Was sure groupthink always won out in strategy games until I watched my buddy lose Round 1 on purpose to bait the whole table into ignoring him for 3 hours

Tried that fake-out trick after 10 years of getting dogpiled in Settlers of Catan and now my win rate jumped from 20% to 60% over 15 games, has anyone else found a weird psychological play that actually works better than just building roads?

3 comments

3 Comments

mia_singh244d ago

wait wait wait... he actually threw the whole first round on purpose? like just sat there and let everyone roll over him and didn't even try to win? that's insane but honestly kind of brilliant because people forget you exist once they think you're harmless... i've done something similar in Risk where i purposely lost africa on turn 3 to make everyone think i was easy pickings but then quietly took over south america while they fought each other... it's wild how people's brains just shut off the second they think you're not a threat... definitely beats trying to build roads and hoping for the best in Catan, that's for sure.

dixon.amy3d ago

Is that really smart or just wasting a whole round though?

barbara_taylor833d ago

Totally like real life. If you're the one always loud and first to talk in a group project, people watch you. But if you just nod and take notes for a bit, they forget you even have ideas. Then you drop something decent at the end and everyone acts surprised like you're a genius.