Catan is a classic that needs no introduction, although its handful of expansions may need a little elaborating. There are four large expansions to Catan that enhance the experience and add new rules and content to play with. I’ve gone ahead and ranked the four expansions of Catan alongside the one variant expansion.
I am typically a fan of shorter synopses for any of my lists, however the Catan franchise does nothing by halves. An impressive amount of content is shoehorned into each expansion, so try not to be put off by the large summaries for each expansion.
This list does not include scenarios nor any non-commercially available mini-expansions that the publisher no longer sells. You may be able to hunt these down second-hand, but it wouldn’t be fair to add them to this list.
1. Explorers and Pirates
Explorers and Pirates feels like an overhaul of the Catan system that combines elements from the other expansions to make a Catan that focuses on exploration and adventure rather than settling and bartering. Played on a much bigger map composed of islands, everyone will be less concerned with fighting over space and trading but will be working together to fight off pirates and working against each other to dominate the seas.
There are many new figures in Explorers and Pirates, such as soldiers, settlers, and a few types of ships (including pirate ships!). Cities are replaced with harbors that’ll produce the ships you use to explore the oceans and ferry goods and people. The system of literally placing your soldiers or settlers onto the ships and moving them around is delightful, but it can also get irritating if they keep falling off.
As players explore the secret new islands, they’ll face pirates that need to be combated with soldiers. You’ll be rewarded for your efforts, but you can’t do anything until those pirates are defeated, meaning you may want some soldiers or backup from other players before you go out to settle the undiscovered lands.
Something Explorers and Pirates does that I greatly appreciate is giving players one gold on every turn that they don’t receive any resources, as two gold can be traded for one resource. This expansion allows players to always do something on their turn, and there’s no moment where you skip your turn and wait around idly.
Explorers and Pirates is an ultimate expansion that adds a huge wealth of content and new systems to Catan. I disagree with the notion that this expansion is far removed from Catan, as it does feel like an “upgraded” or “enhanced” version of the base game I’ve come to appreciate over the years. It’s exciting, fun, and only has some minor mishaps or pain points.
2. Traders and Barbarians
The Traders and Barbarians expansion for Catan is an unusual one as it adds five radically different scenarios that fundamentally change how Catan is played. If you are looking for a handful of new ways to approach Catan, then I’m sure Traders and Barbarians will have you covered.
The many scenarios that this expansion provides are not compatible but can be chained together to provide a strange campaign of five unique experiences. The scenarios change win conditions and add new resources, new tokens, new systems, and even new tiles.
To provide an example, one of the scenarios adds wagons that shift the focus of the game as players will be escorting goods around the map with their wagons to score points. Roads are more valuable than ever here, and the robber is replaced with bandits to thwart wagon progress. Coins are used to purchase resources and are given by other players when they use your roads, and are awarded after completing a delivery. Catan‘s strategy, tone, goal, and playstyle are entirely shifted thanks to the Traders and Barbarians scenarios.
Other scenarios include a focus on fishing in the harbor or the fishing tile, winding rivers that need to be connected by bridges, and even barbarian attacks that are awfully reminiscent of Cities and Castles.
With so many new ways to play Catan, you can dive into the variety pack of Traders and Barbarians to experience new games that aren’t too complex or bloated.
3. Seafarers
The Seafarers expansion for Catan is easily the simplest one on this list, and yet it provides a quintessential Catan experience whilst shaking things up fundamentally.
The board will now be divided into a “main land” that players will start on, and other foreign lands will be separated by the ocean. To cross the sea to connect and settle on these new islands, players will need to build boats that are essentially “water roads” that you can move around on your turn.
They’re a little more expensive than roads, but you’ll need to branch out to new lands as the mainland is much weaker now, thanks to being smaller. However, also patrolling the seas is the pirate that can be moved instead of the robber to thwart your desperately expanding foes.
Seafarers is incredibly basic, at least compared to the other Catan expansions, and yet the inclusion of oceans and ships changes the strategy and approach of all players, as your start location and early rolls are fundamental to your success now.
I really enjoy moving the little ships around that can also be placed on the sides of land tiles that are touching the sea, allowing for flexibility and advanced strategy. This expansion is perfect for those who want to spice up Catan without a dramatically different or removed scenario or expansion. In fact, I believe the franchise would benefit from less intense expansions like Seafarers.
4. Cities and Knights
The Cities and Knights expansion for Catan really pushes the game with many new cards, systems, and icons. Many players complain that this expansion doesn’t “feel” like Catan due to how much more bloated and convoluted it becomes. However, if you’re after something much more complicated and challenging, this could be a perfect expansion.
Knights are no longer cards that idly sit, as players can now make them and move them around the map. You’ll need to keep feeding them, but you can use them to disrupt your opponents, and they’ll come in handy to fend off against the barbarian threat.
Every turn, there’s a 50% chance that the barbarians will get closer, and should they strike, the player with the fewest knights will lose a city. This is a devastating loss that punishes the weakest player, but it encourages everyone to militarize rather quickly. Upon successful defense, however, the player with the largest army will be granted a permanent victory point.
Alongside the knights and barbarians, the Cities and Knights expansion adds new resource commodity cards and replaces the standard deck with three separate decks. Although this does increase Catan‘s card play, it adds a lot of complications when it comes to building and upgrading your empire and military.
Cities and Knights is more like an overhaul of Catan that focuses on militarization, upgrades, and engines as opposed to the regular, simpler feel of the base game. It is fun, but games are bloated with these additions, and the game becomes much slower. If I wanted to play a game of militaries, barbarians, and developments, I’d just play something else.
Now that you know the details of the currently available Catan expansions, all you’ve gotta do now is choose one to enhance your Catan experience.
Published: Sep 7, 2024 10:32 am