Accidentally played Catan with missing resources, nobody noticed for 2 hours

We set up at my buddy's place in Puyallup and someone brought a used copy that was short 3 wheat and 2 ore cards. Halfway through the game I noticed we kept passing the deck around and land wasn't producing right, so I just started counting cards quietly. Turns out the previous owner wrote a cheat sheet inside the box lid, and when we matched the count to the sheet, we found the missing cards stuck behind the board insert... We put them back and finished in 15 minutes. Has anyone else rescued a game with a hidden stash like that, or do you just house rule it and move on?

2 comments

2 Comments

angela4323d ago

Ha! Classic move. Every board game has that one card that somehow teleports behind the insert and starts its own little life. I once found a whole settlement piece in the bottom of a pizza box after we'd already called the game a draw. And that cheat sheet thing, that's not a cheat sheet, that's a treasure map. Honestly, your buddy's copy probably just wanted you to work for that wheat for a change. Next time just blame the dog, it's way easier than counting cards like a casino dealer.

willow_garcia23d ago

Is it really that deep though? It's a card in a box, not a missing person case. People act like losing a wheat card means the whole game's integrity is shot, but honestly, half the fun is improvising when stuff goes missing. I've played whole Catan games where we just used spare dice as substitute sheep and nobody called the cops. The cheat sheet thing, sure, that's mildly annoying, but usually it's just someone who forgot the rules and wanted a quiet crutch. Blaming the dog works until someone actually checks under the board and finds the card sitting right where it always was.