Man, this is just how it goes with everything in life, not just board games. You write something off for years based on one bad first impression, then actually sit down and give it a real shot and suddenly you get what all the fuss was about. I did the same thing with coffee, sushi, and honestly the gym. We build up this whole story in our heads about why something is too much hassle, and then one good night with friends flips the whole thing. Catan base game is fun but yeah, once you feel that extra pressure from Cities and Knights, going back feels like playing with the training wheels on.

That goes bad in 3 days" is exactly why I switched too. I used to be one of those people who turned my nose up at frozen veggies and swore fresh was the only way, mostly because my mom raised me that way. Then I started paying attention to how much I was tossing in the trash every week, and it hit me that fresh is only cheaper if you actually eat all of it. Frozen gets picked and frozen fast so it holds onto most of its nutrients, sometimes even more than the fresh stuff that sat on a truck for a week. The texture is the one real trade off, so I still buy fresh for stuff I'm eating raw like salads. For cooking though, soups, stir fry, pasta, casseroles, frozen wins almost every time and I'm not going back.