Reviewing EVERY Catan Expansion

We cover ALL 4 of the major Settlers of Catan expansions! Seafarers, Cities & Knights, Traders & Barbarians, and Explorers & Pirates are all here! These board game expansion scenarios and modules add crazy new rules, like having ships be a stand-in for roads, having knights be tokens that can move around instead of just being cards, more development cards, more resource types, the list goes on and on! With more mechanics comes crazier gameplay, and so you'll need more victory points to win, but does that make Catan tabletop sessions overstay their welcome? And doesn't initial placement still matter way too much, even with all these new ways to build cities and roll dice for resources?
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Table of Contents:
Intro - (0:00)
Seafarers - (0:44)
Cities & Knights - (4:56)
Traders & Barbarians - (16:16)
Explorers & Pirates - (23:52)
Recommender Scores - (30:33)
Ranking the Expansions - (38:45)
Ashton’s Personal Scores- (39:52)
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Ashton's Channel: / ashtonwu
Daniel's Channel: / doyduh2
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#boardgames #tabletop #catan

[@Shelfside]

Some minor rules clarifications, helped from Catan Studios! None of these change scores or final assessments about the expansions. (1) In Seafarers ships and roads can’t combine, they must be separated by a settlement (1:19). Also pointed out by a commenter below! (2) In Cities & Knights you will not lose a city that has a metropolis during a barbarian attack (9:18). 3. Also in C&K, if you play the deserter card it removes a knight from another player and you get to place a knight, but it must be in a legal position near your own roads (to avoid 15:12). Deserter card is still really good. (4) Players pirate ships in Explorers & Pirates replace each other when rolling a 7 to avoid choke points like in (27:28) Also pointed out by a commenter below.

[@Guernica520]

In C&K the knight is allowed to be on the Crossroad of the roads. But if it gets chased away by either a certain card or a knight majority, and it has no axes to your own roads, then it is deleted out of the game. Also. To offset the balance of the die, we implement a rule where everytime when the dice are rolled, and you didn't get any resource (except 7) then you get a chip. Once you have as many of these as your current points total, you may choose the number dice on your next roll and turn them in. This can somewhat offset the balance towards the players behind in development.

[@lawrenciu5151]

Also. At 27:49 the ship stop move when discover a new land(E&P is my favorite game and will take a while to learn all the unclarified rules of the game) PS: Make more videos abou Catan. Is such a popular game and enjoying thing to watch. Keep up the good wotk

[@TheVince726]

I’m 5:07

[@jessejordanpuram5646]

Also, 7:10. Progress cards are not capped at 3. They are capped at 4.

[@elijahr_1998]

​@@jessejordanpuram5646 You can also have 5 on your turn, as long as you play one before ending your turn.

[@drew8235]

My favorite variant of Catan is the one where you have perfectly balanced dice and yet the majority of rolls are 3 and 11 and almost no 6s and 8s.

[@jurassictiger4397]

This is so true its like the dices are rigged

[@Arsonan]

Lizard brain

[@goop9086]

​@@Arsonanunderrated comment

[@monblane493]

True

[@quandaviousgooch2826]

My experience is completely opposite

[@SundaySuicide]

Cities & Knights is the best for sure, once you have 4 players that know how to play its goated

[@crownlexicon5225]

I love it combined with sea farers

[@MaiyrCordeth]

Exactly, I feel he is being a little unfair to C&K. It is a great expansion that adds so much more to do. Adding seafarers makes it even better.

[@deezillusioned9909]

Yeah, i struggled a bit at first but C&K really pushes the game

[@rustypills1903]

Seaferer plus C&K is the only way to play for hard core players

[@deavantristan7489]

I agree. I really like catan universe because there's less to fiddle with and games take 50 mins on average. But Catan universe has been so buggy and the dice odds are just wrong

[@matt21643]

In seafarer's you can't just alternate roads and ships like that. It's written in the rules, there must be a settlement before you change your route type and the ships can't go across land. This difficult adds a lot to the game play

[@Varun-hw2yr]

Explorers and Pirates is highly underrated. It makes the game longer but the different scenarios make it a lot more fun than regular/base Catan. Playing the full expansion i.e. all five scenarios takes an an average three hours. It's definitely not the ideal choice when you want to play something quick and have people who have never played Catan. But if you have a group of Catan fans and looking to make the game more exciting, this is the expansion. The pirate lairs, fish shoals and spice islands all employ similar but different mechanisms of scoring. We don't play Base Catan anymore. If and when we have time, E&P is the top choice.

[@olafthemoose9413]

Cities and Knights is definitly slower and more complicated but that's what I love about it. It gives so many more options and allows for more tactical decisions with the knights and development cards. I agree on the randomness of the development cards and having to be able to get a knight before the first invasion being a bit annoying at times.

[@dusanslepcev2665]

Getting knights early is a pain, but that can be kinda solved by implementing house rules (re-roll all 7s before first invasion). The real problem is how unbalanced the green development cards and aqueduct are relative to the other options

[@olafthemoose9413]

@@dusanslepcev2665 yeah, science is so OP but atleast it requires you to get Books from Forests which means you are less likely to get Knights and Cities etc and Knight bullying can definitly help wreck somebody who goes heavy into Science (also aqueduct doesn't scale insanely well when you are doing good with wood -> building lots of roads and settlements) Science is still OP but there are SOME balancing factors.

[@glennmartin6492]

The most popular variant I've ever introduced is having the 2 and 12 tokens be treated as 2/12 tokens that generate a resource whenever either number is rolled. It has a very small effect on the game but people like it.

[@brendantjeerdsma492]

This is literally what my friends and I do every time we play. It's a really nice House Rule

[@tonystaples1400]

We always just leave the 2 and 12 off the board and reroll when we get them

[@thomascocks9136]

This makes it effectively the same as 11 or 3 which I guess is fine

[@glennmartin6492]

@@thomascocks9136 Yes. A small increase in the odds with a correspondingly small increase in resource production over the game but a very popular change despite that as it doubles the production of those hexes.

[@ytprv1890]

@@tonystaples1400That’s stupid.

[@kongoulan]

One good thing about cities and knights is that it reduces the randomness of the game a lot. You can compensate more with skill.

[@random_acorn]

We in Europe have different pieces of C&K for knights, they are real miniatures holding a flag with 1,2 or 3 spikes so you can easily tell and when you activate then you put little helemt on them! Also cities upgrade looks different ad well

[@user-ob2ov3ic3v]

I didn’t know it’s a EU/NA thing I thought he just got an older version

[@kiwisoup]

It still bugs me they updated to the new artwork in the US but didn't actually change any of the physical components. For instance, I find the old card backs really ugly and clashing in art style...They say because they didn't want to break compatibility with the old editions when the cards are mixed together but CMON like nothing matches so why care about the cards? HOWEVER, my point is that in Cities & Knights this issue is much worse because it has several times more "old" components and clashing artwork that did not get updated.

[@glennmartin6492]

The Bazaar: any player with a settlement built on the desert may trade any four resource cards for a resource of their choice(as opposed to four of a kind to the bank). If the settlement is upgraded to a city then it's any three resources.

[@nikolaysavov3349]

10:29 the European version has actual knights and cities and when you activate the knight you put a helmet on and even its more beautiful

[@thekrazykane2649]

Cities and knights is definitely my favorite!

[@robertlewis6915]

same

[@lukasp1548]

yeah absolutly

[@ahouyearno]

Same. This expansion gives the game so much options, but you need to play with people who understand the rules and know the cards

[@olafthemoose9413]

Nothing like bullying people with your Knights. Love the expansion.

[@Jharlax]

Yeah ❤

[@lampshade6579]

I like how the review is very respectfully saying how they don't like C&K, and the comments are all respectfully saying why the love C&K.

[@Shelfside]

hahaha, well put. -Ashton

[@NightOfCrystals]

I would recommend trying more Cities and Knights. It’s so deep and there’s a lot of richness to it. My online play group plays almost exclusively C&K. Though I would say combining it with Explorers and Pirates is the most epic way to play.

[@SirQuack-mi9sz]

I think seafarers goes better with knights and cities But that’s me

[@iceillex8544]

The choice to use Age of Empires music for the background of a Catan video works so well!

[@marinmaths3826]

Lmao I was looking for this comment

[@SpartacusSF1]

Same

[@raymondcoffey7928]

@@marinmaths3826 same.. lol

[@PurpleTrapezoidProds]

Game of Thrones Catan… best version yet! Adds the teamwork mechanic to defending the wall, but also can allow for alliances i.e. certain people only defend certain portions of the wall etc

[@TheDaoistheway]

It’s definitely the best, and the coolest looking. Giants and mammoth ? What could be better

[@nategar412]

Great video! My friends and I exclusively played C&K once we learned it. We played with a house rule that expending knights to fight off the invasion was optional. Really added extra strategy to being able to respond to them in ways to help ourselves or make others lose a city.

[@Shelfside]

Cheers! Yeah making expending knights optional definitely changes the game a lot. -Ashton

[@olafthemoose9413]

Isn't that a core rule of the game? Players decide in turn order, starting with the active player, how many and which of their knights defend. Allows for some great Knight bullying.

[@lycanthewerewolf6801]

​@@olafthemoose9413 It's in the rulebook as an optional variant.

[@bluebooper]

Absolutely phenomenal review Ashton!! Great work covering this entire series so comprehensively as only you guys can

[@victorionut9133]

once you understand C&K it is so good and so much fun sabotaging but working together at the same time, also combining it with seafarers makes it even more complex and you need 16 points, once you gain some experience you can finish in 2 hours easy

[@fanstar141]

Cities & Knights is a great expansion, especially if you play it online (through catan universe or colonist) where the clarity issues are less of a problem.

[@levihalperin7649]

So well made. I've already played of these, but you definitely clarified and helped me understand each one on a deeper level. I really appreciate the work put into this.

[@Feesh322]

Our family plays standard Catan with three elements added. We play with gold/taxes (bought a roll of pennies which we use as gold) which means that even if you don't get a resource, you're always getting *something* with every dice roll, and we tie resource trade with gold to how many victory points someone has. Players with less VPs will be able to get resources a little more easily and so don't get left behind so easily. We add fishing to add incentives to settle on the coast. And finally, we use the Catan Helper Cards! They are so much fun in adding an additional ability to someone's turn.

[@wayner396]

We basically have just always mixed seafarers and cities and knight together and we've always enjoyed it. We also always give people the choice if they want a resource or commodity from a city.

[@damiankaleomontero496]

That seems like a good house rule, the lack of resource draw from cities in C&K is super annoying

[@Shelfside]

whew, that's a huge houserule for sure. I think that's a way to play I would enjoy a lot more -Ashton

[@nathanielheron8094]

I love that combination but not a fan of the houserule. There's a bonus you can get that allows you to trade a commodity at 2:1 rates. This bonus would become almost useless.

[@gabrielleju6845]

Citied and knights is my favourite. Now i only play catan including this expansion. The best thing and worst thing about Catan is you can mix all the expansions together and get creative. You end up buying so many and can be hard to get them on the table as often as you would wish.

[@thepavl]

Cities and knights is the only expansion you need man wtf! It takes the game to another level. Anyway great video !

[@cobtyrannon2479]

I got rid of my Settlers of Catan, but i could swear that my (german) version had way better quality materials. The cards were more colorful, the Knights were easily distinguishable and no miscuts. I'm quite sure the flipbook size was the same. Only had Seafarers and Cities and Knights, so can't comment on the rest.

[@siposbalint2000]

I have all the expansions in Hungarian, and the European prints are much more solid. All the basic wooden components are replaced with very detailed plastic figurines, the whole game is a lot more colorful/saturated. I was honestly surprised to see how much American version of Catan looks worse than what we get here

[@Schlohmotion]

I believe there is generally a difference in quality between "Catan" and "Settlers of Catan" in every language.

[@wayner7263]

The version with plastic pieces have inferior board pieces

[@siposbalint2000]

@@wayner7263 no, i have the exact same board pieces shown on the video

[@wayner7263]

@@siposbalint2000 what I mean is that the board pieces from the newer iteration of Catan is thinner than than say the 1st edition of the boardgame. The plastic pieces themselves are ok.

[@ninecoffees]

THank you for putting so much effort into these videos!

[@realMichaelJordan]

C&K is def a more complex game but playing with 4-6 people who know how every mechanic works makes the game more fun than base Catan for me.

[@benb.6358]

I no longer own Catan, but I owe to it my affinity for board games. If I were to purchase Catan again and could only purchase one of the expansions (never played Explorers and Pirates), I would buy Cities and Knights. I suppose I fall into that “niche” category. Lol. Still, I wonder how niche it actually is. There are indeed so many games to play, and so little time, but only two plays would not be the requisite amount to appreciate the nuances of this great expansion. The progress tracks (yellow, blue, and green flip-boards) are actually balanced fairly well. Each track comes with its own ways of earning unique victory points. The green one with its ability certainly seems more beneficial at first, but the other two have their own unique benefits. Also, one thing that was not mentioned is that a metropolis cannot be destroyed by barbarians. Regarding the Traders and Barbarians expansion, we only played the scenario with wagons once. Never again. It resulted in a stalemate because no more roads could possibly be built. No one achieved the required amount of points to win. Maybe that’s an unusual circumstance. Suffice it to say, we unanimously agreed to never play that variant again. Lol. Great video! Really takes me back to my Catan days. Happy gaming!

[@Shelfside]

Heyo! Wow, thanks for this feedback! Yep, unfortunately I didn't get to play it more than 2 times, but for most board gamers that watch our channel, I suspect Cities & Knights will be a niche pickup, especially due to the role that catan is probably filling for their game nights as a casual experience. But yep, for those super into Catan, and are die hard fans already, then Cities & Knights is certainly the most 'serious' arena to take Catan, although I still stand by the development cards being a bit wonky. Will have to test the theory on green being about the same in value to the rest, but in our games, rushing it was just amazing tempo. We did consider that cities with metropolises cannot get blown up. I could also see the traders and barbarians scenario getting wonky, and possibly with 4 players it suffers more, but I suspect its more VP efficient to focus on wagons and building placement over roads. Time will tell on that one! Cheers! -Ashton

[@Sebby_Nineteen]

I think you misunderstood the rules of the last T&B scenario. You shouldn't be able to stalemate. The # of roads built shouldn't matter, at all. You can still move Wagons over dirt paths.

[@Phillibetrus]

I got both seafarers and Traders and Barbarians with the 5-6 player expansions. We like to merge and house rules both games. We typically have a main Island where everyone starts and has the traders, rivers and fish. Some of the tiles (particularly on Islands we can expand to) have 2 numbers on them to increase resource generation for those who get out there. Also we go for high point games as we like longer games, but I know that is unusual.

[@jafanz3739]

I've only ever played CK but I'm glad I chose this expansion. Imo it completely changes the base game (which can get boring imo). My group love the 'mean ness' of it and the depth and complexity it has. I do agree with others that I wouldn't get a new player started on CK without the base knowledge of base Catan

[@sintanan469]

I had an idea for a Catan expansion that tries for the discovery of the unknown and still has a tight board for resource management and trade. Start with the basic board of a 3-hex to a side grid. Add a ring of water around that. Add a ring of upside-down tiles to reveal later. This keeps things tight in the beginning, but opens up options to increase the board side and stretch out over time, but at a risk because you don't know what is there. Each land tile gets a "surprise" token set on it face-down. These are either blank, +1, -1, a silver coin, a card icon, or a gold nugget. Players can opt to Discover a tile, revealing the token and acting accordingly. * A blank token does nothing. * +1 and -1 increase or decrease the availability of resources. Replace the number with either a step closer to 7 to increase value with a +1, or a step further from 7 with a -1. If a 2 or 12 gets a -1 the tile becomes a desert. If a 6 or 8 gets a +1 nothing happens. * a silver coin awards the player with one currency when revealed. Not a great reward, more a consolation prize. * a card symbol gets you a free dev card. Basically makes the resources spent to Discover a wash. * a gold nugget replaces the tile with a gold mine tile. There's gold in there them hills. Instead of Knight tokens, players can make Conquistadors. You can opt to move a Conquistador around the board on your turn, by traveling as far as they want on your road, traveling as far as they want on another road at the cost of 1 silver coin, or traveling across one tile of another player's road or an empty line at no cost. Conquistadors block the ability to place a Settlement, and a player can spend resources to Discover on a tile where one of their Conquistadors sits on a corner. Boats work like Seafarers to keep things simple with the caveat the boat may only be added adjacent to a Harbor or a chain of boats adjacent to a Harbor. The idea here is this enforces discovery of new tiles outside the main island limited to mid game once cities come in play. Harbors are a variant City token for a Settlement that upgrades on the Coast. This is just to keep from having to add extra City tokens so the resource management of City tokens can still be enforced. So what is the reason to explore the outer ring? The outer tiles have one Gold Mine, and one Rich resource tile for each resource scattered in the face down tiles to explore. Rich tiles get you one extra resource when the tile is rolled. Gold Mine gets you one of a resource of your choice when it is rolled. Finally, with Fish you mix spent fish tokens back into the draw pile if no fish tokens are drawn on a turn that a 7 is not rolled. Silver Coins are currency. You get 1 when you don't get a resource card when a number other than 7 is rolled. You can cash in silver coins for resource cards or trade silver with other players.

[@antoniopiacentini6830]

Thanks so much. Really helpful and competent for choosing my first expansion game as a Catan enthusiast! Thanks a lot!

[@glennmartin6492]

My all-time favourite variant is the Welfare variant. When anyone rolls the die and it's a number you aren't built (robber doesn't count) on you get a welfare token. On your turn you can trade in a number of these tokens equal to the number of victory points you have built on the boards (don't count VP cards) for a resource of your choice. I usually cap this ratio at 5 to 1 to keep it relevant in the later game. As this increases the flow of resources into the economy it tends to speed up gameplay and helps compensate for poor initial placement..

[@emilymares9623]

I love C&K. It's the best expansion and tbh feels more like real Catan VS the beginner base game. Don't get me wrong the base game is fun and simple but the deeper strategies and sabotaging (with built in mechanics to get you back up) makes games feel closer and gets the heart pumping more. I feel c&k is always targeted at the highest ranking player and thus feels more balanced. There are significantly less runaway games in c&k which makes it feel better to play all the way through. Losing never means you've lost in c&k

[@sonixctaser3302]

Great video this was great you went through all of theses I just got into this game 4 days ago and fell in love

[@nelcyon]

I think your group would like to play a version of settlers my friend group created where we amalgamated nearly all of the expansions (leaving out explorers&pirates since it didn't exist when we created this version) The 5-6 player expansion sets were used, and we played with 6 people that were regular settlers players. The games take nearly 6 hours, and get very complex and extremely strategic, and there are so many options to gain victory points that it becomes very engaging. The clear downfall is the time between your turns, but there are so many things changing about the board state during each player's turn that you always want to be paying attention to what is happening not on your turn. Since you guys are pretty advanced gameplayers, and tend to like complexity and engaging long play games (some of you) you might want to think about trying to combine those expansions together... I am sure I could incorporate the Explorers & Pirates into this version, but the game board footprint would get just kinda crazy at that point. I do encourage you guys to try and combine all the expansions excluding E&P, and try a game of super-settlers the next time you all get a catan itch.

[@polorprewayx]

i like to hear your rules and gold interaction by different expansions .) .

[@ryanhimmelblau534]

But for 6 hours I think most would rather play Twilight Imperium for the strategy and planning aspect and mechanical depth. Plus no RNG. As said in the video, once you push Settler's past the 90 min play time mark, you start entering the territory of other better games.

[@Lavafist]

It i had time and friends who play i would absolutely play that

[@SporeVenom]

I was literally going to comment this EXACT same thing 😂😂 TI will be much, much better and more fun than playing a 6 hour Catan game. Like the other comment, once you start going to the >1.5 hours time frame, Catan is not the game to play. There are much better and more fun to play games at that point.

[@justanaveragetreeg1554]

Explorers and Pirates is the most fun when you go big with it - playing the biggest map with the 5-6 expansion, and you include Pirates, Spices, and Fish

[@JackBorchers]

Loved the background music in this video! I haven't noticed it it in y'all's other vids but I liked it a lot in this one! Great video as always

[@Shelfside]

been trying to implement it more, excited to see how new edits will come out -Ashton

[@nathelm]

Love pirates and explorers. Build harbors on each island and you can fight pirates and pick up fish hauls from each island. It's so much fun.

[@ape-in-a-tree9701]

the barbarian one looks really fun! I might buy that one. also because you have 2 tiny expansions for lesser known catan players and friends who are not that into boardgames

[@steegen101]

Small elements from T&B have become staple variant rules, like Harbormaster and Friendly Robber. Those mini rules + Seafarers = easy to implement optional styles that feel extremely in-line with the main gameplay of Catan. This video makes me hopeful for Explorers & Pirates... I think I can come up with a way to mix it with Seafarers and find my perfect exploration Catan that doesn't feel like an entirely different game lol

[@cameron224_]

My family plays Catan (base game) with a house rule where each robber moved removes the number on the tile its going to. The number stolen is moved to the tile where the robber came from (including the desert). For us, it balanced the game for all players and made knights more powerful. Some players are even known to role a 7, move the robber to their own resource hex, only to use a robber to replace it with a better number. I recommend people give it a shot if they're looking to spice up the base game.

[@filipesiegrist]

Thanks for the review. I really miss coverage of the top Seafarers scenarios (Wonders and Pirates). As I don't have a big catan group, I made the right choice of T&B instead of C&K

[@fufu1405]

Explorers & Pirates is my favorite way to play Catan. It adds so much scale and adventure to the game. What I enjoy about Catan is that you can pick and choose what scenarios you want and then combine them. When people have multiple ways to rack up victory points, it just makes so much fun. While I respect base Catan for being an OG, I just find it too bland.

[@MaiyrCordeth]

There is a document that someone made of rule changes to make all expansions work together with explorers and pirates

[@Fuzzi999]

@@MaiyrCordeth except Seafarers those 2 are completely incompatible

[@andrewmancini46]

For me the only two expansions I need are C&K and E&P since they improve on the concepts of the previous two expansions. Everyone loves C&K for obvious reasons but E&P is such an overlooked expansion

[@jordantaylor4390]

I enjoy playing with The Helpers of Catan, the expansion that makes regular Catan like Star Trek Catan. I like how it reduces the effect of bad rolls

[@SethAKPI]

Cities and Knights, bought it for my board game team yesterday. We only got through two games and it took 5 hours haha. Awesome expansion

[@dylannorthrup5439]

Great review! My personal score for Settlers of Catan definitely lines up with yours. Funny enough, my friends who love Catan claim that Cities & Knights is the best version of it, and my one friend even says he wouldn’t play without it, unless teaching a new player. Glad to hear Traders & Barbarians is fairly decent, as we’ve had that sitting on our shelf for years… my wife and I bought it for the potential 2-player variant - but, then we never got around to trying it, haha. Seeing Explorers & Pirates makes me think there’s potential to combine the expansions into a massive board with multiple islands, that likely would completely ruin the game and make it take forever, but hey it would seem awesome, lol. I have the older printing from Mayfair Games, but I’m surprised at the missed opportunity with the Catan Studios reprints not significantly upgrading the quality or appearance of the game… the new expansions don’t really look any better, but they also don’t match the previous edition, so I’m not sure what they were doing there… I bet if they made a modern looking updated edition with high quality components, fans of Catan would re-buy new copies more readily than that plastic 3D Catan they came out with, lol.

[@BB-pn2qv]

Thanks for covering this. Great review

[@neonWHALE002]

Thanks for this, I've been considering an expansion and at first glance I was gonna go for explorers and pirates but traders and barbarians now sounds like a more worthy expansion to try...especially if that comes with a two player variant!

[@danielosborne6075]

Wow, so many new features in cities and knights. Seams more like a sequel rather than an expansion

[@KJGrenadier]

It's amazing how different our perspectives are. Cities and Knights is my favorite expansion combined with Seafarers, because I want the deep, meaty 2-3 hour game it provides. I don't go to Catan for a light one hour game; base Catan feels so boring to me. I cannot imagine playing without both Seafarers and Cities and Knights. It's so good.

[@legoboy-ox2kx]

Growing up my family played Cities and Knights exclusively, and we absolutely love that game. We only ever played with the original rule-set though, which includes the not rolling the extra die for 2 rounds and different development cards. (Except intrique, if you know this card you'll understand)

[@nategar412]

Intrigue is so worthless the vast majority of the time.

[@jd7863]

I normally keep a weak knight as insurance in cities in knights but you can get hit by the double deserter and then you're just wrecked

[@gabrielmariz9610]

I have both Traders & Barbarians and Seafarers! So far, I've enjoyed both a lot and haven't played every scenario. I am very hooked on the Fishermen of Catan. It spices up the game, makes it faster and more balanced, combos well with Harbormaster, and can easily be combined with other expansions.

[@Zombie8tHeart]

This is actually really helpful! The only reference I had before was the dice tower videos from over 10 years ago!

[@Shelfside]

cheers! Glad this could be a resource for ya -Ashton

[@JusNoBS420]

I bought Catan in the 2000’s and Seafairers and Cities and Knights shortly after. Played C&K expansion a few times but never opened Seafarers. Trying to get back into the game after 10+ years. Since we live next to a game playing family now. Came here for a refresher

[@DeyaViews]

I've often wondered if it would be possible to combine EVERY Catan expansion into a single game. It would probably take a long time, but I figured it'd be cool to try! Seeing this though, some of them seem to be incompatible, or doubling up on mechanics in the same area, like with the ships or different uses for knights. EDIT: Thinking about it, Explorers & Pirates taking bits of the others might make it the neatest one to me, but the concept and mechanics were also done really well in the board game Explorers Of The North Sea, which I love and it's all in the base game rather than expansions.

[@Goldenwingz70]

I've played Explorers and pirates (last scenario with all additions) with Cities and Knights, it was a 6 hour game but luckily a very tight one. You could also add traders & barbarians to that but that would be too much work 🤣 Probably will never do this again as it was in my early getting into tabletop gaming phase.

[@bertyd2124]

@@Goldenwingz70 How many victory points did you play till? This past holiday weekend I played 4 player Greater Catan and it took us 5 and a half hours... The Greater Catan scenario when combined with C&K is a 20 VP total. That is just way to much in my opinion.

[@Goldenwingz70]

@@bertyd2124 We played until about 24-26 victory points, it was a year ago I don't exactly remember. Agreed, way too many 🤣 We knew what we were getting into so just decided to throw away a third of the day on Catan lol.

[@bertyd2124]

@@Goldenwingz70 24 or 26 points!?!? At least you all knew what you were getting yourselves into. I told my friends our game would only take at most 3 hours... they weren't too thrilled it went 5 and half hours. Do you remember coming across any problems combining C&K with Explorer's and Pirates?

[@Goldenwingz70]

@@bertyd2124 Lol that's rough, long Catan games are brutal. C&K with explorer's and pirates worked well for us. It was fun keeping track of the barbarian track while trying to go up the different explorer's and pirate VP tracks while trying to go up the city track. I feel like adding anything more to it like traders and barbarians would be too much maintenance for the fun it adds.

[@Agent_Matt_6]

I think the fun part of the expansions is you can pair them to mix it up even more

[@jamiesray]

Yo I am SHOCKED! I thought this was a great review but i loooove cities and knights, it’s the only version I play anymore. I never knew anybody disliked it.

[@dancdow]

First video I've seen from your channel. I'd rather watch your reviews than many others out there in this space. It costs me nothing to sub, so subbed.

[@notavailable6460]

I love your presentation. Thanks for the help too bro.

[@owengreisinger5739]

Been waiting for SOMEBODY to make a video about this in actually good quality!! Thank you!

[@arimorrison7816]

I play wth a house rule for cities and knights that the first barbarian attack doesn't count. It allows players to focus on building early in the game and makes it less likely for people to lose cities and slow down their game. I think it's a big improvement as the beginning of the game can be really slow with the standard rules of cities and knights

[@Dan-mw1bq]

Have you tried not rolling the event die for the first two table turns? It gives people a chance to choose walls or knights plus you likely aren't too far into commodity trees yet.

[@arimorrison7816]

haven't tried that but is seems like a reasonable variation with a similar goal@@Dan-mw1bq

[@elijahr_1998]

Think of the first attack as essentially a prolongment of the placement phase. All players are focused on the same goal, and this makes for increased trading and collusion during these first few turns. You might deny your opponent the resource(s) they need for an active knight, and rather than getting a VP yourself you let their city fall because you think their initial placements are too strong. Each player's placements and their pacing during the first few turns crucially factor into their opponents' decisions regarding the first attack. This makes for a lot of drama and mindgames, which is to me is part of what makes C&K the most loyal expansion.

[@qw3rty829]

My most memorable experience playing settlers of catan was the explorers and pirates expansion. Another player was attempting to bring his fish to sell st the market before me. My ships in the area didnt have anything to do, so i ended up blocking up the trade routes with my own ships, congesting the pass, and making him waste his turn going around me. My friends called me the villian of catan for the rest of the game.

[@timkniker7884]

C&K is by far my favorite. One thing is that the physical can be very annoying for the reason said, but when you play online in Catan World, it is much cleaner and you can finish in 30 minutes. It’s much easier to appreciate the beauty of this expansion

[@elijahr_1998]

Facts. I've had multiple sub 30 minute games of C&K online.

[@thetable7660]

I think the first time I ever played Catan was with a simplified version of cities and Knights and I remember it being quite fun. So instead of the flip book we just played it that you get Knights from the Development Cards and that just becomes greater area control and the shared concern of raiders. Think that was fairly straightforward as I was able to win even as a beginner.

[@mattfritton4337]

my junior and senior years in highschool where dominated by seafarers and cities and knights combo... i feel attacked

[@kishorepurohit8010]

Catan with Cities & Knight is an awesome game…. It’s is the best expansion of all. It add some extra spice and new challenges to the overall game play but not too much like traders and barbarian… Sea fares is bit dry as it just have ships moving on the board … Cities and Knights add some additional activities such as managing barbarian, upgrading the island and keeping an eye on your knights….. perfect addition to the base game to make it a must have expansion. I will always play Catan with Cities & Knights only.

[@josephshatrowsky]

I have them all but this video is amazing. A lot of effort and time went into it. I think seafarers is a must if you could just choose one. However my favorite of all is probably cities and knights but it’s so niche and you need the right people for it. For most people seafarers is your best choice.

[@Shelfside]

cheers man! Seafarers is definitely awesome for most groups out there -Ashton

[@Moorooten]

In my opinion C&K is the best! There are two large cons: a) A lengthy rule-book so you must be quite invested to be willing to sit and learn all rules b) If your not able to build and activate a knight before the first barbarian attack your game is pretty much lost. Then I want to add that the free resource of your own pick is not that overpowered that you made it seem, since it's only for number you have build on yet and by the time you upgraded to level 3 on that tier you already built villages/cities on most numbers. We usually play 3 player and finishes in 45-70 minutes compared to 25-45 min for normal Catan which is great in my opinion. When you feel like moving on from regular Catan and is willing to sit through that rule book, you want to get back a bit more playtime. Sure 4 player will be longer and first time you´re probably looking more like 90-120 min until you figured out all mechanics, but still I think that is decent.

[@tedcruz1774]

Thank you so much for this video!!!

[@mikeelarsen1964]

We have the old version of the Fishermen that doesn't include the desert replacement lake tile, which sounds incredible. Anyway, that's our favorite one to play with as it's so easy to incorporate to the base game and really helps freshen it up.

[@Sebby_Nineteen]

A few of the scenarios of T&B used to be sold separately, before getting bundled together

[@NubroBruno]

Love the Age of Empires music :). Nice review! Only played seafarers a few times and Cities and Knights once. I liked C&K! It was a different version, not with a booklet but with tiles you flip over. The knights also were plastic and had a hat if they were active. Was more visible. Seafarers, for me, is more of the same and doesn't add a lot.

[@Shelfside]

AoE is so good! Cheers! -Ashton

[@Sam_Richins]

I just feel that Catan without C&K is incomplete. It adds so much to the replayability. With Catan base and with Seafarers, you are required to expand to win. If you get blocked in, you're screwed. However, with C&K, the strategies you can use to win are much more varied and accessible. I've seen people win with almost every strategy. I've won with only being able to touch 4 total tiles. With the loss of production of resources of cities, yeah you do lose some speed of building. But, you wouldn't have had that city in regular Catan in the first place, so it's a negligible difference. Plus, think about it another way. At the start of the game, you have to decide whether you want resources or commodities first. It's a strategic decision. Choosing where to build cities becomes a much bigger choice, because you have to balance getting more resources vs getting more commodities. And hand bloat? I understand why that might be an issue, but if you keep your commodities on one side of your hand, and resources on the other, it's a lot easier to keep track. The hand limit is still 7 without city walls, and so when you get attacked, the question is what to lose? The rarer commodities, or the more useful resources. Also, play C&K with Seafarers to like 14 points. It's the way to play.

[@elijahr_1998]

Hand bloat is a far greater issue in base catan. There's no merchant, merchant fleet, or commodity 2:1 to burn excess cards. In base catan, if you don't have a port your options for downsizing your hand are extremely limited as there are simply less ways to spend cards. In C&K practically every turn you will be upgrading/activating knights and spending commodities. In base catan you can only build or buy devs (that are 56% knights). There are also no city walls nor alchemist to dodge 7. Rolling a 7 is also just more interesting in C&K. If you roll the 7 and have a bunch of knights activated, you could end up stealing two, three or more cards from your opponents. Plus, what you decide to block depends on your opponents knight positioning and whether or not they're active. And as you said, when you do get 7'd out, discarding involves twice as much strategy.

[@Sebby_Nineteen]

Despite all the mistakes, I am glad you did a review of all 4 major Expansions! ... But that is only the tip of the iceburg! There is SO much more Catan stuff out there! 1) You got the Scenario Packs, further add-ons to the Expansions. "Legend of the Sea Robbers" (for Seafarers), "Legend of the Conquerors" (for C&K), and "Treasures, Dragons, & Adventurers" (for SF and C&K!). Both Legends games are story-based campaigns. While TD&A is 6 more scenarios that can use both Expansions... and you white Dragons in 2 of em!!! 2) Then there is the individual scenarios, each only costing a few bucks. "The Helpers", "Oilsprings", "Frenemies", and "Crop Trust" 3) And then there is all the stand alone Catan games... too many to list! 4) And THEN there is a bunch more stuff from the past that isn't sold anymore!!!

[@barmy8219]

A friend of mine got me an indiana and ohio map/scenario with victory points for building cities where real ones are a few years back lol

[@Sebby_Nineteen]

@@barmy8219 Right, the many geography maps (and many were double sided)

[@anthoylewisvevo1678]

great video!! it would be fun to see you review some of the themed Catans

[@JojishiAMVs]

The way I play Cities and Knights is that knights can't be moved and the metropolis can only be achieved at the final page of the flipbook. This makes the bandit pawn harder to deal with (And the action card associated with it), but also requires strategic placement of your knights to be able to keep your most important resource tiles running. Cities and Knights is by far the most complex and fun way to play Catan, and while it does make the game last longer, it also adds for way more variety and competition with the other players. (Also, the Dutch version uses way more distinct colors, with the 2 faces of the knight being completely different as well, so the clarity isn't an issue there)

[@kellyalvarado6533]

The best Catan is the one you create by combining bits and pieces of each to overcome the faults. We love E&P and have introduced elements of C&K and SF in to make our own "perfect" game.

[@NestaStiles]

Super disappointed that he didn't play the true version of explorers and pirates, which combines together all three scenarios of pirate hunting, fishing, and spice trading. This creates the most epic Catan experience by far in my opinion. Also just want to give a shout out to star farers which is awesome as well.

[@Shelfside]

Need to try it one day! cheers! Also have heard lots of star trek catan :) -Ashton

[@NestaStiles]

@@Shelfside Loved your video hope the best for ya! I will have to give the trek version a try!

[@lycanthewerewolf6801]

​@@Shelfside no, "The Starfarers of Catan" is a standalone game, not an expansion.

[@user-do8rb6gw5j]

I combined seafarers with cities and knights. BOOM! 4x excellence! Exploration & Tech tree, thank you very much.

[@JusNoBS420]

The standard OG version of Catan is my favorite and the one I always see in competitive play. It’s the best for me on game night anyway because it’s more casual and doesn’t take 2-3 hours

[@zephyrstrife4668]

Damn... these scenarios sound like they'd be awesome D&D games. Dude out here making me want to drop stacks on Catan just to use the pieces for D&D

[@elkoraki779]

I have never played catan, but I Imagine playing on a huge map with every expansion mashed together and tweaking the rules a bit so it would work, would be really fun

[@Eckendenker]

You can't really mix traders and explorers with the others, but Cities and Knights and Seafearers mixes real well.

[@Zetzteno]

Cities and Knights viewers cant stand to see such an integral catan expansion at a 4. The noncommodities are purposefully made that way cause everyone needs more access to wheat with crazy army sizes as well as brick for walls. It balances the resources more so than any other expansion. Idk how u think turns sometimes taking longer is a bad thing. The mental game of what everyone else is doing with their resources is what makes it work and what I think encourages the most player engagement. Playing it irl might be slow but there are better ways to play.

[@canyonlynn9744]

Agreed, Cities and Knights is the best expansion imho. The resources are more balanced and the victory paths feel more nuanced!

[@PassivesAbseits]

Good, that I have the original City and Knights, where you can clearly see, which Knights are active: The once with the face aren't, the one with the 1-3 fists are. Really amazing, that they made this worse in newer editions. Or maybe you need the German edition. But the next time we play, I will certainly mention that "don't role the event dice for 2 turns" rule, that didn't exist back when we bought it...

[@burntdabruski]

I had a play group that did 6-player(!) Cities and knights for multiple years (sometimes with gold tiles from seafarers) Still my favorite expansion. Those fish and harbor master rules from Traders is fire though.

[@Shelfside]

love that fish and harbor master! -Ashton

[@TheAqua-Ninja]

Loved the Age of Empires music at the beginning

[@CubeSavvy]

Thanks for reviewing these expansions! Love the AOE II bgm and sfx. ;p

[@Blitzprogger]

Oh man I love it when I hear the Age Of Empires II soundtrack in a random video! Take my like.

[@zsorens4570]

Love to hear a take on the "Helpers of catan" add-on as I use it with the base game any time I introduce a new player to the game b/c there is nothing worse than being resource stuck, or you finally get what you need and someone rolls a 7 it helps resource fixing so much and speeds the game up. Maybe a little less trading/social b/c you don't need to but especially when you have players new that don't even remember you can trade it just speeds things up.

[@Shelfside]

wow I did not even know that existed. Will take a look! -Ashton

[@JendersGaming]

What a nice video! Can't believe I have mot seen you channel before! You have a new subscriber!

[@adamstewart247]

As a 10+ year Catan vet, Cities and Knights is the best expansion but it also has the highest learning curve. Once you've really mastered Seafarers and the base game....dive in to learning it. You will love it once you've got it down. It takes Catan from the level of checkers to chess. For casual players you will probably like Seafarers and the base game alone....but for those who are more strategic... definitely figure out Cities and Knights. Cities and Knights works best with 3 players. 4+ it can make it very difficult to have enough resources/good spots to save your initial city. Also as a heads up you can hold 4 development cards not 3.

[@NATOnova]

woah thanks for this detailed review, and loved the distinctions n between recommender scores, personal, and who the expansions are best geared towards. can tell a lot of work, gameplay, and thought went into this!

[@Shelfside]

cheers! Glad it could help ya guys out -Ashton

[@phily5404]

Greater Catan (Seafarer + C&K, for 20 VP), it is like the pinnacle of Catan

[@JustinDynamicD]

Replace Seafarers with Explorers and Pirates for Ultimate Catan.

[@nathanielheron8094]

@@JustinDynamicD I'm a huge fan of C&K and just got E&P. Does it work well to combine them? Any rule tweaks that you use?

[@WesCraft]

I haven't tried all the expansions but I have Seafarers and watched this review closely. Seafarers is the most no-brainer add on for anyone with the base set looking to jump. We got our copy for 50. 40 would've been more fair but this is less the 70 we've seen it for at some stores. I haven't found that Seafarers takes much longer if any. You get 2 victory points just for landing on an island across a single tile channel, i.e. 2 roads and a settlement can get you 3VP (1 for Settlement and 2 Chits for new island). Now the longest trade route is *easier to compete for and it makes for fun game play. In many of the scenarios you only play to 13VP. The reviewer kept saying that ships were more expensive because sheep are involved. But a sheep and a brick are the same value as one another (1 card). I'm assuming you're planning to put a settlement somewhere on pasture land for the building of settlements and Dev card purchases. You're going to be able to make shipping lanes too at the same price as roads (2 cards). We did not find that goldmines broke the game. They are low rolls (4) and there's room all around the island for others to sneak over to the other side of the hex and settle the other side. Admittedly though, if you can get some lucky rolls and settle gold first, then you can expand to put additional settlements that hex. It can be a ridiculous haul when that 4 is rolled and you have 2 cities on gold. You might consider putting a lower freq rolled number on it if it bothers you in order to balance. 3, 11?

[@silverkoffee]

The end card music reminds me of the CGP Grey Q&A where he said he will never make a Catan video. He still wont, but this video is a nice stand in :)

[@austin2725]

Just noticed, nice music choice. AoE2 was a staple rts for me as I was growing up. 👍

[@jenspettersen7837]

"Seafarers" with "Legends of the Sea Robbers" is pretty neat. "Seafarers" as the only expansion doesn't add much excitement to the base game imo, but shipping routes can be double, so they're harder to black because you need two players who have laid a ship on a route to block the route. I love "Cities and Knights", but after getting "Seafarers" with "Legends of the Sea Robbers" I have preferred to play that. If I were to rate the Catan games I've played from 1 to 10 I would give: Basegame - 7, Cities and Knights - 8, Seafarers 6, Seafarers with Legends of the Sea Robbers - 8.3. Cities and Knights is a complex game and can be overwhelming, but I got it when the pandemic started, so I've ended up playing it a lot and I fell in love with it. Seafarers with Legends of the Sea Robbers is also more complex than the base game, but not as complex as Cities and Knights.

[@julianac1551]

Fun fact: here in Spain I have only seen Catan with plastic figurines, and there is no flipbook, there are cardboardtracks which are much more readable. I played it twice in two-player mode and it was a bit clunky but overall a pretty good experience, and one I want to play more of with other people.