Table of Contents
I recently wrote an article about why Catan is one of the most popular board games of all time. It is a game that anyone who is familiar with board games knows intimately.
The game has maintained its popularity for over 24 years – and has earned its place in the board game hall of fame as one of the best ‘gateway’ games of all time.
Catan helped pave the way for modern board game mechanics and was a catalyst for the current ‘golden age of board games’ we are experiencing now.
It is no wonder then that countless expansions have been released over the years to extend, expand, or simply change the way the game is played.
Catan for me (like so many others) was the game that got me hooked on board games. I have played countless rounds of the game and each of its expansions. It is a game that even today I still break out often during one of our fortnightly game nights.
In this article, I am going to go through each of these expansions – and rate them from best to worst based on my experience with the game and how each of them changes the core mechanics.
The Best Catan Expansion Packs - From Best to Worst
The Catan Expansions ranked from best to worst are:
Other:
Note: This order is purely subjective based on my experience with the game. Your tastes may differ – and that’s okay
1. Catan - Cities & Knights
Catan for me is a brilliant game in its stand-alone form. In order for an expansion to be a winner in my eyes, it needs to keep the core of the game intact while adding depth, variation and something to ‘refresh’ the game for veteran players.
Catan – Cities & Knights does exactly this and it does it in the best way possible.
Cities & Knights actually improves the game in every way possible. It does this subtly, however, without leaving you feeling that you are playing a different game.
How the Expansion Changes the Game
Cities and Knights introduces two main changes to the game of Catan. These are:
- Barbarians – Evil AI characters who want to ransack your cities; and
- Commodities – Special versions of resources that allow you to build “city developments”.
Commodities are the perfect addition to the game of Catan. They allow you to focus and fine tweak your strategy combined with the introduction of new progress cards.
These new and improved strategies create opportunities to rake in points during a game a bunch of new ways that refreshes the game, while maintaining the core game that makes Catan so great.
Other Changes:
- Progress cards
- Additional ‘event dice’
- City Walls
- Merchant
- City Upgrade and Metropolis
Barbarians
You didn’t think you could build an empire on the Island of Catan without the rest of the world paying close attention did you.
The barbarian hordes have been watching you closely. And they are coming. Your job is to prepare before they do!
Cities & knights introduces the mechanic of a barbarian invasion. This is represented by a boat that starts on a special game tile off Catan’s shores.
The expansion adds another dice to the game called an ‘event dice’ – players roll 3 dice instead of 2 each turn.
The event dice offers the chance of gaining progress cards (explained in the commodities section below), but it comes with the risk of progressing the barbarians ship towards Catan.
The aim of the players is to amass an army of knights (which replace soldier cards) before the Barbarians reach the shore. The knights defend the Island of Catan and attempt to thwart the Barbarians before they reach any of the Island cities.
Knights are actual pieces which are placed on the board on any empty corner of a road and can be upgraded.
Knights become active when a player uses one wheat resource. They can be used like soldier to fend off the robber, attack other players knights and importantly – to defend against the Barbarians.
The Barbarian armies are fought by the collective Kinghts of all players. If the players are successful – the player with the largest knight count gets a victory point (see where the deeper strategy comes in to play?).
If you are not successful….
Barbarians can Sack a City
Barbarians destroy cities. It’s what they do. If your knights are overpowered, the player who contributed the least Knights to the fight will have one of their cities reduced to a settlement (along with any upgrades that city had).
Repelling Barbarians is not an overly complex mechanic and does not alter the game too much. It is simply a matter of – if your knights exceed barbarians then the knights win and vice versa.
One thing to note though is that Barbarians grow in strength as the number of cities on the Island increase.
I never found this mechanic to be too game altering. It adds a bit more competition to the game and adds another mechanic to think about. It is simplistic enough to keep on top of and adds another strategic layer to the game by giving victory points to the player with the most knights – Exactly what the doctor ordered.
Commodities
Cities & Knights introduces commodities and the development flipchart.
This to me is the best part of the expansion – it takes the game of Catan and adds a whole new layer of depth and strategy to the game.
The three commodities are essentially refined resources:
- Wood – Paper
- Ore – Coins
- Wool – Cloth
Cities in the expansion produce one resource and one commodity that’s tied to that resource (instead of 2 resources).
The flipchart replaces the build cards in Catan and provides an entire chart of options for city improvements.
There are 3 categories of improvement:
- Yellow represents commerce
- Green represents science
- Blue represents politics
Once a city reaches the third upgrade level, it grants the player a special ability (e.g knights or resource production).
The first player to reach city upgrade level four is able to convert that city into a metropolis – adding 2 victory points to that cities value.
Progress Cards
Progress cards replace Catans base game development cards. There is a deck of progress cards for each of the improvement categories listed above (Yellow, Green and Blue).
These cards are powerful cards that can be used once by players to gain an advantage in the game like free resources, item discounts etc.
City Walls
Players have the option of building city walls around their city (at the cost of brick). This is used to increase the hand size of the player and ward off the robber.
Merchant
Merchants are able to be played by using the merchant card. These are pieces that can be played in any adjacent hex of the players cities.
The merchant allows a player to trade resources at a rate of 2:1 and is worth 1 victory point.
Final Thoughts
Cities & Knights is in my opinion the best Catan Expansion by far. It adds the perfect amount of strategic depth and complexity to the game without deviating too far away from the games core.
If you love the original game of Catan and there is an expansion you are thinking about getting– this is it.
2. Catan - Explorers & Pirates
ARRR matey, I hope yee be ready for this one!
Catan – Explorers & Pirates is the latest Catan expansion. Released in 2013, it is probably the biggest expansion released to date (in terms of variations to the core game).
This expansion changes the game – a lot. But it does so in a great way. The ‘essence’ of Catan is still there. But with a new objective:
To adventure on the open seas as explorers and pirates!
The expansion introduces five different variants to the core game – but unlike Traders & Barbarians (mentioned below), all variants are compatible and complimentary. The end result being that you play them all together to form the final and complete game of Explorers & Pirates.
Sound complicated? Don’t worry. The game is gentle in how it introduces players to the 5 variations. Each variation is meant to be played in order, so that players get an understanding of how the new mechanic works and gets used to how to play with it in game BEFORE introducing the next one.
How the Expansion Changes the Game
Explorers & Pirates introduces five variations to the base game of Catan. These are introduced by way of scenarios that allow the mechanics to be easily learned while also being lots of fun.
The scenarios introduce the following updated mechanics of the expansion from the base game:
- No Robber – Replaced with Pirates
- No Largest Army OR Longest Road
- No Cities – Settlements are upgraded to harbor settlements
- Ships! – Pretty obvious with pirates.
- Exploration
- New gold system
No Robber
Okay you can stop cheering now…
In the Explorers & Pirates expansion, the robber mechanic is replaced by sea pirates.
Sea pirates are used when a player rolls a 7. The player that rolls the 7 owns the pirate ship and they can place it anywhere on the board.
Pirate ships disrupt trade routes and act as a sort of toll booth for other players.
No Largest Army or Longest Road
It’s hard to build a road and army on the sea! The expansion removes these two mechanics from the game.
No Cities
Settlements are no longer upgraded into cities. Instead players have the option to upgrade them into Harbor Settlements.
Harbour settlements allow ship building and the storage of cargo. If the player rolls this tile – they only receive 1 resource.
Ships
The introduction of ships in Explorers & Pirates is one of the biggest variants to the game from an expansion.
Ships, unlike boats in seafarers, actually allow travel, exploration and are able to move cargo.
As mentioned above, ships are crafted at a harbor settlement and cost 1 wood and 1 sheep to build.
After the trading & building phase of the game, the expansion introduces a ‘ship-moving phase’.
This phase allows players to move their ships between hexes and takes up the majority of gameplay in the expansion – exploring and carrying cargo.
Exploration
Exploration in the game is really fun. Ships are moved around the map exploring undiscovered tiles.
When a ship is next to an unexplored tile (marked with sun and moon icons) – that tile can be flipped over by the player and the tile is ‘discovered’.
Tiles that can be discovered are:
- A blank sea tile
- Resource tile
- Fish shoal
- Pirate Lair
- Spice Villages
Fish shoals
Allows players to roll for fish and carry them on their ships.
Fish are taken to the ‘Council of Catan’ in order to earn points. The more fish. The more points.
Pirate Lair
This comes in the form of a golden hex. When rolled these give you two gold pieces… however it comes with a catch.
The gold tiles contain a pirate lair that needs to be defeated before the gold is yours. In order to do this you need to send an appropriate number of ‘crewman’ to the tile to defeat the pirates.
Spice Villages
These are friendly villages that diplomatic relations can be established by leaving a crewman on the tile.
They offer players passive bonuses and bags of spice – spice acts the same as fish in that it can be brought to the council of Catan for points.
Final Thoughts
Explorers & Pirates is an expansion that changes the core game of Catan. It is like playing a new game with Catan like elements.
But it is really fun to play, and if you are tired of the ‘old’ Catan – this is a great way to refresh the game with elements still being familiar to you.
3. Catan - Traders & Barbarians
Traders & Barbarians takes a completely different approach to expansion of Catan.
The other expansions have variations and additions that completely changed mechanics of the game and are ‘addon’ expansions – they compliment and added layers to the base game.
Traders & Barbarians goes against the grain here. This expansion is based on a modular format whereby the expansion introduces 5 different game variants/scenarios which are used to change the game in some way.
However, these variants are NOT compatible with each other..
This makes this expansion a – ‘pick your favorite variation’ and run with it.
The thing I like most about Traders & Barbarians is the 2-player variant. The game comes with rules that allow two-person play.
This means you are able to play the game without having to find a group of people every time you want to play the game.
How the Expansion Changes the Game
As mentioned above, Traders & Barbarians introduces 5 variants/scenarios to the game. These are:
- The Fishermen of Catan
- The Rivers of Catan
- The Great Caravan
- Barbarian Invasion
- Traders & Barbarians
Other Changes
- 2-Player Rules!
- Event Cards – replaces dice with a deck of cards to reduce randomness
- The Harbormaster Card – The player with the most harbor points gets 2 victory points.
- Friendly Robber Rules – Similar to a house rule. It keeps the robber from being able to attack players with 3 VP or less.
As there is a lot of content in each variation. I will touch on each briefly below.
The Fishermen of Catan
This is a scenario introduced with the expansion that allows fishing spots to be found around harbors and lakes.
Fishing spots produce fish when rolled and can be turned in to gain the player certain advantages.
The Rivers of Catan
This variant introduces two rivers that run right through the centre of Catan.
The rivers bring with them different mechanics that allow some strategic building placements.
For instance, building beside one of the rivers produces gold.
Building on the rivers requires a bridge to be built (slightly more resource cost than a road).
Gold can be used to purchase resources – or used to gain a victory point as the wealthiest settler (poorest settler earns -2 victory points).
The Great Caravan
This variation introduces a new tile ‘the Oasis’. At the start of the game 3 caravans start through Catan from the Oasis.
Every turn, players can vote which direction each of the caravans travels by using resources.
Caravans that cross a players’ cities or settlements increases that players victory points.
Caravans will also increase a players’ road length as it travels along it.
This is a great variation for a bit of competitive fun. It adds a whole new aspect to resource management.
Barbarian Invasion
This is basically a Catan – Cities & Knights Lite.
Barbarians invade the edges of the island, causing resource tiles to stop production.
Players can create knights to fight the Barbarians – and like Cities & Knights, the player with the most knights earns victory points.
Traders & Barbarians
This variation adds thee new hex tiles to the board.
These tiles require special commodities and each player takes control of a wagon which they can move around Catan to deliver these commodities.
Wagons are upgradable and move faster on roads – roads in Traders & Barbarians therefore become a lot more important and you can charge other players resources to use your road.
Final Thoughts
I like this expansion because of its 2-player official rules. A lot of the time (unless it’s a designated game night), if I want to play a board game I only have my wife or a friend around.
Being able to whip out Catan and play 2 player is an awesome thing to have on the shelf.
I also like the approach the expansion took – here have a bunch of modular rules. Like one? Incorporate it into your game! Dislike one? Ditch it.
They have essentially allowed the players to guide how this expansion impacts their game and that’s great!
4. Catan - Seafarers
I just want to say this first – Just because Seafarers ranks last in the Catan expansions, does not mean it is a bad expansion. In fact, it is really good.
It is just that, in my opinion, some of the newer expansions are better – and Explorers & Pirates pretty much offers what Seafarers does (and more) – which begs the question – Why buy Seafarers when you can buy Explorers & Pirates for the same price.
I still own a copy of Seafarers and it is still one of the most popular expansions available for Catan.
So, let’s get into it.
How the Expansion Changes the Game
Seafarers increases the size of the Catan board significantly. The board is also a lot more varied with the introduction of water tiles and instead of one big Island of Catan, the game consists of several islands which can be explored.
Seafarers also introduces boats – however these are really just roads that can travel through water tiles (they can not carry cargo or do ‘boaty’ things).
The expansion also adds gold hexes to the game.
When a gold hex is rolled it provides a resource of the players choice. These are generally pretty overpowered and annoying to play against.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to Seafarers all that is really added is a bigger board, gold hexes and boats.
Is it a bad expansion? No…
Is it the best? No…
Catan - 5-6 Player Expansions
Catan’s base game (including all expansions but Traders & Barbarians) is a 3 – 4 player game.
If you have more players than this… you are required to buy a 5 – 6 player expansion for the game.
The expansion comes with extended side boards, tiles, cards – everything you need to add the extra 1 or 2 players.
BUT WAIT THERES MORE
If you are wanting to play Catan with one of the expansions (and you own the 5 – 6 player expansion for Catan only)….
YOU HAVE TO BUY ANOTHER 5-6 PLAYER EXPANSION FOR THE EXPANSION.
That’s right – there are expansion expansions.
This to me seems like a pretty low-blow money grab. If you are wanting all the Catan expansion packs with 5-6 player capability… be prepared to fork out a decent chunk of money.
They have realised they can get away with this however, and newer editions of the game have proven that this model is not going to be changing any time soon.
Catan - A Game of Thrones
NOTE: This is note an expansion of Catan. This is a stand-alone variant of the base game.
And it is AWESOME!
If you love Game of Thrones – you will love Catan – A Game of Thrones.
It takes the base game of Catan and transforms it into a battle between the North and the Wildlings.
What is different about the game
The game focuses on the conflict with the wildlings and the Northmen of Westeros.
Players play as the Northmen and play the game as normal Catan.
The biggest difference to the game is the waves of attacking wildlings that will breach the wall and attack the board (like a robber).
Players are able to purchase soldiers and send them to the knights watch (and in so doing are rewarded with extra points).
Wildling armies become more aggressive the more resource production there is in the game.
Catan – A Game of Thrones also introduces helper cards. These are cards that represent significant characters within the Game of Thrones universe.
Playing these cards provides the player with a one-use advantage/bonus.
Conclusion
Catan has been out for over 24 years now and its popularity as a board game is only growing.
It is no wonder then that there are so many expansions available for the game.
Above are the rankings I would give each expansion based on my experience. I hope I have given you a bit of an idea about how each expansion works and my reasoning for ranking them in the order I have.
Make sure to check out the article I wrote about how long a game of Catan takes (and how you can speed it up!).
