CATAN STRATEGY: A Complete Guide to Winning the Popular Board Game

Excellent book written to get right to the point and provide some insight, strategies, and statistics. Have implemented the strategy in play, and it works - especially small tidbits and tips on how to identify weak / strong players, and which processes will fizzle out as the game goes on.

Great resource to better understand tournament stye play vs casual. Easy to follw examples. Very insiteful to learng the art of trading. A fun and informative read if you want to improve your chances of winning at Catan.

Got hubby book to help him play the game. Nice paperback.

Helpful, but heavy in the author’s experiences, rather than strategy & tactics. Tip that got my attention, use white settlers set because color does not stand out like the other colors.

There were amazing Cat an tips in here and great things to think about. Honestly they really just need to put the book through Microsoft Word's spell and grammar check and have a friend or two read it over and it would be 5/5.

Some good info, not well presented. A *lot* of material using his 19** competition triumph to emphasize a vaguely defined point.

This books seems to get recommended a lot. I think only because it's the only Catan book out there. It has very general advice and platitudes that is not very useful. There is literally no specific advice given, on game situations, ect. I actually found the one dollar quick catan kindle book much more useful.

The book is nice and easy to follow. I would like some more concrete examples of strategies to follow in certain situations (such as board illustrations) rather than just pointing out theory. The theory explained though is good and easy to follow, thus I believe that iterative deepening is required for this book.

A nice book to get a little deeper in this wonderful board game. I personally liked the "Strategies", "Build" and "Settle" chapters and I would love an extended version with more tips about initial placements and what one should prioritize and when, etc. In any case, the book is a good guide and the bookbinding is okay, also the price.

One of my favourite board games at the moment is Catan, you might also know it as Settlers of Catan. It's a brilliant strategy game that's popular all over the world since it's creation by Klaus Teuber back in 1995. I only discovered it in 2017 when my gaming group were watching Wil Wheaton's Tabletop. Even though I've played various tabletop games for as long as I can remember, playing more video games and having Magic The Gathering dominate our life for a few years, well that kept other games on the shelves and we didn't really research them until I started our Game Day meets at the start of 2017. Since then our collection has grown a lot. Catan being one of the more popular games at our table. In 2019, I went to two events (UK Games Expo and Tabletop Gaming Live) which were holding Catan World Championship qualifiers. I wasn't massively experienced at the game but I wasn't bad, so thought I'd give it a go. I lost every game I played, and at that time, I put it down to the dice. Everything I wanted, it felt like the dice were against me. It was a lot of fun, I chatted to a lot of nice people, even though I didn't get anywhere in the games. It taught me a lot but not enough. I still didn't understand how a game where the dice mess you over so much can even entertain a World Championship, but how are the same people winning tournaments if that was the case? I played more, gave myself a better idea of the game, but I knew there were still little secrets hiding to stop my victory next time. I watched a couple of online videos which gave me two or three new ideas I hadn't thought of, and then I saw a book on Amazon. Catan Strategy by Mark Oxer. I decided I was going to buy it the same time as I bought the Catan Puzzle book. As Christmas approached, I did my usual Instagram searching, which is always board game based, and I like everything Catan. I came across without realising it, Mark Oxer's Instagram account. We got nattering and he's a really down to earth bloke. He even gave me some Splendor advice because it's a game I love to hate and hate to love, and the only game that makes me want to go out and destroy the planet if I lose. After Christmas, I did a fair amount of shopping and bought the book. The Catan Puzzle Book has been reviewed as I did buy that alongside Catan Strategy, you can have a read of that if you wish. The thing I loved about Catan Strategy as soon as I started reading it is the relaxed way it's written. Mark talks about his experiences at tournaments, mainly since his Catan Canadian title in 2005, and he has won many others since so he definitely knows what he's talking about. He brings across ideas you might not have thought of. I've had a strategy on Catan and it hasn't been too bad, but since researching and now thanks to Mark Oxer's book, my strategy has completely changed. I see things I didn't see before. I've been a gamer all of my life, a champion of Tetris, and used to be ahead of the race. I discovered Catan as I hit my 40's and not being able to play games as much as I used to, I can only put it down to getting slower with age. That, and as much as I love Catan, I'm not as good as I'd like to be. Catan Strategy isn't just a book of the best ways to win Catan, it's a biography of a champion. In fact, if Mark Oxer writes another book, I'd love to read more experiences from the conventions and venues he's been to, what kinds of people he's met, and more about other games he's played, Catan and other titles. I find it fascinating when someone so successful at a game as brilliant as Catan, talks about what he's seen and done at these events. The only downer I have on this book is there's a bit of revising on some words, but nothing that can harm the content or the advice. This is a very good book that not just Catan players should buy, but tabletop players in general should get because I don't think this just covers Catan. There's a lot about psychology, and there might be a few methods you could use in other games, mainly if you're aiming to enter a tournament. My own advice about entering tournaments, just do it, even if you're a lot less experienced than the other players at the table. You can meet a lot of nice people and gain some new memories, not only that, maybe you could be a future champion. ​ Very good book by a Catan champion, should be on every tabletoppers shelf.

Mark uses stores and illustrations to help articulate many useful strategies that can be used to improve your gameplay. A must read for new and experienced gamers alike!

Likes: Great strategies Interesting anecdotes Dislikes or needs improvements: Too many grammatical and spelling mistakes Needs more illustrations to demonstrate concepts. It's hard to follow with only words. Needs more examples. For example, he talks about multiplayer trading without giving a concrete example. I recommend this to beginners who want to improve in Catan.

Makes me want to play Catan again! I’ve played a LOT over the years, and yet still this book provided ideas I hadn’t thought of before. Numerous topics covered including trading psychology and tips specific to tournament play. The only beef I have are some grammar issues which would have made it five stars if fixed by better editing.