After about 4 years of competitive play on-line I finally won the honor of being the top ranked player in Settlers of Catan on-line. This community of about 1000 players, at any given time, is very competitive and tough to crack and they have honed my skills at Catan greatly.

For those not familiar with this board game, in Settlers of Catan you start with two settlements, collect clay, ore, wheat, sheep, and lumber, and build roads, more settlements, and cities to achieve supremacy on the island of Catan.

A board game with experienced players can take an hour to an hour and a half to play. On-line a game takes about 10 to 20 minutes because the computer does all the dealing and figuring for you.

It is also a very social game, with the chat box, and I get to communicate with players from all over the world, particularly the US, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands. Those seem to be the big Catan playing countries.