It’s so sad that Monopoly of all games became the number one household boardgame.
In my opinion Catan should be the game every family owns. The trading and negotiation aspect of Catan and the balance of the game itself makes you feel like you are always in control of your own situation. You have never truly lost until the game is over. In Monopoly you will see pretty early who will win and who will lose.
Catan is better, but is still heavily dependent on both randomness (favors new players) and snowballing (favors experienced ones). These kind of cancel each other out but it leads to a kind of knife-edge balance where it’s only balanced because each player will have some sort of “bullshit” that can happen to them to let them win. This usually cancels itself out enough to make the game playable (and can even be fun in moderation) but there are definitely strategies (usually involving the robber) where it gets too out of hand. I once played a game with my cousin where they only ever got 1 extra point (a settlement) the entire game, at the very end. Not super fun for them.
Lmao that sounds horrible. Only getting one point wouldn’t be fun for anyone.
When I introduce people to the game I always play a trial run with them that we can interrupt once everyone understands the game and then start fresh. Early placement of your settlements and roads can make a big difference (like you wouldn’t take number 2 and 12 as your starting numbers).
I also try to not dominate if I play with inexperienced people. I am just happy to play and as long as everyone else also like it, and that means I will get to play more and they will gain experience. When/if they are ready I will challenge then for real.
It’s so sad that Monopoly of all games became the number one household boardgame.
In my opinion Catan should be the game every family owns. The trading and negotiation aspect of Catan and the balance of the game itself makes you feel like you are always in control of your own situation. You have never truly lost until the game is over. In Monopoly you will see pretty early who will win and who will lose.
Catan is better, but is still heavily dependent on both randomness (favors new players) and snowballing (favors experienced ones). These kind of cancel each other out but it leads to a kind of knife-edge balance where it’s only balanced because each player will have some sort of “bullshit” that can happen to them to let them win. This usually cancels itself out enough to make the game playable (and can even be fun in moderation) but there are definitely strategies (usually involving the robber) where it gets too out of hand. I once played a game with my cousin where they only ever got 1 extra point (a settlement) the entire game, at the very end. Not super fun for them.
Lmao that sounds horrible. Only getting one point wouldn’t be fun for anyone.
When I introduce people to the game I always play a trial run with them that we can interrupt once everyone understands the game and then start fresh. Early placement of your settlements and roads can make a big difference (like you wouldn’t take number 2 and 12 as your starting numbers).
I also try to not dominate if I play with inexperienced people. I am just happy to play and as long as everyone else also like it, and that means I will get to play more and they will gain experience. When/if they are ready I will challenge then for real.
Yup. In this case we were all experienced, I wouldn’t dare do that to a new player lmao