Increases both rules and play time but also depth of strategy and player interaction.

Compatible with Cities and Knights and Traders and Barbarians.Ĭities and KnightsAdds technology trees and simple military units.The latter isn’t compatible with other expansions but offers the biggest single bang for your buck and is very highly regarded by Catan's player base.Īdds sea areas, scenarios and multiple islands. The former is a good foundation on which to build a Catan collection. The best place to start expanding Catan is here, with either Seafarers or Explorers and Pirates. There’s a comprehensive list here which runs to nearly 300 pages, but much of this content is old and out of print or not available in English. The entire catalogue of Catan expansions is staggering. This guide focuses on in-print material, mostly in English.Mixing and matching content from different editions should play fine, but may look funny. Catan has been published in many editions, as have the expansions.The base Catan game and big-box expansions all have extra expansions (sold separately) which extend the player cap from 4 to accommodate 5-6 players, but note that these extend play time.As a result, those who find the base game wearing thin or too lightweight have a truly impressive volume of expansions and spin-offs to choose from.īut which Catan expansions should are the best and worth buying? And what are the differences between Catan’s different editions? Where is the best place to start with Catan, anyway? Let's separate the wheat from the sheep and dive into everything you need to know about Catan and its expansions. And possibly kicked off the entire modern board game movement, thanks to its breakthrough popularity. Settlers of Catan, now rebranded as simply ‘Catan’, is the name that launched a thousand expansions.

New stand alone the settlers game