The Problem With Settlers Of Catan

Ah, the infamous gateway to strategy board gaming: Settlers of Catan. For a modern classic often credited for launching Euro style resource management games into the mainstream, Catan has its fair share of diehard fans and cult following.

But... will Settlers aficionados admit to THIS problem with Catan? Is this bitter truth enough to turn "Catan Or Die" players to consider other board games?

Either way, I still enjoy Catan, and think it has good balance. But I wouldn't say it is without shortcomings.

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Recording Equipment Used In This Video:

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#SettlersOfCatan #BoardGames #BoardGameAnalysis

[MAdesignsVan]

The two main issues I have are:
1) Starting positions are not balanced
2) Most turns are quite boring
3) Most of strategy is in the placement of your starting pieces, after that, your turns kind of play themselves and its more luck than skill
4) The thief can sometimes feel punishing if you are behind and the other players use it to bully you - if you fall too far behind its sometimes impossible to comeback which feels bad
5) There isn't much replayability or variety, the game gets stale after a few times of playing


I am currently building a game which is inspired by Catan but addresses the problems above.

[peterbedford]

I agree with you. It's not that Catan has bad dice rolls, which a lot of people complain about. That is luck and that can happen to anyone. Over a long period of time - many games - that should balance out and be even more or less. But the problem is that you have no realistic mechanic to catch up. Winners win more and losers lose more. If the losers in any one game could start doing something to catch up, which wasn't available to those in the lead, it may force the winning people to adjust their strategy and play more defensively, which ultimately adds to the strategy of the game. Overall, I don't think Catan is a very deep game. There is a lot of skill to predicting what people will do and countering it - and importantly - I think that the game has more skill than some people think, but ultimately I think the game lacks enough mechanics to win with. In chess, there are multitudes of strategies to win with due to the amount of pieces on the board and the amount of combinations and permutations there in. Therefore, it is a very complex game to play. In Catan, there is a lot less to do.. If there were more mechanics to the game and win with the losers could diversify their strategies to something else if they are getting squeezed out of roads and settlements, for example. Dev cards are not enough to save this game. Adding more mechanics could save the game and make it more interesting for many people to play.

[geekedupboardgames]

I find online Catan gives me ALL these frustrations, but in person it encourages banter more than other games and that is fun for me… I find the best strategy is to spread out my numbers rather than going for a smaller range of ‘good’ umbers’😊👍

[marinafabijan]

1:12

They shouldn't have been able to rob that card due to the "Friendly Robber" variant. It is not found in the Base Game's rulebook, but it is found in the rulebook for Traders & Barbarians.

[secret]

wow you are making me very interested in board games all i think about was video games but maybe i will try a board game sometime btw cool vid.

[SecondMedia]

kinda late ot the party, but this was adressed in an expansion)I don't recall which) and it's called "Welfare Coins" basicly, if you don't get a resource on that dice roll(apart from 7) you get a welfare coin, and you can trade them to a resource at a rate of [current VP] to 1 in your turn, giving players who are behind an advantage as they caan get more resources faster than the players who are winning

[guest_user]

Make the flying Dutchman's treasure hunt from season 1 of spongebob . If you need help the episode is Arrgh!

[jonasbrownlee]

I think good social play is also the strategy of the game. In a vacuum, if there is no talking, may as well be bots as the game is solved. But communication and resource manipulation are what gets you the chance at the win.

[Pandaneedshug]

Idk if you've ever played a lot of civilization, but I played a lot of civilization 5, and it really suffers from people who are behind never being able to catch up.

The only upside is that it can still be fun to play while behind, and people might not actually realize they're behind.

[joeledelblute]

Very nice. This makes me feel better about losing. Alby shang you on Sunday!

[mmwehrb]

Guy’s gonna have a stroke when he finds out about ludo

[joshuawright]

As someone who plays catan competitively in various leagues and tournaments, this video just sounds like “I think catan is overrated because I suck at it” to me. I win 100% of my games against friends and family (even with a handicap) so I can assure you luck is not the dominating factor of the game. One of the reasons why I love catan especially when compared to other strategy board games is because it’s incredibly simple in concept, but actually has a lot of depth to it strategically which often isn’t apparent at first. There certainly are ways to catch up from behind in catan but they often generally require players to work together to slow down the winning player, which inexperienced players often struggle to do effectively.

Having said all that, people are obviously allowed to have opinions and not like the game. I just wanted to point out that your reasoning for not liking the game is not really accurate.

[teamcyeborg]

I personally really don't like this game because it's nearly fully luck based and somehow I always get the worst luck

[spiruandy]

Yes it is very true.... I`ve always said I knew from the 3rd round who will be the loser.

[MazusChannel]

I like catan the concept but hate that its too luck based

[shadesonbroadway]

Catan is a better competitive game than it is a casual game. I play it at the highest level possible, and even I understand it has its flaws, but part of the thrill for me is having a game that you aren’t guaranteed to win.

[mlheureux]

I feel like catan is in a weird spot. It like on the fence between mainstream luck reliant board game like Monopoly and moderns board games.

Carcassonne is just one exemple of gateway games that represent well the feel of modern euro games without being overwhelming.

[AnalynCatan-zehy]

Kanang asawa nga mag seling walay pulos labaw pod nga walay pulis

[Ddboyz]

Horribly luck game bad gateway to teach new friends