Post originally by Clint at 2003-12-24 12:59:57
Converted from Phorums BB System

Hello, Shannon. First, let me say that your reviews are always informative and a pleasure to read.

I wanted to share the only flaw that my game group has found that isn't mentioned in your review, and see what you think. We call it the "player left behind" problem. At a point sometime in the middle of every game, you can divide the players into two categories: "has a shot at winning" and "left behind". For us, having playing it for more than a year, it's easy to see which category each player is in. This time usually happens when the island of Catan is fully developed or soon will be, and one or more people is stuck with developing into terribly suboptimal development sites, or none at all. The game continues on, with two or three leaders struggling and conniving for the win, but for that person who got crowded out or unlucky in the first half, there are no suprises coming in the second half.

It's our only real problem with the game, but for us it's the biggest one, and enough to keep us from playing the game regularly. One of the four of us is just watching in the end stages.

Have you observed anything like this?

Again, thanks for this great review and all the others.

-Clint