My weekly game has a pregame where those of us that don't have dayjobs (house husbands and graveyarders mostly) get together for lunch and board games until the rest of the group gets there. We usually play a game of Arkham Horror followed by a round or two of Catan depending on how much time we have.

I like Arkham, although with the expansions it has become fairly grim. (Honestly, how do you win with gate bursts and the new old ones?) But Settlers and it's expansions are consistently enjoyable. We've been playing a lot of Seafarers lately, both because of the more random setup and we haven't had the time for a good Cities and Knights.

I would say the best strategy for Catan is to pick numbers that come up a lot, but as my friend's table continually wags its genitals in the face of probablity, this is harder than it sounds. (We've had games where the 12 and the 2 have come up as much as the 8. I played a game last weekend where the only difference is starting numbers between my friend and I was he had an 11 and I had a 10, and 11 came up once a turn for the first five turns.)

I enjoy the world-building aspect of it as well. I've had similar experiences with Axis and Allies, where it's fun to try to win the game but it's also fun to build the world. I guess I enjoy the resource management of it as well.

Any love for Catan out there?

One alternate way to play Catan is with a deck of numbered cards; each potential result is included a certain number of times in line with the 2D6 probability curve. This evens out the weirdness of the game and makes it a bit more pure strategy.

I love Catan; I nearly bought the $150 15th Anniversary Edition yesterday, but it doesn't include Cities and Knights and that's what I play the most.

Woooooooooooooo!

I love Catan, only trouble is that I don't get to play it that often

I even have the card game which is a ton of fun once you get the tournament expansion and can build your own deck instead of having to share a deck with your opponent.

I noticed recently that there is some sort of barbarian add on or something like that out now (not the barbarians in cities and knights) and wanted to grab it when BnN was having a 'buy two get the third free' on their board games, but ended up grabbing Castle Panic (Great game, very simple to learn and is coop) and two others (Haven't tried them yet).

But yes, love Catan, though it can be annoying when your numbers don't come up as often as it seems like they should. That said, placement and what resources you are getting can be much more important than the numbers that are on them. For instance, getting a ton of ore early in the game isn't generally as useful as a bunch of wood and brick. I think a great road to victory is to build up as much as possible around a single resource (Sheep for example) and get the 2:1 trade on it, or the 3:1 if you can't manage the 2. Biggest threat to this is if there is a very large number of players and the robber comes up alot, that can ruin your ability to trade in.

When I worked as seasonal help in one of my FLGSs last Christmas, I learned that Settlers of Cataan Catan (why do I keep wanting to add that extra 'a'?) is their biggest seller. I would never have guessed.

*nods*
damn it, i should have gotten the game to play at work over the holidays <.<
ah well, i guess i will have to make do with the computer game ._.

Oh, for super quick games there is also the Catan dice game Very simple, but quite fun and only takes a short while once you learn the rules. It's a fair bit like Yahtzee.

Catan lover here. I don't get to play the board game that often, as when my friends come home for the holidays, there are a variety of other board games we play.

I did download the mobile version for my phone and after playing close to a hundred games, I found that I've been able to win with a myriad of strategies. And you are right, sometimes the dice just don't fall for you or the robber neutralizes you ability to do anything. Great game though and I'd definitely recommend playing something solo like that just to get more games in. When you do end up playing with friends, having a hundred or so games as experience, you can "see" things better.

I've also played the card game with my wife. I'll have to look for that tournament expansion, as I'd like more options in the card game.

Oh yeah, the iPad version of Catan is hella nice!

Yeah, we played AH on a more or less weekly basis some years back, and had a huge list of house rules to make the game harder (two monsters per gate, a few other things), and were winning regularly. Then we bought… I think it was two expansions, but it might have only been one, and went on a brutal five-game losing streak before we tossed out all of the make-it-harder houserules. It's still winnable, but now it's a legitimate struggle.

~J

You know... We may have to try this. Is there a write up online somewhere that discusses putting together such a deck? Might be interesting to try this sometime.

I don't like it. It gives card counters a distinct advantage.

That would be the whole point, presumably.

~J

Dice are random. If you're sure things are wonky, start tracking the rolls and graph it. Then, remember that randomness only equals expected distribution over the *long* term.

Using cards definitely changes the game, because it's 'selection without replacement'.

Cities and Knights is a whole different game, to me. I don't like it *as much*, although I do like it.

Dice certainly don't LOOK to be random most of the time . .
let's say dice a and dice b
a comes up 1 and b comes up 1, that's 2. the only way it can be a 2 at all.
a comes up 2 and b comes up 1, that's 3.
a comes up 1 and b comes up 2, that's 3. those are allready TWO ways for a result of 3
and it only gets worse.

Yes, it does better reward skill.

I feel like you're making a joke there, Stahlseele, but maybe it's too clever for me. Dice are random. Two dice together have a distribution that favors central values and disfavors extreme ones… as a result of being random. It is wholly intentional that Catan is based on that 'normal' distribution.

I love this game! I play a lot through PlayCatan.com. I've played with housemates a few times and friends a few times, but mostly play online. I've only played the standard version, though.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20038/catan-event-cards

Or you can put together your own easily, just by marking up a set of playing cards or CCG commons with the correct numbers in the correct distribution.

Most of the gaming we did in college was Risk or Settlers of Catan. I still remember one guy trying to trade by proclaiming he's "got wood for sheep."

After we moved away from college, we played a bit on Sea3d. It is a good idea, but the community could be better.

i want the settlers of catan version for microsoft surface . .

One of the nice things about the mobile version is a the stats page after each completed game. You can see how many turns the game lasted, how much and what everyone produced, traded and got robbed of. At the very end, there is a chart that graphs the distribution of dice rolls during that game. While it doesn't make anything less random, it certainly gives perspective and helps you understand why that particular game was harder/easier than it should have been.

It also helps you to confirm whether that feeling of being dicked by the dice had actually happened:)