Catan

[epi_lj]

Okay, so most board gamers have some kind of opinion on the Catan franchise. It's the game that seems to set some people into an addictive fire from which they never emerge and which other people look upon with great disdain

Comments

[stm4e]

I think in the base game it's relatively easy for people to all be "maximally skilled". In other words, everyone knows what to do, and nobody is "better" than anyone else (because there are no real hidden strategies). In games where everyone is of a similar skill level, luck plays a larger factor.

I've only played cities and knights a few times, but I don't think it adds that much to the game that it would allow for much larger differences in skill levels.

[agent_23]

Any game that has dice rolling or card/tile drawing has an element of luck involved. Having said that I wonder if Liar's Dice counts under that statement

[cmot_dribbler]

after playing two games where over 20 dice rolls didn't net me a single resource, i kinda got fed up with the game.
It doesn't matter what your strategy in placing guys, or your trading skills when the dice just never show your numbers.

[erratio]

I disagree, if you play the game with the same (or mostly the same) group of people each time you'll see that the same people keep winning time after time.
It's not about luck, it's about how good you are at convincing people to trade with you.

Now Risk on the other hand... :p

[vrimj]

I have only played the base game and that was years ago, but I think that it often came down to group dynamics and trading. That was, as I recall, what I liked about it, but I like negoation games.