How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
malcolmong.com
How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
1–10 of 48 posts
Re: How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
#2How much of it is your friends teaming up to help somebody else win just to make you lose?
Re: How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
#3Short answer: a fair amount. Anecdotal story: The one time i played, having never even heard of the game before, I learned as I went along and ended up winning. I'd say my final few plays were the only ones based more upon strategy and less upon "Is this a fair play? Yes? Well then here's my play." So a good deal of luck is involved because a novice can't beat pros in a game based entirely upon skill.
Re: How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
#4Short answer: a fair amount. Anecdotal story: The one time i played, having never even heard of the game before, I learned as I went along and ended up winning. I'd say my final few plays were the only ones based more upon strategy and less upon "Is this a fair play? Yes? Well then here's my play." So a good deal of luck is involved because a novice can't beat pros in a game based entirely upon skill.
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Re: How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
#5I find that, in Settlers of Catan, if you're winning - it's skill. It's only luck when you're losing ;)
Re: How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
#6Luck is a factor, but interpersonal dynamics and alliances are most important, in my experience.
How to win: always be a moderate second while limiting the routes for first to win, concurrently reserve at least two separate routes to victory for yourself, and don't let the game get too lopsided. Then as the end draws near, finish it in a turn.
It would be interesting to have a Catan-AI competition. Does the Catan server allow bots?
Re: How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
#7Short answer: a fair amount. Anecdotal story: The one time i played, having never even heard of the game before, I learned as I went along and ended up winning. I'd say my final few plays were the only ones based more upon strategy and less upon "Is this a fair play? Yes? Well then here's my play." So a good deal of luck is involved because a novice can't beat pros in a game based entirely upon skill.
apart from chess, I don't know of other games based entirely upon skill :)
Re: How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
#8Short answer: a fair amount. Anecdotal story: The one time i played, having never even heard of the game before, I learned as I went along and ended up winning. I'd say my final few plays were the only ones based more upon strategy and less upon "Is this a fair play? Yes? Well then here's my play." So a good deal of luck is involved because a novice can't beat pros in a game based entirely upon skill.
apart from chess, I don't know of other games based entirely upon skill :)
Go =)
Re: How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
#9Short answer: a fair amount. Anecdotal story: The one time i played, having never even heard of the game before, I learned as I went along and ended up winning. I'd say my final few plays were the only ones based more upon strategy and less upon "Is this a fair play? Yes? Well then here's my play." So a good deal of luck is involved because a novice can't beat pros in a game based entirely upon skill.
apart from chess, I don't know of other games based entirely upon skill :)
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Re: How much of Settlers of Catan is Luck?
#10Settlers of Catan has piles of luck compared to many other games that only get uncertainty from the chaos of a bunch of other players moves.
The die rolls, especially using the wooden dice that come with the game, are very likely to come out very biased and not very even for a given game, as well as the very rare powerful cards buried in a sea of knights in the dev card deck.
Luck is not bad. Luck is merely a thing you can put in a game or not, just like 'it is played on a field' or 'do you wager real money on the outcome'.
Games with too little luck make unskilled players unwilling to play them with skilled players (such as chess).
Does Catan have more luck than many other designer/german board games? More so than many ones originally published in Europe and a few of the US ones (Princes of Florence, Power Grid, Automobile, Chaos in the Old World all have far less luck), but many other games, especially "Classic" board games, have far more luck, such as Diplomacy (chaos based uncertainty is still something uncertain), Monopoly, Scrabble, and Risk.
If you gasp at catan having lots of luck, think of this tidbit: When's the last time you have seen people who know how to play texas holdem play straight up 5-card draw with no wilds? Other than a brief interlude, probably not often: The game is too skill based. Whereas the much closer odds for texas holdem have MANY people willing to play a round, even drop 10k play against the pros in the WSOP.
If you're looking for more games in the vein of Catan, check out this list (some good wargames in there as well, read the description before buying):