Any players out there? I love the game but have not found a good on-line version. Yahoo has great graphics but it cannot accommodate on line playing and playing bots gets boring. JS Settlers and PlayCatan enable on line playing, but I hate their graphics which is very important for a fast and interesting game. Microsoft used to have good graphics and on line playing, but they stopped supporting it. Any advice?

I never got into the Catan series of games. I was too much of a snobby grognard.

sure ... but check out Catan on Yahoo.com ... http://games.yahoo.com/game/catan

you can play a game in 30 mins and it can be intense ... I've also played the board game with good friends, who are not quite full scale gamers ... without automation, and because of some slower decision makers, it can take over an hour for a game.

Just played a game yesterday with my oldest and my niece. Might want to try and get your family to play and you can scratch the gaming itch while putting in some family face-time.

I'd only played one odd variant of Catan (not sure what it was called, but it's set in Europe at the collapse of the Roman Empire and you played a tribe of barbarians who would first ravage and then settle).

I tried the Yahoo version for the free trial. Quite easy to beat the bots, but it's a nice game in the simple version. If there's a decent online version I could be tempted

Ray Jay wrote:you can play a game in 30 mins and it can be intense ... I've also played the board game with good friends, who are not quite full scale gamers ... without automation, and because of some slower decision makers, it can take over an hour for a game.

Well, as a hard core Grognard speed of game play isn't all that important. Hell, I spent 5 years playing 1 game of Federation and Empire with friends (started playing turn 1 in 2004 and finished turn 36 in 2009)playing for 7-8 hours once a month.

fair enough ... i miss playing WWI which is on their list ... I played that many years ago and loved it.

geojanes wrote:Just played a game yesterday with my oldest and my niece. Might want to try and get your family to play and you can scratch the gaming itch while putting in some family face-time.

Good advice ... i taught my 10 year old yesterday and she beat me 11 to 3 ... I'm hopeful that I can interest my 8 year old who is less of a gamer than his older sister.

Well guys... this thread got me interested. I played an introductory game on playcatan.com and I loved it. I think the best thing about the game is that even when you lose, you build something and it's not torn down.

I now play there regularly and i've introduced the game to my son in law and my partner. We've also just ordered a proper (hard copy) version and we can't wait for it to be delivered.

I don't know any better than the playcatan.com graphics so I'm happy with them. If any of you guys want a game... just post here. I'm game... but I suck :-)

Speaking of "suck", watch out for the many add-ons and variants, because they'll suck all of your hard-earned cash out of your bank account! However, if you want to play more than 4 you'll want to get the 5 and 6 player extension. And while the first major addition (Seafarers) is a good one, you'll can also get sucked into getting its own 5 and 6 player extension! It's almost as bad as the good old days of buying an SLR camera, then discovering you "need" bundles of accessories!

Still, Catan is a fun game, so have a great time online or on-board.
George

Im not a huge fan of the seafarers exp, but I won't play without the cities and knights exp.

As far as the 5-6 player exp...I wouldn't recommend it. 5-6 player games go on WAY too long.

My kid got Cities and Knights for a birthday gift and we got it on the table with my nephew and I've got to agree, Cities and Knights makes a much better game: coverts a light game into a medium or almost heavy game. A very well done expansion.