5 Signs You've Outgrown Settlers of Catan (And What to Play Instead)

1. You Dread How Long It Takes

Sure, there are plenty of excellent board games with playtimes longer thanCatan. It isn’t the playtime itself that’s a problem—it’s the fact that so much of the playtime is empty downtime.

Yeah, most turn-based games have downtime when it isn’t your turn. But it’s particularly bad inCatan.

You can’t plan ahead because your next play depends on what everyone else rolls, so you have to sit around and twiddle your thumbs while everyone else goes.

And God help you if you’re playing with an Overthinker at your table! Few things are more frustrating than waiting 10 minutes for someone to finally take action.

Related:The different types of board gamers

2. You Hate Missing Turns for No Reason

There’s nothing inherently wrong with randomness in games. Some of my favorite games of all time, including Poker, havetonsof randomness.

So why is it a problem inCatan? Because inCatan, a bad dice roll means losing your entire turn. If you roll an 8 and none of your hexes have an 8, tough luck! It’s not exactly a rare occurrence.

The nature ofCatan’srandomness means you could miss several turns in a row—through no fault of your own! This can make an already-long game feel excruciatingly long.

3. You Hate Being Ganged Up On

Much of the strategy inCatanhinges on the trading aspect.

If you want to take down the leader and have any chance of overtaking them, you need to 1) stop trading with them and 2) hinder them with the Robber.

The problem with this? Everyone at the tableexceptthe leader is going to have the same strategy, which inevitably leads to trade embargoes and repeat Robberies.

It keeps going until the table decides you’ve been put in your place. Not fun at all because it leads to a bunch of empty, boring turns—and can even cause friction between players.

4. You Hate the Fate of the Initial Setup

InCatan, you place two settlements at the start of the game, and these settlements pretty much dictate the rest of the game.

If you make a poor placement—whether because you made a miscalculation, you were forced into it by other player placements, or you’re a newbie and don’t know better—it can be extremely difficult to recover from.

Furthermore, bad placements increase your likelihood of bad dice rolls, so you lose more turns. The first decision inCatanis the most important decision inCatan; it’s all downhill from there.

5. You Want More Strategic Decisions

After the initial setup, there aren’t many interesting decisions to make inCatan.

Even though you have four possible actions—Settlement, City, Road, or Development Card—only one or two of them really make sense at any given point in the game.

Even the trading aspect ofCatanisn’t all that interesting; most trades are pretty straightforward, as anything less than a 1:1 trade is inefficient and it’s hard to make a bad trade once you’re familiar with how the game plays.

What Should You Play Instead of Catan?

How do you know you’ve outgrownCatan? When you get to that point whereCatanfeels like too long of a game for its shallow, luck-based gameplay. Just as you once graduated fromMonopolytoCatan, it’s now time to graduate again.

Here are some other board games you might like:

The Castles of Burgundyhas resources, settlements, dice rolls, the whole shebang—and a whole lot more, like worker tokens and a fixed number of rounds so the game never goes too long.

It’s a relatively complex game, but the added complexity is well worth the ramped up fun factor and reduced influence of randomness.

It’s reallyCatan: The Next Levelin many ways, so definitely give this one a try if you can (perhaps at a board game cafe near you).

Much likeCatan,Stone Agehas you collecting and trading resources to build up your village.

While there’s some luck involved,Stone Ageproves more fun thanCatanbecause the interactions are constant, downtime is minimal, and there’s always something you can do.

It’s a little more complex thanCatan, which also means it’s never quite clear who the winner is until the very end.

Related:The Best Cheap Budget Board Games, Ranked

Just as you collect resources and spend them to build roads inCatan, you collect train tickets and spend them to build train routes inTicket to Ride.

ButTicket to Rideis less cutthroat thanCatan, so it isn’t liable to ruin as many friendships, and you’ll never be ruined by a series of bad dice rolls.

Related:The Best Board Games With Trains, Ranked

The link betweenCatanandPandemicmay be tenuous, but I think it’s the perfect next game if you despise the competitive aspect ofCatanand board games in general.

Pandemicis a cooperative game—you’re all on the same team—and the goal is the cleanse the world of viruses before increasingly frequent epidemics wipe everyone out.

You manage and trade cards as resources like inCatan, but the decisions are more interesting and more tense.

Related:The best collaborative board games

Concordiais a strategic economic development game likeCatan, but it has very few random elements. Everyone starts with the same resources in hand and the winner is determined by smart plans and smart plays.

However, there’s no player-to-player trading, so this may not be the game for you if that’s the aspect you like aboutCatan.

Read next:Must-Have Starter Board Games for Any Growing Collection

The Castles of Burgundy