The problem with boats + Merchants

[Erdbeertorte]

The problem is that he placed 2 settlements next to grass. So he canot move away when he get grass at his 3rd pick. OK, it's seductive to connect the castle. But at the beginning, getting tiles is much more important than getting points

[Godsmurf]

Noone addresses the fact that in a 3 or 4 player game, you could be out of the game before your first turn if other players already took the two boats. This is a ridiculous situation. Even if it takes several turns, whichever 2 players (or only one) who luck out on getting the boats are playing for the win and the other player(s) are just spectators without a chance. It's ridiculous.

[Meeplelowda]

Noone addresses the fact that in a 3 or 4 player game, you could be out of the game before your first turn if other players already took the two boats. This is a ridiculous situation.

By no one, you mean Kavorka?

I could see this being more of an issue in a non arena 3-4p game, where harbor it could be completely blocked before even having a turn.

[Cos-]

Personally I enjoy the challenge in 3 and 4 player games. If merchants is one of the goals I definitely try to maximize my changes of getting the ship if it's on the board, and it's definitely not _just_ luck in all such games. Sometimes it is pure luck, like if I'm the third player and the first two drew desert and canyon and the ship is already gone, but that happens in a minority of games. Often, there's still a ship tile available on the second round of turns, and players' first moves when they didn't get desert or canyon can greatly affect their odds of getting it a bit later.

Sometimes, the luck is against me, even when I've done my best, and I'm stuck without the ship in a merchants game. I still like the challenge. I realize I'm at a disadvantage at this point, but how well can I do with it? On a couple of occasions I actually won a game with merchants, when two other players had the ship tile and I did not - you're not out of the game, it's still possible to win, it just lowers your odds significantly.

I do agree that in those cases, that one game is not fair to the boat-less player(s), and some people might wish to avoid that eventuality. However, for ELO purposes, when you play a lot of games, you're just as likely to sometimes be one of the luckier players as to be an unlucky player, so this won't actually make your ELO inaccurate. And the game is still interesting, challenging, and fun when you play with that kind of handicap, as long as you recognize it for what it is and set yourself to do your best given the circumstances. The same could be said for, say, drawing the same color for the first three turns in a row - that almost always kills puts you at a huge disadvantage regardless of whether you played well, and it's a matter of luck. But the game is still good to play, as long as you realize that on occasional games luck will be against you in a significant way (and on occasional games, luck with be with you in a significant way, too).