[ryandrake]

Interesting twist. Our group would never have agreed to play open-handed resources. We were all bastards. IMO one of the best parts of the game was that opponent's hands were secret unless you went through the effort of keeping track of their hands. That information imbalance opened up many underhanded and shrewd trading strategies. We also would allow dishonorable trading, like offering a trade you couldn't fulfill, to goad your opponent into revealing whether he would take it, valuable information. We also allowed making side deals, like "trade me two stone and two wheat as a protection bribe and I'll never put the robber on you."

Did you also play with the development cards open-handed? That would be a twist, too, because a lot of the end game is about wondering whether or not your opponents' cards gave them points advantages, whether they were going for largest army, and so on.

[paulddraper]

> unless you went through the effort of keeping track of their hands

I just don't find card counting to be a very fun or useful game mechanic.

Can I take a pencil and paper to my games? Does this really enhance the strategy?

[muzani]

One reason I stopped playing games like Hearthstone was because everyone brought a bot to the game to track cards, and I found the experience was a lot worse after using one.

[jncfhnb]

I’m not a catan player but I can’t imagine it’s not a hugely valuable piece of information

[thaumasiotes]

I don't see why it would be. You can easily determine what resources a player is likely to have, and what they need, by looking at the fully public board.

[ryandrake]

Here's a simple example where the certain knowledge of an opponent's hand comes in handy:

Player 1: "Hey, Player 2, I'll trade my wheat for your brick."

Player 2: "I don't have a brick."

Player 1 knows that Player 2 got two bricks and a wood 3 turns ago, and he bought a road. So the one card that's left over is a brick.

Player 1: "OK, I play a knight development card, I move the robber to your plot, and I take your card. Lo and behold, it's a brick!"

[thaumasiotes]

You'll get the same effect by just looking at the board and noting who has the brick production.

[TulliusCicero]

No, you won't. It's entirely possible to have brick production but no brick right now. Have you ever even played Catan? This is basic stuff.

[jncfhnb]

And by tracking the cards you’ll have a better model. You seem to be agreeing that this information is useful

[thaumasiotes]

I'm not, really; the normal mode is that you offer to buy something and you get it or not. But if you want the information, it's publicly available in high but not perfect fidelity, making tracking hands even less valuable than otherwise.

[jncfhnb]

So do you show everyone your cards to speed it up because you think them knowing offers nothing useful?