Hot take: Catan is not actually a strategy game

I keep hearing people call Catan a deep strategy game, but I think they are confusing luck with skill. I played 12 games last month with the same group and the winner was almost always the person who rolled the most 6s and 8s. That is not strategy, that is dice luck. I spent one whole game building roads to a good spot only to have the robber sit on my number for 15 turns. Meanwhile, the guy next to me just placed settlements randomly and won because he rolled a 9 five times in a row. Has anyone else noticed that the expansions just add more random elements instead of fixing this?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly_gonzalez611mo ago

Feel you so much on this. It drives me crazy when the whole game just comes down to who the dice like that night instead of any actual planning.

taylor9291mo ago

The real issue is the trading system. @holly_gonzalez61 you nailed it but nobody talks about how trades can screw the game just as bad. I had a game where one guy refused to trade with me just because I beat him last week. That's not strategy, that's petty grudges messing up the whole board.