Spent 20 years teaching Catan wrong before a 12 year old set me straight on the robber rule

I thought you could move the robber and steal from anyone on any hex, but apparently it has to be adjacent to where you placed it. Has anyone else discovered a rule they've been messing up for ages?

2 comments

2 Comments

james_torres1mo ago

The "adjacent to where you placed it" thing got me too for years. But here's the twist - we also played that you could only move the robber on a 7, not when you played a knight card. Made the game way more boring looking back.

andrew8541mo ago

The knight card thing is honestly worse than the robber placement mix-up. How did nobody check that rule for so long? I mean, the development cards literally say "move the robber" on them, not "roll a 7 first." Sounds like your group was basically playing with house rules that made the game drag on forever. The robber is supposed to be a pain point that keeps people from running away with the game. Without knights threatening your road building or resource hording, you lose half the strategy.