How to speed up reaction time in Settlers of Catan?

Question

I'm looking for ideas on how to make Settlers of Catan quicker to play between friends.

Whenever I play with friends they complain that you have to stop all the time to decide what are you going to do: trade, build, exchange at a port so the game doesn't flow as good as it should.

This could be because my friends (and me) don't play board games very much. No one seems to be able to make key decisions quickly.

Any ideas/suggestions on how to deal with this issue of slow decision-making?

Note: This question, unlike the other, is not about how to "shorten" the game by reducing the required number of moves. This question is about how to shorten the reaction time for a given move.

Can you narrow this down? right now it is likely to be taken down because it is too broad and answers would be based on opinion. — Pow-Ian, May 08 '14 at 11:29
How fast do you expect the game to go? Deciding your actions for the turn, negotiating with other players, and things like determining the best logistics for your currently held resources take time during your turn whether the other players like it or not.
If you want to make the game quicker, make it shorter... perhaps an 8-point victory condition? Maybe a timer for a player's turn? — generalcrispy, May 08 '14 at 13:00
Most of those decisions should be done before their turn even starts. Yeah, the resources obtained on your turn changes things, but usually not that much. — ikegami, May 08 '14 at 19:23
Here is a similar question from another game: http://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/4251/in-bridge-is-there-a-way-to-shorten-reaction-time-for-real-time-play — Tom Au, May 10 '14 at 19:46
This question is, as it is, asking how to speed up decision making, but all answers are taking it as how to speed up the game in general or get it over with sooner (nothing to do with decision making). Xokas11, are you after those answers for just making the game quicker, or do you actually want specifically only decision-making help? — doppelgreener, May 11 '14 at 04:44
Well @JonathanHobbs at first I was looking into how to speed up my friends decision making. But I'm actually quite happy with the responses, I'll try them out and I'll try to get back to the commenters — xocasdashdash, May 11 '14 at 20:11

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered May 08 '14 at 14:47

One way to speed up the game is to increase resource production. There are two common approaches to this:

During setup, each player's second placement is a city. This gives a boost to everyone's economy/engine from the start.
Play a 3/4-player game with the map layout for 5/6 players. There will be many more spots, more valuable spots, and less blocking throughout the game.

Obviously, neither of these addresses the issues with turn length and trading. It sounds like your friends need to hurry up and make a decision!

I like the idea of the second placement being a city. I'll try it out — xocasdashdash, May 09 '14 at 13:37

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 08 '14 at 17:53

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One option would be to play for less points. The first to 7 or 8 wins.

answered May 08 '14 at 17:53

Jay Atkinson

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You should take out a city (and a settlement) if you do that. – ikegami May 08 '14 at 19:22

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 08 '14 at 23:34

I agree with ikegami's comment that (strategic) decisions can mostly be made before one's turn actually starts (i.e. during other players' turns). There is some interaction that may influence one's decision (esp. if one rolls into a massive resource influx on one's turn that suddenly enables many different actions that weren't previously considered), but there are very few game events that drastically change the board state (unlike some other games, e.g. Innovation).

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 10 '14 at 19:53

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If you really wanted to add another dimention of play to this you could always add a timer. Like give each person 2 minutes or something for their turn. Should the timer run out, their turn is over - effective immediately.

answered May 10 '14 at 19:53

HeatherRR

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// , Eh, a grace period is always nice, but yeah, we've done this. Just make sure it's with the right group, and everyone has agreed in advance that they want the game to happen in a shorter amount of time. – Nathan Basanese Jan 04 '17 at 07:02

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered May 08 '14 at 19:59

In terms of speeding up the game - you could opt to reduce the cost of trading by 1 card universally (i.e. 3-1 directly with bank, 2-1 with a general port or 1-1 for a dedicated port).

Settlers of Catan is one of those games where there exists an initial learning curve. It is not a long learning curve but it does span 1-2 games to get a basic feel and a further 2-4 games to gain a degree of innate familiarity.

(It takes time to look blankly at a hand of resource cards, often looking towards the build card for your purchase/ build options - and not sure which options are going to give the best results)

As the innate familiarity sets in so too will the length of each player's turn become shorter - significantly improving the flow of the game. Players will hope for the resource cards they need to fit a planned course of action before their turn even comes.

Of course things get more lengthly if you introduce a variant like Cities and Knights. If you see that a variant is taking the fun out of the game by making it take too long then either play the variant less frequently or try any of the tricks already mentioned in the answers received.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 10 '14 at 19:49

You seem to have put your finger on the problem: "[We] don't play board and card games much."

The way to speed up decision-making is practice. You and your friends need to play the game more, get some experience, learn established patterns, etc., and your decision-making will speed up.

That said, you might be able to speed up your decision making in Catan just by learning to play OTHER games better.

How to speed up reaction time in Settlers of Catan?

6 Answers6