Catan very much requires &quot;playing to luck&quot;, and I wonder how that fits into the rest of the analogy.  Sure, there&#x27;s an optimal strategy, but because of the resource discard rules on rolled 7s (the most common roll, of course), you very often have to make the purchase that you can.  It&#x27;s either that or not make a purchase at all and lose out to the discard.<p>&quot;Playing to luck&quot; is different than &quot;playing to the board&quot; in my book because it requires making probabilistic decisions that have no place in, say, Chess.