Why Settlers of Catan Beats Monopoly Every. Single. Time. | Top Board Games

0:03 yes you owe me some rent look i don't have any money on me right now but i can definitely trade you one sheep and two would monopoly is a board game that has a very deep footprinted history whenever you have a casual conversation about board games with other people monopoly often reads its ugly head into the conversation people have a really strong sense of nostalgia attached to the board game monopoly whether it be memories of playing it for three days on end or whether you forced another player into bankruptcy which then ended up in a fight monopoly has definitely made its mark on the board gaming world in fact every single year a new incarnation of monopoly gets released ranging from monopoly sore losers edition to monopoly speed settlers of guitar is a spilled ajar's winning board game about trading settlement and discovery people often see katan as the monopoly of the modern board gaming world people use monopoly as a gateway game into other more complex and deeper games that are out there in the board gaming hobby and in this video we look at the reasons why settlers of guitar is far superior to monopoly in every single way and just before we get into the video if you really want to see board game sanctuary grow please remember to check out my patreon page link in the description box below now on to the video there is one major similarity between

1:34 monopoly and sellers of guitar and that is the fact that in both games players need to roll two dice in monopoly the dice are used to allow the players to move their pawn around in the board in a linear fashion landing on properties income tax and free parking as they go whereas in sellers in qatar the dice are used to acquire resources such as wood brick iron ore wheat and sheep now if you know a little bit about probability if you roll two dice the frequency of rolling a seven is extremely high because there are so many different ways to make seven when you roll two dice followed by six and eight the numbers 12 and two are less frequently rolled in monopoly plays fates lie in what numbers are rolled and in fact if you think about the geography of the monopoly board rolling a seven multiple times is actually quite common or combinations of 14 is actually quite common meaning that if you buy properties that are spaced 7 to 14 spaces away from the go space or even the jail space you're going to have a slight advantage over the other place who bought property elsewhere whereas in cell as a catan the two dice actually dictate what resources you can get into your hand and therefore trade with the other players the use of the dice in setlist guitar is far more powerful because it exploits the use of the number seven and takes it to another level that monopoly doesn't explore for example when you roll a seven in settlers and guitar you get the power of the robber and the robber is extremely

3:05 powerful for helping to balance the game out you get to pick the rubber up place it on another hex tile to block the production of another resource that another player might want you get to steal a resource from another player's hand meaning if you know someone's got wood and you want to take wood and you want to use the wood in your own development then you target that player you also force that player or one of the other players to discard half of the resource cards in their hand meaning that the power of rolling a seven becomes far more significant and strategic in a game like sellers of katan compared to monopoly monopoly it's all down to random chance of where you are on the board how you're going to move and there is no real way to negate the nasty and negative effects of a poor dice roll meaning that you could accidentally roll a two and land on mayfair and have to pay thousands of dollars to another player the way that money is used in monopoly it's used in the form of collecting rent using it to purchase houses and upgrading them to hotels as well as paying for tax throughout the game plays who can trade and acquire the most amount of money and also the capitalize on the most amount of properties will win monopoly the game however the way players acquire the money is actually very very skewered it all comes down to bidding on the right

4:35 properties at the right time so landing on this a particular property that you know some other player might want and nabbing it from them using that hard-earned cash means that you can deny that play for the next two or three hours in the game this can prove to be a very frustrating experience the fact that you have cash yet you don't have the choice of where you want to spend the cash you are desperately spending the first two or three hours of your game of monopoly trying to get the cut right colored property set whereas in settlers of katan the five resources aren't the primary way that you're going to win the game in fact they're the avenue that allows you to shape the pathway that leads to your victory in the game basically collecting these resources in certain combinations and training them with different plays means that you can acquire better buildings better cities build roads and also development cars they're going to help to expand the civilization that you were starting in the island of katan it is the expansion element rather than the resource itself that leads to your victory having lots of a single type of resource in qatar isn't going to help you win the game in fact diversity is the key having a diverse range of resources in the right combinations and having the right training partners and the right links to those ports means that you're going to be able to acquire these resources in a very strategic and very well

6:06 planned way so that when you do win the game you feel like it is well and truly deserved design of the playing area and the game boards of the geography of how everything is laid out is vastly different in both settlers and guitar and monopoly monopoly exists as a linear track that travels in a very square fashion where players can only move in one direction in settlers guitar the hex tiles and the way that the aisle is formed is going to be different every single game the combination is almost limitless and also the way that the numbered resource disks are placed out means that different resources are going to be far more popular and numerous in different games compared to other games you've previously played before by using the numbers based on the number that you roll on the dice and the resource that is produced for example sheep might be really popular in one game but it could be really scarce in another game the use of these number discs and the combination and geographical layout of the tiles themselves means that each game is going to feel like a randomly generated minecraft world where different binds and resources are going to appear in different places based on a strict algorithm

7:37 the fact that the katan hextiles have six edges and six corners to them means that when plays reach certain junctions on the map of qatar they're going to have a plethora of options different options of which direction they want to build their road and establish their next settlement which direction they want to try and aim to build a city in or which direction they want to use to try and craft the longest road across the aisle throughout both monopoly and setlist guitar players are going to be dealing negotiating and trading in monopoly players going to be bidding on properties that are unpurchased by the other players they're going to be trading properties they're going to be adding and sweetening the deal so that they can get the right colored properties in front of them so they can build their little empire whereas in settlers of catan players are simply trading and negotiating more at a resource acquisition level the fact that you might want to trade one sheet for two wood or two brick for an ore or three wheat for an all this negotiation currency occurs far more in a fluid and simpler way in settlers of catan compared to monopoly in monopoly there's a huge element of maths that plays do need to take into consideration how much is it mortgage for what is the rental income how much the property is worth if i give you a pink property and you give me a blue property so that we both can complete our sets how much am i calculating here so that

9:07 i'm going to be better off that economic element in monopoly really weighs it down i mean some people love the maths in monopoly and other people just like you know what i'm just going to swap those two properties without even thinking about the monetary value whereas in seller's guitar it removes all of that economic thought behind it in settlers and guitar and you're thinking about the combinations of resources that you want do i need to we how do i get my or if i can negotiate with those two partners at my table then i can build what i want

9:45 the use of cards throughout both monopoly and settlers of qatar are there to add twists and turns to the journey that plays take throughout a game meaning that it adds variety and variability to each game experience that plays embark on in monopoly they come in the form of chance and community chess cards whereas in setlist guitar it comes in the form of development cards in monopoly the chance cards have you either moving around the board moving to the nearest station moving to the nearest utility or collecting ten 10 in a beauty pageant they also have cards that help you to get out of jail or sometimes send you to jail those particular ability cards don't really change the game significantly enough to help you to win the game sending someone to jail or getting a jail out of free card really doesn't help that play progress that much it really provides players with very short-term benefits that don't help player to achieve their ultimate objective and that is to bankrupt the other players whereas the development cards and settlers of qatar provide alternative avenues and other ways to win the game they can often feel deceptive secretive and very tense as well they added extra layer of attention to the game that makes the other players feel uncertain about who is exactly in the lead and it also creates a heightened level of suspense and tension to the game itself it might be the fact that you

11:16 have a quieter knight to expand your army and gain the largest army card it might be that you have hidden victory points hidden underneath your cards it could be a special ability that you could use once that can reshape how you reach your end goal the development cards are far more superior than the chance and community chess cards of p in monopoly because of the way they are used and how they help players reach their end goal

11:53 the way that players gain their victory in both monopoly and settlers of guitar is vastly different in monopoly it's the play who is left standing with money and property assets still in front of them when the other players have either forfeited or gone bankrupt or declared bankruptcy in setlister katan it's the player who acquires 10 victory points or more in monopoly forcing other players to go bankrupt can occur in several ways it might be the fact that you have multiple colored property sets that other players land on and they're forced to pay you a certain amount of money based on the number of houses or hotels you have on your properties which means that the higher the price that they have to pay the less likely that they're going to have assets to be able to pay their debts and this whole process of paying a debt can feel incredibly punishing in monopoly you can often see who is going to win a game of monopoly quite far ahead before the game finishes in settlers of katan players are given victory points based on different levels of achievement that they've made throughout the game think of it as little milestones it might be building the longest road and taking the longest road car to get two victory points it might be building a settlement to gain one victory point or upgrading a settlement to a city to gain two victory points the accumulation of these milestones that plays reach actually feels far more satisfying because you can see your property grow right in front of you you can see your opponent's

13:24 properties grow and develop as if they're competing towns or competing cities on the same map there is a sense of balance in a game of settlers of guitar and you feel that whatever points you scored by the end of a game of settlers guitar is based on the milestones and the victories that you have reached i hope this video gave you a very valuable insight into the differences between monopoly and settlers of katan especially if you're a brand new board gamer to the board gaming hobby if you've reached the end of this video and you really don't like monopoly then definitely like subscribe and share this video to all of your friends and family including those monopoly enthusiasts hopefully this video might change their mind also if you really want to help board game sanctuary grow please remember to check out my patreon page link in the description box below i make produce film and edit all of these videos all on my own and any support would be truly appreciated this is danny sonia thank you for joining me for another board game sanctuary video i look forward to seeing you in the near future and don't forget to game you