Vent: Tried that "house rule" for Settlers of Catan where everyone gets a free road at the start and it broke the whole game

My group in Austin tried this last week to make the early game faster. Thought it would help people get stuck less. Big mistake. First player to place their initial settlements just stacked roads toward the best spots and nobody could catch up. Three games in a row ended with the same guy winning by like 6 points. Has anyone else found a house rule that sounded good but actually made things worse?

2 comments

2 Comments

jessec3921d ago

Did you guys try banning road building from the stone port or something? The free road just made the starting positions way too powerful since whoever went first could basically claim a third good spot before anyone else even placed their second settlement. That's actually why I prefer a variant where everyone starts with one free development card instead, it gives you a random bonus but doesn't warp the whole map.

williams9021d agoTop Commenter

Eh, I'm not sure the free road is that game breaking honestly. I've seen people win with the fourth pick just by grabbing the best sheep or wheat spots and ignoring the road bonus entirely (like, who cares about an extra road if you're sitting on a 6-9 wheat port?). The development card start sounds fun but it feels like it just trades one random advantage for another, you know? I'd rather just play the base game and accept that going first is a tiny edge that gets balanced out by the dice anyway.