Catan Classic Wiki

There’s not much to say, if you like the game, you’ll likely enjoy the app as it is faithful to the original game. I’ve played 100’s of games and can tell you the dice roll randomly (though you will still lose some games due to them not always following the bell curve), and there’s nothing to back up the game being rigged besides some users feeling cheated that a game had an unusual number of 12’s or 3’s. You can even check the stats at the end of the game to see what numbers were rolled most often. It’s main fault comes with the AI. The computer players have limited intelligence and will allow you to always fish for a better trade deal or build towards a spot you’ll obviously head them off on. This makes it easier to win, but they are still competitive enough to win if the dice don’t fall your way. Lastly, the game will occasionally start to crash by not displaying some pop-ups. This is easily solved by backing out of the game and re-entering, but that should ideally Not be needed. Only bug I’ve found.

I’ve spent the past year playing this game. I’ve read more than a few reviews about how the game is unfair or it’s impossible to win, etc and that’s not true. Sometimes the game players do make weird decisions but they each have a specific way they’re programmed to play, and just like playing with real people, you can figure out their style and use it against them. When I first started playing the game I think it was about 20 games or more before I finally won. Now? I win a good 75% of the games. So the game isn’t impossible, it just requires critical thinking and strategy planning, learning your opponents weaknesses, etc. My only complaint is that the latest update made all of the lettering insanely small. Luckily I have an iphone 8 Plus or I’d never be able to see it. So here’s hoping that gets fixed asap. Other than that, I think this game is fantastic because easy games get boring quickly and I’ve played this game for hours on end for a year and still love it.

I was just introduced to the board game this past week whilst on vacation, and as soon as we played our first game -- I was hooked! Decided to give the mobile game a go because I know this will be the only chance I get to get my fix of Settlers in. Read the reviews which said that the AI becomes basically impossible to beat which meant I definitely had to try it. But first, I tried the online experience -- definitely something left to be desired there. Wait time to find a lobby was long, and once I was able to join a game the group suffered connection issues and players exiting and entering the game. So yeah, first online Settlers attempt...not so great. But why wait around for some noobs to POSSIBLY play their turn, when you can get instant gratification from playing AI!? So, I scroll through the custom game set-up mode, and before you know it, I'm laying down the foundation of becoming The Lord of Catan! Lemme tell you, the game held true to the reviews I read. The computer seems to pull off these ridiculous come from behind wins; rolling an absurd amount of 7s, and rallying together to play back to back to back knight cards against you! I was determined though. Every loss was motivation to try a different approach, and what do you know....6 hours later, I finally friggin beat the AI. Yessir. I can finally go to bed!

I loved the board game and truly excited and have enjoyed the creation of this app; however, the Artificial Intelligence is clearly calculated against you and to an unrealistic degree. I know the roll of the die are left up to “chance,” but your number gets rolled repeatedly once the robber has been placed on that number. Once you are ahead and nearing victory, you will get hit with an onslaught of knight cards, robber rolls, monopoly cards and 12+ rolls with not a single one of your numbers coming up in order to keep you at bay. You could offer the same trade to an AI player that they just offered you and they reject it, to only re-offer it on their subsequent turn. I don’t want a game where human intellect can easily outthink a simple cyclical algorithm from the Computer, and I genuinely appreciate the cunningness of the AI thwarting you in strategic ways. But, I have often just quit a game when it becomes a relentless calculated attack. I wish the creators could make the adjustment to receive the 5 stars this app otherwise warrants.

I love how seamless this app is when transitioning from the board game to the app. It's so much easier than you think it would be and it is a really good use of spare time. Quite frankly, for the catan enthusiast, it's great, especially when you fork out the 12 bucks for the whole package. After playing countless games against the AI Bots in this game, my only beef is that the game clearly tries to equalize itself too much. I can't tell you how many times I've been ahead by 5 victory points only to have the game roll a ridiculous amount of 7s and other nonsensical numbers just to try to equalize things. Just got done playing a game where I was a staggering 6 victory points ahead with one to go for the win, only to have the app roll an ungodly amount of 7s, 3s, 11s, and 2s until the computer finally caught up to 'give me a run for my money'. It's honestly frustrating and blatantly obvious the game tries to equalize. Game should've been over in two turns, stretched the game out to 12 more turns

Easy interface, great system. My only problem has been that other players online may take way too much time on their turn and the option to boot them from the game only appears once, and will only succeed with a vote by the other players. The vote will almost always fail, so you'll consequently have to put up with that player taking 2-6 minutes for their turn for the rest of the game, which is frustrating. There should be an option to pressure the player into playing quicker, or for the vote to be called for again. Alternatively, there could be a 1-3 minute timer for all players to take their turn, and if someone exceeds this time limit 3x in a row, they are booted from the game and replaced with an AI. Still an awesome game though! I love that I can play offline and online.

As much as I like playing Catan, this game can be soooo frustrating, and the obvious bugs never seem to get fixed. The computer randomly matches you to other players, and more than half the time, there is one dormant (unresponsive) player that never indicates he is ready so the game cannot start for anyone. You‘ll cancel out of that game and get assigned to a new one, and the same thing will often occur. I’ve had it happen 4 times in a row, and it’s very common to try for 10 minutes just to get a game started. In addition to that bug, there is the frequent occurrence of a player going offline in the middle of a game and hanging up the game for everyone else for 2-3 full minutes, and sometimes permanently. Actually completing a game successfully (after finally getting one started) happens only 2/3 of the time. Then there’s the issue of playing against the computer. Even at the medium level of difficulty, the computer player frequently benefits from inexplicable dice roll odds which can drive you nuts! I hope the developers will fix these bugs to make the electronic game as much fun as the board game.

Because you will be tempted to beat your phone with a hammer if you play this version. Yes, I've played countless games of catan with real humans and understand the drama that is catan. However, you will find that your ai opponents have a nearly unlimited supply of knight and monopoly cards and that possessing ownership of as many as 10 of the 12 numbers available in the range of possibilities may result in the other two numbers being rolled so exclusively that you go 4 rounds without receiving a single resource. You think you know how frustrating the robber can be? Just wait. In short, the programmers must have been slighted by their wages or resented the project somehow. They are quietly chuckling everyday in the knowledge that they are torturing the minds of catan faithful worldwide. To be fair, it is a beautiful interface. Very user friendly and completely addictive. Nonetheless, I happily flushed the money I spent on this game down the toilet and deleted it from my phone. Life is good again.

AIs get an unfair advantage when the player takes any sort of lead. And they maintain this advantage even after they've caught up. They even trade amongst each other to take down the player in ways no human would because it hurts their own chances. For instance, the blue AI had caught up to me in victory points in one game and was 3 away from winning. Red traded with Blue three times in one turn even though Red was losing by at least 6 points. Yellow's turn came and they also traded with Blue, allowing Blue to win. Why on Earth would that happen? It makes no sense and is very frustrating to watch the AI collaborate against you in ways no human player would ever do. Especially when this turns a calculated win into an incredibly improbable (bordering on mathematically impossible) loss. As other players have noted, this behavior extends to the robber and even seems to affect dice rolls. This is at the very least a poor decision and in my eyes is even unethical (although very minor on the ethics scale, admittedly). Please fix this, I love Catan but this game barely counts as Catan.

This is a decent game (I’m playing free version), but every few games the AI will hammer you regardless if the other AI player is sitting at one VP from victory and you’re down 2+ points and have no resource cards, robber will still be played on you. I would have rated this as a 3 star game, however the recent update for iPhone X devices made the game glitchy. Choosing resources for Monopoly cards or trading, the selected resource will get stuck halfway between up/down, the resources and several options are at the very bottom of the screen now so when making a selection I invariably close the game and have to reopen it, and the text and graphics are much smaller (presumably to fit on the smaller screen, but there was no problem before the update). If they can fix this recent update then I would say it could get back to a mediocre 3 star rating. If they could fix the AI to be realistic and less “Kill All Humans,” it could easily be a 4-5 star app (just playing free, so I can’t speak to scenarios or anything else exclusive to the paid version).

The AI loves to hammer you with the robber even if you don’t have the lead. I get in a game you can pick on someone who’s building towards what you want or just got the resource you need but a lot of the time it’s who has the lead. The AI doesn’t care even if you're down 3 points and on the other side of the map you’ll still get slammed with the robber 3/4 the time. Also there is only 2 monopoly cards in the deck and I’ve played standard games where they have been used 3 times. I get in the different scenarios that rules and limits vary (although none note more monopoly cards) so I won’t pick on how in those games, but I’ve seen as many as 4 used in a game. Overall this app allows me to play my favorite game whenever and wherever but it does need some tweaks. Originally gave it 3 stars but after playing the “scenarios” I had to drop it to 1. Literally every game if you get 2 or more points ahead it will constantly roll the 2 numbers you don’t have and you’ll get hit by the robber with every 7 rolled and knight played by the AI players. Even after you lose the lead and if you have one card when every one else has multiple you’ll get hit and the AI will steal your one card.

I left a one star review a month ago and it didn't get posted so consider this 2 one star reviews. This review is completely unrelated to my last review. This game is either cheap or buggy. I've had my resource cards disappear out of nowhere. Didn't trade them, didn't get robbed. They literally just leave my hand. The computer players work together against you. AI knows what cards you have. They only offer you resources you already have, never offer anything you need. AI almost never accepts offers for resources that you need in exchange for resources they have in abundance. AI almost exclusively puts the robber on your tiles. Every card they steal from you is a resource you need for your next turn. Any card you rob from them is a resource you either don't need or have a lot of already. Anytime they place the robber on your tile, that number becomes the "hot" number to roll. As soon as the robber is moved elsewhere, that number goes cold and doesn't get rolled. I paid $5 for the app and I'm deleting it for my own sanity. The $5 doesn't matter at this point. Even if you have the patience of a saint, this game will severely test your patience to the max. Good luck if you do decide to play it.

There are several rules that this app breaks. Mostly concerning knights. There are random trades between the AIs that you can’t see. Many that no real player would do because it causes a win. They work together to make sure you don’t win. The numbers rolled cannot possibly be random. It will not roll what you need while over rolling their numbers. They put the robber on only you, never on each other. The barbarian is rolled WAY more than I’m real life. It’s crazy. I’ve lost cities in almost every game but not until the AI is covered and won’t lose theirs. Walls don’t save you like they’re supposed to. You lose them anyway. Another rule break. 7s are rarely rolled when they are holding too many cards but more than half the time when you are. That means you lose card constantly while waiting for your number to come up or while needing something they have a robber on. It’s as if the devs will not allow you to win. It’s complete crap. I love a challenge but you have made it almost impossible to beat and that’s not cool. You took every bit of fun out of an app that I paid for. Not ok.

After countless rounds, I finally uninstalled this app for good. The AI is clearly rigged against you. As soon as you build one settlement, all 7’s start piling onto your spaces, even if the computer is ahead. All knight cards played will peg the robber onto you, on your best money-making spots. The only way to win is to box the computer in so they can’t expand, but it literally takes twice the amount of resources to win (or do anything, really), because half your resources get stolen and redistributed back at the computer. Year of plenty always is played so that it steals your resources the most. No point in buying knights, you won’t compete against the amount of knights and 7’s rolled by the computer. Even if you have the most cities and spaces, you’re playing poor the entire game. Getting the Longest Road is a MUST. There are so many things that make this game unwinnable that it’s absurdly frustrating, such that I want to throw my $900 iPhone 11 at the wall, every time. And that’s why I uninstalled this app, because I’d probably do it one day and be down $900 because of this stupid app.