Catan: 10 Best Expansion Packs in 2020

So, you are bored at home? Sitting on the couch, thinking about what to do? Suddenly, you feel like playing a board game. With a couple of hours at hand, there is one name that comes to your mind- Catan!

You get excited and pull the box out of the shelf and start setting it up, and call the entire family to play. But wait. You have had this game for over 6 months and have played it hundreds of times. So much so that now it feels the same every time. If you feel this way, then it’s time for an upgrade!

That’s right. You don’t need to switch to another board game when you can upgrade your Catan with the Catan expansions! And not just one. You get a lot of choices when it comes to Catan expansion packs.

We have come up with a list of 10 best Catan expansion that you can choose from and make your time at home super fun!

 

1.      Catan: Explorers & Pirates Expansion (5^th Edition)

Product Description

Ahoy! The pirates are here! That’s right. This expansion lets you in to the world of pirates. Being one of the biggest expansions for Catan, this one has a lot to offer, which includes a ton of fun and mystery. Here, you will be exploring the seas, discovering new islands for gold, spices, fishes, and of course pirate’s layers. It begins with setting up a harbour and a ship along with it. You then make your way in to the sea of the unknown. The two different sets of island tiles, sun tiles and moon tiles, are laid among the sea tiles, flipped over. Every time your ship comes across a sun or a moon tile, you flip it to reveal what it holds. Now this certainly add a level of excitement to the game, because there could be anything on the tile, even just another blank sea tile. In addition, this expansion pack includes gold, which you earn as you reveal new island tiles. It also includes pirate ships as an upgrade to the robber from the base game. Each player gets one of these ships and can be placed anywhere on the sea tiles, and can steal from any of the explorer’s ships that crosses it. There are also tiles that hold resources. You get two gold for uncovering those, and with settlers you can colonize that island and generate resources. There are five scenarios to the game and can be played one at a time. With so many cool elements, Explorers & Pirates is one of the best Catan expansions.

Product Highlights

·         Can be played with 2-4 players

·         Discover islands and cultures

·         Includes an element of mystery

 

2.      Catan: Cities & Knights Expansion

Product Description

Making its way to the list of the best Catan expansions is the Cities & knights pack. This ones is probably the most fitting expansion pack for Catan. It is actually played on the base gam, so it does not require any additional setup, but it comes with a lot of new exciting elements. Unlike the base game, it starts with one settlement and one city. In addition to the three main resources, it includes three new commodities which are paper, coins, and cloth. There are a few new trades that can be done using all of these resources. The expansion pack comes with a new trading counter which helps in understanding what kinds of trades can be done. There is a new city wall included in the elements which helps protect the cities from getting attacked by robbers. The knights play a great part in this pack. There are three kinds of knights that can be upgraded in by trading resources. You can use the knights in different ways like saving a spot for your settlements, or even chasing the robber away. Another great addition is the metropolis! This can be added to your city as an upgrade, which can help you save your city from the barbarians. Yes, there are barbarians too! This is the reason we think Cities & Knights is a great Catan expansion.

Product Highlights

·         New urban centres and metropolises

·         Intricate characters that can make or break ones game

·         Additional trading options and resources

·         Can be played on the base game’s board setting

 

3.      Catan: Seafarers Expansion

Product Description

Seafarers is the first ever expansion to Catan. And it is still played and preferred over some of the later released expansions. This pack may look a little similar to the Explorers & Pirates, it really isn’t. It has comparatively a smaller number of tiles to setup. The pack comes with an instruction manual which shows multiple interesting ways in which you can setup the tiles. There are sea tiles among which you can setup the island tiles which are already revealed. These tiles include different resources such as gold, farms, and grasslands.  To reach these regions there are ships that you can set up between the tiles, just like you setup roads. What’s really cool is that the ships can also serve as extensions to the roads. Since there are ships involved, you know what’s coming. Pirates! This pack includes robbers AND pirates, which makes it a lot more exciting. The robber can steal resources on the land, while the pirate does the same in the sea, so that’s a double attack. Even with these many elements, the Seafarers expansion is very easy to figure out.

Product Highlights

·         Easy to setup and understand

·         Multiple scenarios to choose from for the board setup

·         Average playtime is only 60 minutes

 

4.      Settlers of Catan

Product Description

Presenting to you the original, Settlers of Catan! Catan was originally called Settlers of Catan before the name was changes in 2015. This is not an expansion but the base game itself. And it is just as fun as the others. It comes with 19 hexagonal terrain tiles and six sea frames, which together make the board. The mission of the game is simple- collect 10 points to win. 3 to 4 players can play at a time. Each players starts the game with 2 settlements and one road attached to each of the settlements. Each terrain tile is marked with a unique number that can be rolled on a dice. When any of those numbers appear on the dice, the players who had put their settlements around those tiles get one resource card matching that resource on the tile. The resources can then be traded to build roads, settlements, and cities. But it’s not that simple. There is a robber in the game, which comes on by rolling number 7 on the dice. With the robber a player can steal on resource card from the player whose settlements are around the tile on which the robber stands. An interesting element of the game is trading with other players. You can sure trade resources with the bank but on set terms. But while trading with other plyers you get to set your own terms. Now that’s amazing!

Product Highlights

·         Easy to setup play for all age groups

·         Trading with the players adds a level of excitement

·         Can be played in a blitz mode after getting used to it

5.      Catan: Starfarers Expansion (2^nd Edition)

Product Description

We may be far from colonizing Mars, but not so far from doing so with a lot of other planets. The Starfarers expansion pack takes us to the middle of 3^rd millennium in search of more resources, in a planetary system far away in space. And you are in the presence of alien civilizations that can be your friend or your foe. The aim of each player is to score not 10, but 15 points to win the game. In order to gain the points you will have to build up colonies on different planets. The game progresses in three phases- Production, Trade & Build, and Flight phases. Throughout these phases you will generate resources like ore and carbon, trade them either with the bank or with the aliens to build ships, pods, canons, and boosters. And then you move forward on the board to colonize more planets, discover new lifeforms and celestial object like wormholes and new solar systems. And meanwhile you keep upgrading your ship to get a good position in the game. Then there are encounter cards, special tokens and medals to acquire to gain points. This futuristic mind-boggler is the game if you want to test you fate in the universe. The rules of the game may seem a little bit complex at first, but they are so fun that you will not want to leave. No wonder this is one of the best Catan expansion packs.

Product Highlights

·         Highly engaging design and rules

·         A storyline which gets more intriguing as the game advances

·         New encounters cards for interesting twists in the game

·         Different tokens and elements that any other expansion pack

 

6.      Catan: Traders & Barbarians Expansion

Product Description

Imagine having several games in a single game. That’s what the Traders & Barbarians expansion is! It is probably the most character and elements rich Catan expansion. It includes five amazing scenarios. The first is Fishermen of Catan, which revolves around fishing and using tactics to gather more and more fiches in order to gain points. Having more fishes also gives you more advantage like developing settlements or drawing one of your opponent’s resources. The second scenario is The Rivers of Catan. The aim of this scenario is to collect gold, which will eventually make you a rich settler or a poor settler. Player with the highest gold at the end wins. Third one is the Caravans scenario, where you need to build you caravan to get wool and grains. But mind you, setting up the camels is not in your hands but your opponents’. The fourth scenario is the Barbarian Attack. This is an exciting battle between the barbarians and the knights. Get your knights to capture the barbarians, because they hold extra point to your victory. And the last scenario is the Traders and Barbarians. Since the barbarians are gone, the traders are back on the road to transport resources. Successful deliveries will win you points. But unfortunately, some barbarians are still out there to ruin the flow. This extraordinarily amazing game is can be played with even 2 players.

Product Highlight

·         5 exciting scenarios to choose from

·         All the scenarios can be setup on the base board

·         Can be even played with 2 players

 

7.      Catan: Rise of The Inkas

Product Description

Rise of The Inkas is relatively a new spin-off added to Catan, but it goes to earliest of histories. This is a standalone game and does not require the base game for it to be played. The board is a beautiful setup of the Peruvian jungle environment. Here, in addition to the basic resources from the base game. You will also find three new resources which are fish, feather, and leaves. These new resources do not build any settlements but are only used for trading, to acquire the goods you need in order to build something. The aim of this game is not to collect points, but to build tribes. You will need to build settlements in order to build your tribe. The first player to build up three tribes wins the game. The settlements can also go in a decline and other players can build upon their opponents’ settlements. And just like the base game, there is a robber here who can steal resources from the players. There’s no getting rid of the robber.

Product Highlights

·         Interesting new gameplay

·         Can be played without the base game

·         Does not require much time the setup and understand

·         New added resources make it easy to trade for goods

 

8.      Catan: Settlers of America

Product Description

Behold. The great country is rising. The Settlers of America is yet another standalone spin-off of the base game. The board setup for this one depicts the map of America, but not what we see it as today. Since the game is setup in the 19^th century, the only things to be seen on the board are raw resources and a few production units, which are a major part of the game. The goal of the game is to distribute the goods produced in you production units. Each player gets a number of these units and some goods that need to delivered to the cities. Just like the base game. You gather up the resources and then trade them out in order to build up cities or connect your cities through a railroad. With progression in the game, you can move the train on the railroad to deliver the goods. But the catch here is that you cannot deliver your goods to your own cities. And also, you will need to unlock a goods cube to deliver it. This is done by building up new cities inside the map. Now there’s a good new and a bad news. The good news is that the robber is gone! And, the bad news is that there is an outlaw that roams around. With the same purpose as the robber, the outlaw can stop the generation of resources, and can also steal from the goods of the players.

Product Highlights

·         An interesting spin-off that includes new elements such as railways and deliveries

·         Allows players to build up flexible strategies to advance

·         Game starts with more settlements which increases the challenge in terms of resources

 

9.      Catan: The Board Game

Product Description

Catan is the upgraded version of Settlers of Catan. Settlers, in 2015, was renamed to Catan, as we all know it today. Without any expansions, the original Catan is just as fun and engaging. All the players start with 2 settlements and one road connected to each of their settlements.  In order to expand their roads and build new settlements, the players collect resources. The resources include brick, lumber, ore, grain, and wool. These resources can be generated by rolling the dice, and then giving a resource card to the players on the hex tile matching the number on the dice. The resources can be traded off, which get you more settlements, or upgrade your existing settlements to cities. Each of these elements hold specific points. The first player to collect 10 points wins the game. But no game is played without a twist. In Catan, there is a robber on the loose. This robber comes up only when someone rolls a 7 on the dice. The player who rolled the number then gets to place the robber on any of the hex tiles he wishes. When the robber is placed on that tile, all the players surrounding that tile give one resource card which is generated from that tile, to the player who placed the robber. The robber moves every time someone rolls number 7 on the dice. Even if you have played some of the best Catan expansions, the original Catan always seems fun!

Product Highlight

·         Simple rules that re easy to understand and follow

·         Can be played with 3-4 players with a maximum 60 minutes of gameplay

·         Gameplay can be paused and resumed without losing the track of the game

 

10.  A Game of Thrones: Catan

Product Description

Game of Thrones is one of the most watched TV series worldwide. And similarly, Catan is one of the most played games. The world left in a frenzy the both combined together to create A Game of Thrones: Catan! Just looking the names gets most of the players excited to play it. This is not an expansion but a standalone game, that doesn’t required the base game. Just like the base, players start off with two settlements and 2 roads attached to each of those settlements. There five resources to gather from, by rolling the dice. You then trade off those resources to build a settlement or upgrade an existing one. There is wall, just like the TV series, which needs to be protected from the wildlings, and stop them from entering the city. There are different kinds of wildling which have different impacts on the wall. Every time a player builds a settlement or upgrades an existing one, it unleashes a wildling which then gets closer to the wall. If a wildling gets close enough and breaches the wall, it can steal from the resources of the players. What is more dangerous is that if the wall is breached three time, the game ends there. To prevent this from happening, you can put guards on the wall. There is also a stealer in the game, but with wildlings in the play, it is less of a worry.

Product Highlights

·         Amazing combination of the TV series and the base game

·         Interesting characters that add an element of excitement to the game

·         Storyline of the game keeps the players engaged

 

Final Verdict

Catan is known to be one of the best board games, and is played by a lot of people worldwide. With the expansions packs and standalone spin-offs, it becomes a lot more fun and exciting to play. To choose from this large a number is a tough task but needs to be done. Out of all the amazing different versions, Catan: Seafarers is the best Catan expansion on the list. It includes a lot of new features while keeping the soul of the base game alive. If you are planning to buy an expansion for your game, you can get the Seafarers without a second thought.