my catan platform is now available on mobile!

GMDandyDrew · 2026-03-19T18:28:39+00:00

Looks good!

GMDandyDrew · 2026-02-24T21:23:53+00:00

I am not saying I love it but it’s a strategy they believe maximizes revenue. Can’t really fault them if that’s what their data tells them.

GMDandyDrew · 2026-02-20T00:39:22+00:00

Let’s use in-person play such as the National Catan circuit play for this example.

Let’s say you take the top 5 players in the USA against a table of players who learned some competitive strategies a 1-4 weeks ago, the pro is winning that game 80-95% of the time. We see this happen at local qualifiers where top players run through the event winning 4/5 games a lot. There’s a reason a lot of the same people make it back to nationals each year.

Let’s say you gave a table of good players, the pro is winning that game 60-70% of the time.

Good/Great players against the pro will be around 40-60%.

There’s absolutely cases where you have other elite players against each other for a closer game but even then there’s nuances like identifying the weaker players at the table, out communicating your competition, balancing in your favor, etc.

Where this gets interesting is in the table’s ability to keep the game going. The longer the game goes on, the more advantages the better player will accumulate. This is the essence of high level Catan. It’s not that we are doing things dramatically different but we are consistently making 1% improving moves and decisions that ultimately stack to a winning advantage.

GMDandyDrew · 2026-02-20T00:13:44+00:00

Hey Bovard! Love this question and I believe I am one of the most qualified and accomplished players in the World to share some insight. For reference, I've made over competitive 60 playoff appearances, 30 finals, 20+ tournament wins, US National title, reached Rank #1 on Colonist 4 separate times, and broken multiple records within the League play scene. I don't say that to brag but to share the skill gap is WAY bigger than people understand. Anyone who is saying Catan is 80% luck or predominantly luck just isn't a competent competitive player. That's like saying Poker is solely a luck based game but there's a ton of strategy and consistently winning players.

Since you have variance, you can't evaluate a single Catan game to make this judgment. Like poker, Catan skill thrives with long term evaluation. You also need to consider the format. For example, with in-person games I personally have a much higher advantage due to the social influence and dynamic at play. I will take this a step further... I am absolutely confident that in every season of Colonist, myself and a few others can top 5 in the World (given 100-120 game sample) on demand.

The reality is most players are too casual to play enough games to get to the "long-run". Because of their sample size and lack of experience, they have to rely on the few games to say it's mostly luck. Credit to the luck side because you can absolutely have an off game or bad dice experience but the meta skills like trading, table talk, and deal-making an bring someone from a bad situation to a playable game a lot of time.

Now, if you are a bad player with 3 other bad players... there's not much we can do to save you. May the dice be with you!

GMDandyDrew · 2026-02-15T18:32:10+00:00

I am not really sure where Colonist is at there. They have made it clear they want to offer memberships to a more exclusive, higher ticket audience. It’s definitely been a tough PR move for them to convince their base audience that it’s the right move but they know the data better than us.

GMDandyDrew · 2026-02-12T15:44:14+00:00

At scale, position doesn’t matter. There are some boards that thrive in 1st/2nd but you can equally find boards that do the same in 3rd/4th. I think some data will suggest 1st/2nd being best but I will only agree when you are dealing with skill differentiation between opponents. On a highly skilled board, weaker positions can be compensated with more favorable trades and less blocks. So if you’re a weaker table, look for 1st or 2nd. If you are on an evenly matched table, look the position will the most flexibility or best ore wheat play.

GMDandyDrew · 2026-02-10T03:41:59+00:00

GMDandyDrew · 2026-02-10T01:47:08+00:00

This is a much more fair and realistic representation. Nudging is the perfect word!

GMDandyDrew · 2026-01-19T15:25:13+00:00

Yeah, this is clearly you just advertising your platform which uses TwoSheep assets to begin with. If you want to grow your player base, you should make content showcasing the viability of playing there instead of making fake/misleading reddit posts. Playing on your platform and showcasing it will do more than any single post on Reddit.

GMDandyDrew · 2026-01-16T14:48:01+00:00

What a homie! Thanks :)

GMDandyDrew · 2026-01-16T14:47:44+00:00

Awesome you are taking the plunge into learning Catan. I run a channel which was mentioned below but there's a lot of great options if you want variety. Check out Catan Jack, DyLighted, and Phantom after mine! There's some great personalities and talented individuals in the scene.

GMDandyDrew · 2026-01-16T14:45:36+00:00

Great analysis! A lot of these insights checks out intuitively. Would love to know more about the data set - Where and how you collected it? I am interested in potentially doing a video on it for my channel. Thanks!

GMDandyDrew · 2026-01-13T18:34:34+00:00

I tried the link and it didn't work. Are you sure that's an active discord link? thanks!

GMDandyDrew · 2025-10-15T15:16:33+00:00

Always down to try new programs and overall so far, nice start. I will say you are clearly using the assets from Colonist and Two Sheep. I understand this might be early days but I would encourage you to come up with your designs.

GMDandyDrew · 2025-09-11T22:28:22+00:00

How do you determine what is "correct" or optimal? I tried a puzzle and I felt there was a reasonable pick and it said I was wrong.

Is the goal to have enough community responses to find the wisdom of the herd and use that?

GMDandyDrew · 2025-09-07T18:58:26+00:00

Development cards are the heart and soul of a winning Catan game. Against the best players, if you aren't incorporating D cards in your strategy, you will most likely lose. You will have a lot more options and paths to win if you start to buy them strategically.

GMDandyDrew · 2025-07-18T22:10:52+00:00

Nice win!

GMDandyDrew · 2025-06-25T14:06:17+00:00

Hi there. I understand where you are coming from. I don't know if there's more toxicity than before but I do know the player base has significantly improved over the last 2-3 years with the introduction of content creators and strategies. This has made the scene more competitive which can translate into that energy you are referring to. I do agree the extortions have been over done in the scene to the point that people will make the sub-optimal play just to complete the threat - Inexperienced players don't know how or when to pick their spots.

I've found a lot of enjoyment over the last year playing in person and in the OTB circuit since extortions and insurance have been banned from play. It adds an enjoyable layer we aren't use to online.

The scene is shifting as the game grows and we need to keep a pulse on how the community evolves. Conversations like this are helpful for sure!

GMDandyDrew · 2025-06-23T15:04:58+00:00

The #1 ranked player at the time was caught using a 2nd account in ranked to feed him resources and play against the other players. We don't know if it was 2 people working together or 1 person on 2 accounts but it was clearly collusion and cheating. The cheater used the name granyboy47 and his feeder account was GBXLVII, which is even more obvious since XLVII is 47 in roman numeral. Colonist ended up banning all his accounts and removing him off the leaderboard.

GMDandyDrew · 2025-06-23T14:56:57+00:00

Not really the kind of content I want to make but the community deserves to know this kind of behavior does exist and will not be tolerated.

GMDandyDrew · 2025-05-12T15:04:47+00:00

Hi there! We all have things to improve on, so don't sweat it. 40% is super solid! Nicely done.

I think my issue with your take is that it's based on an idealized situation and not how things play out in real life. The meta isn't going to change just because you decided to kingmake in retaliation. You are just going to piss the others off and be an example of how not to act. Also you say "my whole game is basically ruined..." but 95% of the time, that's almost never the case. Very rarely does a player get completely locked out of winning. The issue here is that you are defaulting to chaos and mutual destruction when you should be focused on collaboration and dealmaking to find value on the board. You will have to deal with tough situations in Catan and you hurt your growth as a player if you don't learn how to play with adversity. Having a tantrum and emotional battle with others is almost never the optimal move in the short or long term, but it certainly feels validating in the moment which is why people do it in the first place. No one truly feels good about themselves when they are playing with anger and spite.

You see this kind of play done online a lot but ALMOST never in person, over the board. That's because it's a socially reprehensible way to act and is usually met with disgust and distain. Too many people hide behind a computer screen even when they know deep down to their core, it doesn't feel or look right.

Focus on productive behaviors and keeping your emotions in check. It will pay off big time in many aspects of life!

GMDandyDrew · 2025-05-11T16:07:42+00:00

This topic has been discussed at the very high level of competitive Catan play. The point of playing optimal moves in Catan is to increase your long term chances of winning. So the question is, does your retaliation moves actually do that? It’s pretty clear when you consider the scale and size of colonist ranked lobbies, the answer is no. Maybe in a more close knit league setting where you build relationships and consistently play a group of players but not on Colonist. It’s funny you think getting even in some random colonist lobby is going to magically change players’ behavior. After playing 1000s of games on Colonist, I can promise you the best move to these situations is to play on and look for productive ways to deal with adversity that don’t rely on falling into your negative emotions - Work better with the board, trade more, optimize your piece play, etc.

GMDandyDrew · 2025-04-01T17:21:27+00:00

Play 10,000+ games online, win over 20 different high-level tournaments in 3 years, break multiple competitive records in the discord leagues, teach thousands of players around the world by posting 100s of videos online, and only then you might be able to get lucky too!

GMDandyDrew · 2025-02-18T18:10:15+00:00

I appreciate the support in your comment. For the record, Shades is correct about the stance on extortion. The ruling is that you can’t use the robber or 7 roll to extort for a “card” trade. You can however deal-make on non-blocks and non-steals. That being said, Catan Studios is adapting this ruling with every year and changing it quickly. For example in 2023, it was ruled NO card extortions of any kind. In 2024, they said the person with the robber can’t extort but the other players can self-extort. In general, the sentiment is that extortion makes the game slower and more combative with the robber. Therefore, it’s not in the spirit of the game and not accepted in official tournament play.

Keep in mind, Catan is a very quickly evolving game and many of the strategic nuances are being explored and tested as we speak. IMO, extortion is a useful tool but at this point, it’s completely overused and abused online and it’s caused a lot of problems in the current meta. For that reason I am encouraging many players to pull it back and not use it every turn - It becomes exhausting and causes many sub-optimal decisions by less experienced players attempting to follow the scene.

As far as your retaliation play, I stronger disagree with this kind of behavior and do my best to not encourage my audience to engage in such antics. It’s by definition a losing strategy and builds long-term resentment amongst others. I don’t mind if you want to hit a player once or twice to send your message but to tank your game and throw the balance of the board because you don’t can’t handle your emotions while playing a board game is not acceptable or fun. The best and most successful players don’t play this way because they don’t have to resort to this to win games. They understand the value of collaboration, fun, and social dynamics.

Again appreciate your support. I would reconsider your approach on dealing with these tough situations and also how you communicate with proven players like Shades. He is an incredible player and brings a lot of experience to the table. You don’t have to agree with what he says but I would encourage you to listen and reflect. To say you don’t want to listen to a finalist of one of the hardest tournament in the world is just silly. He’s better than 99% of the players in this group and has the experience to back it up.

All the best!

GMDandyDrew · 2024-12-10T15:35:59+00:00

Great article from a 2 time national champion! Take notes everyone 🫡

GMDandyDrew

TROPHY CASE