c/board-game-geeks

Rant: Played Catan wrong for 3 years until a stranger called me out at a game cafe

I always thought you could build settlements on any intersection that wasn't touching another settlement, but this guy in Portland pointed out the rule about having to be 2 hexes away from your own roads. Turns out I'd been giving myself an unfair advantage the whole time. Has anyone else missed a basic rule and only found out through public embarrassment?

0 comments

-2

felixhenderson•2d ago

Heads up about that ‘winning strategy’ post on BGG that everyone is sharing

I tried that 'always buy the cheapest property' trick from the top post on the Geek last week and it totally tanked my game of Power Grid. Got stuck with no cash and couldn't even build a single plant by round 3. Has anyone else actually made that approach work or did I just misread the whole thing?

2 comments

david_reed22•2d ago

Rant: I spent 2 years organizing my collection by color and it was a total mistake

I finally figured this out last weekend when I couldn't find a single game for game night. My shelves looked great, all rainbow-like and pretty. But when my group showed up and wanted something light to start, I spent 15 minutes scanning rows of blue and green boxes. My buddy Mike just grabbed Carcassonne from a random stack on my coffee table and said "dude, just sort them by player count or something." He was right. I switched everything to categories - party games, strategy, 2-player, family weight - and now I can actually grab what I need in seconds. Has anyone else fallen for the "looks good on Instagram" trap with their game storage?

2 comments

ericcraig•3d ago

Rant: That board game cafe in Portland I visited last Saturday had zero rulebooks on the shelves

I walked in ready to try some new games and every single box I picked up was missing the rule sheet, just had a QR code taped to the inside lid that took me to a dead link, which felt like a total setup for a bad experience with strangers at a table, has anyone else run into this lazy trend at game cafes?

4 comments

cole_murphy•4d ago

Lost the rulebook for a game mid-session and had to improvise for 3 hours

I was running a game of Arkham Horror at a friend's place in Denver last Saturday. Six people showed up, we had snacks ready, and then I realized the rulebook was missing from the box. I had to piece together how combat and sanity checks work from memory and quick phone searches. It slowed everything down, and one guy kept arguing that I was making up rules. We finally finished around midnight, but two people said they still had fun. Has anyone else ever had to wing a game without the manual and actually pulled it off?

c/board-game-geeks

Rant: Played Catan wrong for 3 years until a stranger called me out at a game cafe

Heads up about that ‘winning strategy’ post on BGG that everyone is sharing

Rant: I spent 2 years organizing my collection by color and it was a total mistake

Rant: That board game cafe in Portland I visited last Saturday had zero rulebooks on the shelves

Lost the rulebook for a game mid-session and had to improvise for 3 hours

My Catan game nearly ended a friendship last Friday night

Game night disaster with Catan taught me to ditch cutthroat play

A buddy told me my game reviews read like instruction manuals and he was right

Local game store wants to charge $10 to play there. Am I crazy for thinking that's too much?

That time a playtester roasted my rulebook and saved my game night

Bought into the hype on a $70 Kickstarter miniatures game and it actually delivered

Just counted my game collection and hit 87 boxes. That's way more than I thought I owned.

Dude at my local game store swore I was wrong about deck thickness

That $60 expansion I bought ended up ruining my favorite game night

Went to a game cafe in Portland and saw a guy arguing with Catan pieces for 20 minutes

Just crossed 100 unique board games played this year

Spent 3 hours trying to sort my game collection by BGG weight ratings before realizing I don't even like heavy games.

Warning: My group's favorite campaign just fell apart mid-scenario last night

Visited a board game cafe in Denver and watched a group argue over Catan rules for 45 minutes

Finally played Gloomhaven after years of hearing about it...

My buddy Mike swore by foam core inserts for years, I finally caved

Hit 100 plays on my favorite deck and didn't realize until I counted

The rulebook for Terraforming Mars was hiding a scoring tip I missed for 2 years

I think board game meetups got way more efficient around 2019

That guy at my FLGS told me to ditch my min-maxed deck for a theme build