This game ruined Catan for me. No more sitting waiting for dice to roll in your favor or getting blocked by the robber. All information is public, there is no randomness, and you have to figure out how best to spend resources to maximize victory points while no falling behind city building. Serious, Catan sucks in comparison.
Not the most in-depth game, but rounds are quick and it requires keeping a lot of state in your head to solve the puzzle in front of you. Also very fun to add in house rules to how pieces interact with each other (eg, the black piece is magnetic and drags others around) to make the puzzles more complex.
I've played Terra Mystica and like it, but it doesn't have what makes me like Catan—interdependence. In Catan, especially in the early game, you can't generate all of the resources you need, so you have to trade with each other to win. Terra Mystica didn't have any of that; your relationship with the other players is purely adversarial.
This game ruined Catan for me. No more sitting waiting for dice to roll in your favor or getting blocked by the robber. All information is public, there is no randomness, and you have to figure out how best to spend resources to maximize victory points while no falling behind city building. Serious, Catan sucks in comparison.
Ricochet Robots (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/51/ricochet-robots)
Not the most in-depth game, but rounds are quick and it requires keeping a lot of state in your head to solve the puzzle in front of you. Also very fun to add in house rules to how pieces interact with each other (eg, the black piece is magnetic and drags others around) to make the puzzles more complex.