "Science," should not be developed when trying to unlock this achievement), and a given player should develop the "Politics" branch of their cities to have better chances of getting this particular progress card. In order to 'develop' a city, a player must have access to Commodities. Commodities are dropped when a player rolls the dice and earns a yield from an appropriate hex adjacent to one of his/her/their cities. Specifically, Ore, Wood, or Sheep hexes. Ore hexes with adjacent cities produce the "Politics" commodity. In sum, players interested in attaining this achievement should place cities next to Ore hexes in order to get more "Politics" commodities and, in turn, have better chances of getting the "Wedding" Progress Card.

Staying Weak Strategically

In order to play the card "Wedding," players must have less victory points than one or more other players. This can be hard, especially versus the weak AI (even on Master difficulty)...but that does not mean it isn't possible. In order to stay below the leading threshold, you will need to develop as little as possible while still progressing. Here are some things to do in order to accomplish this objective:

• Don't compete for Longest Road/Longest Trade Route
  
• (KEY) Build as many knights as you want, but only ACTIVATE the knights that you need to A) protect your cities and B) tie other players when the raid comes (so that you can select a free Progress Card from the "Politics" branch without gaining any Victory Points)
  
• (KEY) Don't construct a Metropolis unless it won't bring you into the lead OR if an opponent is close to getting YOUR "Politics" Metropolis. Building a defensive Metropolis is fine, as you need to be the leader in your branch to get the most card from said branch
  
• Don't play "Merchant" cards unless you can use them to upgrade your "Politics" city development. Merchant cards give you an additional 1 VP while it is active
  
• Don't weaken your opponents with cards or knight blocks unless absolutely necessary
  
• Build only what you need to progress and prevent card losses on 7s, not what you need to take the lead
  
• (KEY) Enable your opponents by not stealing from them frequently AND by giving them trades that allow them to build. Don't trade them game-winning materials, but only what they need to surpass you in the immediate future
  
• (KEY) Let your opponents win raids later in the game. Letting them accumulate an extra Victory Point or two towards the game's end or in the late stages will allow them to stay in the lead and you to keep playing the "Wedding" card

After reading the entire guide, you should be ready to play! This is easier than it looks, so long as you use the tools provided and use your best judgement when progressing in your games! GOOD LUCK!

If you enjoyed this guide or would like to see more, please leave a comment, commendation or rating and I will happily oblige! I will update this guide frequently.