Catan vs Carcassonne

I actually thought it was boring at first as I didn't have a clear grasp of the mechanics yet. After re-reading the rules and playing games a couple more times I slowly came to realize this game is deep in strategy, and even if you're dealt the same set of cards you can approach the game from different angles.

WHY DID I BUY: It was cited as being one of the heaviest games, and I wanted to test that. It also reminded me a bit of Terra Mystica, with the player power tiles.

Get the extension if you want five or six players. The game involves the strategic gathering of resources and trading with opponents. Instead of traveling across a board to reach the end or a certain destination, Settlers of Catan involves building roads and settlements which eventually lead you to victory.

This game is way easier to start playing and enjoying vs something like Catan, where new players need a 45min rule reading pow-wow before you begin playing, then 10-20mins of setting the board up, and then 2-3 playthroughs for most before everyone is comfortable with the rules and starts to form ideas about strategy. You can explain basic Carcassone entirely in 10 minutes and begin playing with everyone getting the idea almost immediately, as well as the strategy after 1 playthrough. It's fun, easy, and less adversarial and contentious than many games. Now here is where the issue lies

If you like strategy games, you will like this. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is there are often times where it is not going well for at least one person in the game and this can be VERY frustrating. If your family is overly competitive, you may want to consider a different game.

For games when he has a hand of cards in his wooden tray, his opponent typically draws cards for him, and discards for him. He’ll say “third from the left, fourth from the right, middle, etc.”

All this, and then of course, young people. 8-16 year olds adore the Munchkin system. One of the best parts of playing board games for them is ruining someone else's plan, or stopping a friend or parent from winning. That is the fun part, and they aren't thinking even a little about the mechanics involved

Years ago we replaced our base game with the 10th Anniversary edition, which adds two mini-expansions: The River (12 tiles) and The Festival (10 tiles). The Traders & Builders expansion contained a handy cloth drawstring bag to hold the landscape tiles from the base game and all expansions. We have played the base game and expansions almost every week over the years, and the wear is showing on the tiles. They are still usable for sure, but the edges are fraying and the tiles sometimes stick together when pulling them out of the bag

Good, but half of the pieces had some black stuff on them that wouldn't come off. We didn't know what it was and even cleaned them in a bleach solution. Still stained. But other than that everything was perfect!

She lures you in with her serious looking components (hey, it doesn't look like Hungry Hungry Hippos or anything). You think, "ah this is going to be a really nice euro like El Grande, and I am going to enjoy strategizing and scheming to win for 90 minutes..

don't say you weren't warned. ○ Short Synopsis : Way, way, way too much luck for such a long, laborious, & way overpriced game (for $68+ w expansion, you can get one or more games that are way, way, way more fun.) ○ Why This Review : Pre-pandemic, I ran the largest irl board gaming group in NJ

**Cockroach Poker** 1 x 6p - an all time favorite for light bluffing games for big groups. I get stressed out by **Werewolf** and **Chameleon** style games where you have to actively remember special roles and construct a lie. But **Cockroach Poker** lets you choose to tell the truth as well and others still have the option to call your truth out. It's kind of in the realm of low pressure bluffing games along with **Sheriff of Nottingham**

Ever version of Catan has gotten worse and worse in my opinion. And not just the board pieces. Renaming the soldier to knight after already having a different knight piece with a different mechanism of play in Cities & Knights expansion was such a poor decision.

Not only do I still enjoy it, I prefer it to Barrage, the 5 or so Lacerdas I've played and all Rosenbergs. It remains an incredible tight euro, with some very cutthroat moments, every decision is meaningful, and with a really accessible set of rules. In essence, a paragon of good design. It deserves to be mentioned along with Tigris and Euphrates, El Grande and Carcassonne as classics that still hold up and that haven't been "bettered" by more recent games

We're not exactly dummies in my house but we couldn't figure out after two nights the rules of the game. My brother and his wife enjoy the game so much that we gave it a try. It's in the garage to go off with the next load to Goodwill. Hopefully to a family smarter than us will get it

**Calico – [4/10] ** - Simple rules-wise, even elegant. Draft 1 or 3 quilt tiles, and place it in your hex grid. You get points for groups of colors, groups of patterns, or meeting certain pair-requirements. For a quick drafty game, this one seemed to cause way too-much AP, and I didn’t find it particularly fun either

I love it! It looks true to the natural theme of Catan and doesn't go too far out. Quality looks fantastic as well!

Dice management - king of tokyo: basically yahztee with a touch of strategy and a fun theme. Easy enough that even my kids get it.

As for the game itself, Catan offers a great balance between strategy and competitive gameplay. While luck is almost always a factor in boardgames and Catan is not the exception (dice rolling involved), the game feels more guided and affected by your strategy and decisions rather than by luck, which is good, since this makes the game more compelling and adds weight to the decisions that you make throughout the game. There is also a trading component that allows you to interact with the other players, which is great for stirring some fun arguments and debates. While this game has a competitive approach, it doesn't pit the players against each others through direct confrontation (which is welcomed if you are not looking for an aggressive game where everyone ends up mad at each other), it plays more like a race in which you need to focus on your strategy while keeping watch of the opponents and overall it is extremely fun

I’d say we are looking for something just a bit heavier than the splendors/carcassonne but id really like something that still plays in under an hour, or even better, 45 minutes.