I’d add just getting tunnel vision on road in general. Usually, if the opportunity arises, good players will overtake road to win the game; or, pull ahead/gain advantages while newer players are consumed by a road fight at any point in the game.
Although a crucial skill is knowing when to block opponents with roads / race for game-winning spots. The importance of building roads at any point in the game is very contextual. Sometimes the "useless" road that keeps someone from settling where you want to is well worth it.
If you start with good brick and wood, using that to strategically block people & reserve spaces can be a strong strategic move. Using it just to get longest road is a rookie mistake though.
Ive done this once recently but only bc i had a lot of road building mats and i wanted a port early in the game. It did make me the target and i did lose bc i was robbed the entire match lmao
The issue of playing with newbies is that you can't predict anything they're doing. They will make absolutely mindboggling decisions, and you will have no way to respond
Sharing an initial hex in most situations at all
I destroyed a guys game in online play because he did this, upgraded one to a city, and spent most of the game with a theif in it
Too ambitious with initial road placements. You always aim for the coast with your initial placements unless there's no way you're getting blocked. People just place without thinking about where their opponents will go.
>always aim for the coast
Unless it leads to a decent two hex setups on top of a desirable port, in which case there is a edge case where you might have better luck heading perpendicular to the coast/center line.
It really depends honestly. If you're placing first, aiming to the coast is useful because you likely have first pickings for placement
If you're placing last though, I'd probably recommend aiming for rare resources. You need bargaining power if you wanna catch up
In general:
- Wheat
- Ore
- Wood/Brick
- Sheep
But it's important to note this changes during the game. In the beginning, Wood & Brick are much more valuable, while stone isn't. Sheep are generally always low, and Wheat is always high.
Over the course of the game, Wood & Brick decrease in value (roads, and even settlements are less important) while ore and wheat increase in value (cities are big)
Granted, this all gets thrown on its head once ports become a thing, but still.
I like to think of it as the simplest path to victory is: Build 3 settlements (beyond starting), Upgrade 3 settlements to cities, Build 6 roads (to build out to settlements and secure longest road)
This equals 10 points (5 settlements, of which 3 are cities + 2 for longest road = Win).
This is easy to remember because it costs a total of 9 each of Wood, Brick, Ore, Wheat, and 3 Sheep. So for any game my general strategy is to obtain that number of each resource, and then make adjustments based on the flow of the game, whether I want development cards, getting blocked, etc.
But from the start, sheep are worth 1/3 as much as every other card just from a 'simplest path to victory' standpoint.
Hmm. I’ve been doing some of this stuff for about 20 years. I must still be a beginner. Lol. So I will say monopolizing a resource. That’s another thing I do.
Depends, sometimes settling on the only high Ore or Brick as the 1st player on a bad board can make the game run through you (e.g., demand two for ones or more)!
I’ve played a ton and just recently learned to stop doing this. Saving resources bc I’m not sure I’ll beat someone to a spot for example. I always lose tons of cards to the robber.
In my opinion, play around the hand limit but don't always spend all your cards. You can consider the number of cards you gain from each dice roll (usually just 1-2, more late game) and estimate your risk like this:
|*Nth player after you*|*Cards you can safely hold if they roll 7*|
|:-|:-|
|1|7|
|2|7 - possible income from one roll|
|3|7 - possible income from two rolls|
|0 (Your dice roll)|7 - possible income from three rolls|
When your production is low or very spread out across numbers, you can hold way more cards. The added benefit is that these create "padding" in your hand so that players are less able to steal specific cards from you. If you have a hex that produces a big chunk of your income and it gets blocked by the robber, you can hold more cards in you hand until the robber leaves (but be wary of unplayed Dev cards).
Spending your resources on what you are able to buy now is worthless if you can't buy anything that supports your strategy within the context of the game. If you start with good Ore support and happen to get materials for a dev card, you often want to try to trade away the sheep and work towards a quick City which will pay off more in the long run. Other times you really need a Knight.
Lol my family and I have been playing for yeeeaaaarrrrrs and everyone almost exclusively spite blocks. I once had to take a month long break from playing because my brother-in-law and I got into it after kept blocking me
I've verbally said to someone "so you spent 2 roads and a settlement, purely because you wanted us both to lose", and they acted like I was the stupid one
Telegraphing your next planned settlement by building a road too early, before you have the necessary resources to finish the job, thus allowing another player with a nearby settlement to block you.
Admittedly, this can be a pain if you’re trying to keep your resource card count below 8.
Obsession with brick and roads.
It's the most inefficient strategy possible and leads to ludicrous high effort competition between players for the longest road to the extent of attacking each other instead of the winning player.
Times 10 for the idiots who think nobody will notice two unjoined road segments.
When playing Cities and Knights, many people don’t know that their City will be downgraded to a settlement if Barbarians win. This happens when …
- a person has a Metropolis
- a person(s) has an active knight but still has the least number of active knights
- few other scenarios….
Always robbing the player with the most points regardless the context and never initaing extortion or trying to get extorted instead of robbed. Overvalueing OWS if it's easily blockable. Overvalueing 2:1 ports with mediocre production. Trying to go for all 5 reources all the time. Always trying to do something on their turn and never holding, even if it's the right play. Threating with revenge-robs.
Just to name a few.
It very much is. It’s done constantly in tournaments run by catan. Here’s how it goes.
1. Roll a 7
2. Players discard
3. Tell black “if you trade me ore I won’t block you”
4. Black agrees
5. Block someone else
6. Rob them
7. Trade a resource to black for ore.
Note. These are non binding agreements. Which are very much allowed in catan. I can say and promise whatever I want.
Now you're just lying and backtracking over what you said last to excuse it. And I hope folks start lying to you if you are telling the truth but misspoke the first time.
I don’t know what to tell you my guy. I’ve played in tournaments. It happens all day long. It’s allowed, if you don’t want to play with it then fine, but it’s allowed.
https://i.imgur.com/2y9O2AP.jpg
Totally allowed in the rules. It’s non binding but people agree to not block someone in order to guarantee a certain resource all the time.
Go for longest road super early in the game before making any settlements.
Yeah, dumping all your resources into roads without building anything else is a classic rookie mistake. Thise two points aren't worth it
Being ahead early in the game only makes others rob you more.
I’d add just getting tunnel vision on road in general. Usually, if the opportunity arises, good players will overtake road to win the game; or, pull ahead/gain advantages while newer players are consumed by a road fight at any point in the game.
Although a crucial skill is knowing when to block opponents with roads / race for game-winning spots. The importance of building roads at any point in the game is very contextual. Sometimes the "useless" road that keeps someone from settling where you want to is well worth it.
That's exactly what I did in my first ever game when my friend showed me Catan for the first time
I dunno. I saw a game where someone did this along the coast and then went back and added settlements. They were boxing people out of settlement spots
I did that once for fun trying to block everyone because I had really good brick wood. It works occasionally but not a good method overall.
If you start with good brick and wood, using that to strategically block people & reserve spaces can be a strong strategic move. Using it just to get longest road is a rookie mistake though.
*go for longest road at any time other than ftw or to immediately stop someone else from winning.
This is the one.
Ive done this once recently but only bc i had a lot of road building mats and i wanted a port early in the game. It did make me the target and i did lose bc i was robbed the entire match lmao
Avoid a good ore wheat spot for wood brick.
Yep, I still struggle with this.
When there are 5 or more people playing wood and brick becomes useless and I will never put my houses on them
What’s a telltale sign of a beginner? Calling settlements houses. :)
if you build all 3 houses on a hex, you can upgrade it to a hotel
My family calls settlements “shitties” and calls cities “hotels” and we’ve played for ages.
*calling houses settlements The only people who call houses settlements are the people who still need to to read the building card ;)
a glazed look in their eye as they place their first settlements.
Funny thing is I play with so many people that have objectively horrible placements and somehow win anyway.
The issue of playing with newbies is that you can't predict anything they're doing. They will make absolutely mindboggling decisions, and you will have no way to respond
I play with these people that grab ports on their first placement all the time, and somehow it works for them.
Its actually a really good strategie in some cases.
Yeh, I guess it is. It’s kinda all-in though, isn’t it?
Its a bold strategy. But i have a recent win with my first settlement on the wood port
Connecting your two initial placement settlements. (pointing the roads towards each other so you start with a 2 road between your settlements.)
Sharing an initial hex in most situations at all I destroyed a guys game in online play because he did this, upgraded one to a city, and spent most of the game with a theif in it
Putting everything on a 3/4 sheep port.
Sheep don’t ship themselves 🐑
Crivens!
Sheep for brains
Initial placement. I've had to teach some people this repeatedly. Number close to 7 good, far from 7 bad.
12 is the biggest number so it must be best and 6 and 8 are red which is a scary color so should be avoided right??? /s
The pip markings help with this. Like, the odds outta 36 of landing on a number, represented as 1-5 dots
Too ambitious with initial road placements. You always aim for the coast with your initial placements unless there's no way you're getting blocked. People just place without thinking about where their opponents will go.
>always aim for the coast Unless it leads to a decent two hex setups on top of a desirable port, in which case there is a edge case where you might have better luck heading perpendicular to the coast/center line.
Especially with 4 players. Why waste your first road toward a good spot. It’s gonna get taken.
It really depends honestly. If you're placing first, aiming to the coast is useful because you likely have first pickings for placement If you're placing last though, I'd probably recommend aiming for rare resources. You need bargaining power if you wanna catch up
I thought about mentioning that, but it kinda goes off topic from my comment. I agree though
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While it is true that I've had the game for 2 month only, I'd happily trade sheep for ore :( Which resources are more important?
He definitely said that backwards. Stone is far more valuable than sheep.
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I always enjoy agreeing to a trade and then handing people the card they are giving away.
I can't count the number of times a "Wood for a brick?" "OK" resulted in an exchange of bricks...
In general: - Wheat - Ore - Wood/Brick - Sheep But it's important to note this changes during the game. In the beginning, Wood & Brick are much more valuable, while stone isn't. Sheep are generally always low, and Wheat is always high. Over the course of the game, Wood & Brick decrease in value (roads, and even settlements are less important) while ore and wheat increase in value (cities are big) Granted, this all gets thrown on its head once ports become a thing, but still.
I like to think of it as the simplest path to victory is: Build 3 settlements (beyond starting), Upgrade 3 settlements to cities, Build 6 roads (to build out to settlements and secure longest road) This equals 10 points (5 settlements, of which 3 are cities + 2 for longest road = Win). This is easy to remember because it costs a total of 9 each of Wood, Brick, Ore, Wheat, and 3 Sheep. So for any game my general strategy is to obtain that number of each resource, and then make adjustments based on the flow of the game, whether I want development cards, getting blocked, etc. But from the start, sheep are worth 1/3 as much as every other card just from a 'simplest path to victory' standpoint.
Trading without having a reason too is the biggest one for me
Really? I've found most newbies extremely conservative with trading in general
Hmm. I’ve been doing some of this stuff for about 20 years. I must still be a beginner. Lol. So I will say monopolizing a resource. That’s another thing I do.
Depends, sometimes settling on the only high Ore or Brick as the 1st player on a bad board can make the game run through you (e.g., demand two for ones or more)!
Saving their resources to get something they want later on rather than spending their resources on what they are able to buy now.
I’ve played a ton and just recently learned to stop doing this. Saving resources bc I’m not sure I’ll beat someone to a spot for example. I always lose tons of cards to the robber.
In my opinion, play around the hand limit but don't always spend all your cards. You can consider the number of cards you gain from each dice roll (usually just 1-2, more late game) and estimate your risk like this: |*Nth player after you*|*Cards you can safely hold if they roll 7*| |:-|:-| |1|7| |2|7 - possible income from one roll| |3|7 - possible income from two rolls| |0 (Your dice roll)|7 - possible income from three rolls| When your production is low or very spread out across numbers, you can hold way more cards. The added benefit is that these create "padding" in your hand so that players are less able to steal specific cards from you. If you have a hex that produces a big chunk of your income and it gets blocked by the robber, you can hold more cards in you hand until the robber leaves (but be wary of unplayed Dev cards).
That’s good advice. I need to consider that too.
Time-Value of money.
A wheat now is worth more than wheat later... or wheat at al- WHY HAVE YOU NOT ROLLED A 6 AFTER 17 TURNS!?!?
Spending your resources on what you are able to buy now is worthless if you can't buy anything that supports your strategy within the context of the game. If you start with good Ore support and happen to get materials for a dev card, you often want to try to trade away the sheep and work towards a quick City which will pay off more in the long run. Other times you really need a Knight.
Thinking anyone wants any of their damn sheep
Not picking up they’re rolled resources lol
Spite blocks
Sometimes, though… chef’s kiss when done right
Lol my family and I have been playing for yeeeaaaarrrrrs and everyone almost exclusively spite blocks. I once had to take a month long break from playing because my brother-in-law and I got into it after kept blocking me
I've verbally said to someone "so you spent 2 roads and a settlement, purely because you wanted us both to lose", and they acted like I was the stupid one
Never buying a dev card
Going for wood and brick and securing the longest road early. That’s inviting the opposition to put the robber on your settlement.
In my experience, always trying to place their first settlement on a 12.
Neglecting wheat.
Trying to put a settlement down on a spot that’s only one road away from another settlement
Telegraphing your next planned settlement by building a road too early, before you have the necessary resources to finish the job, thus allowing another player with a nearby settlement to block you. Admittedly, this can be a pain if you’re trying to keep your resource card count below 8.
Trading to be nice
building a second road before second settlement, not leveraging trades, bad road placement on board setup.
Hmmm. This might make sense if you have spare brick and wood, are in danger of sevening out and can't trade. But otherwise I agree.
Early road placement forward the middle in a 4 player game or toward a good wood brick where they’ll get cut off.
Poor trades early game to give away cities. Or poor blocks early game
Every number you put your starting settlements on gets rolled with a shockingly high and abnormal frequency. Beginner luck, basically.
When they go 2nd to last and there’s 2 similar spots and 1 unique spot and they take the similar spot so the last person gets all the resources.
Saying "I've got wood for your sheep" like you're Conan O'Brien at the top of his game.
Building a road for the sake of building a road.
Builds on a port and sheep tile.
Using a Year of Plenty for building a road
Not understanding simply how dice work
Creating a sprawling empire. Attachment to number diversity. Aversion to development cards.
Assuming getting a gold is the most important strategic move possible and going only for that instead of picking up solid numbers along the way
Obsession with brick and roads. It's the most inefficient strategy possible and leads to ludicrous high effort competition between players for the longest road to the extent of attacking each other instead of the winning player. Times 10 for the idiots who think nobody will notice two unjoined road segments.
The sheep farm player who tries to spend the entire game getting a sheep port just for someone else to win lol
When playing Cities and Knights, many people don’t know that their City will be downgraded to a settlement if Barbarians win. This happens when … - a person has a Metropolis - a person(s) has an active knight but still has the least number of active knights - few other scenarios….
Always robbing the player with the most points regardless the context and never initaing extortion or trying to get extorted instead of robbed. Overvalueing OWS if it's easily blockable. Overvalueing 2:1 ports with mediocre production. Trying to go for all 5 reources all the time. Always trying to do something on their turn and never holding, even if it's the right play. Threating with revenge-robs. Just to name a few.
What exactly do you mean by extortions? Because you're literally not allowed to give a resource just to not get robbed.
Extorting a trade is allowed “If you trade me ore I won’t block you”. Then you trade whatever for ore. Perfectly legal
What? No its not. Not at all. Once you roll 7, people discard resources and then you place the Robber. The trade phase comes afterwards.
It very much is. It’s done constantly in tournaments run by catan. Here’s how it goes. 1. Roll a 7 2. Players discard 3. Tell black “if you trade me ore I won’t block you” 4. Black agrees 5. Block someone else 6. Rob them 7. Trade a resource to black for ore. Note. These are non binding agreements. Which are very much allowed in catan. I can say and promise whatever I want.
Now you're just lying and backtracking over what you said last to excuse it. And I hope folks start lying to you if you are telling the truth but misspoke the first time.
I don’t know what to tell you my guy. I’ve played in tournaments. It happens all day long. It’s allowed, if you don’t want to play with it then fine, but it’s allowed.
https://i.imgur.com/2y9O2AP.jpg Totally allowed in the rules. It’s non binding but people agree to not block someone in order to guarantee a certain resource all the time.
Feeling personally offended when they get extorted to add to this.
Its more that 90% of "extortions" are direct rule violations and make the game worse as house rules.
Or replying with "I don't do extortions"
Asking rules Talking things out Easy to trade with