# Best expansion for Settlers of Catan?



## Plane Sailing (Nov 23, 2009)

So, I play and enjoy Settlers of Catan.

There are a few expansion sets available. which is the best and why?

Thanks!


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## robotsinmyhead (Nov 24, 2009)

If you get them in some sort of order, definitely start with Cities and Knights.  In my opinion, it adds the most interplay.  Aadd in the 5-6 player extension for it and the base game and it really takes off.  

Seafarers is more of a mini-expansion and doesn't make any serious game-changing play, but it's a nice addition either way.

Traders and Barbarians is more of a scenario add-on and doesn't mix as well with the other two, but is fun nonetheless.


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## MerricB (Nov 24, 2009)

Seafarers is my favourite by a long way. Its main bonus to to make sheep a lot more useful, so that the resources balance out more. And it has a number of scenarios in it to widen the game experience.

Cities & Knights is a game-changing expansion. It ramps up the complexity a lot, adding three new resources (commodities), technologies, a bunch of new cards, and requiring you to protect your cities from barbarian invasions. I haven't found it that great. In my opinion, it detracts from the chief point of Catan: trading. With eight things to trade rather than five, it's just that much harder.

Cheers!


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## Jan van Leyden (Nov 24, 2009)

MerricB said:


> Seafarers is my favourite by a long way. Its main bonus to to make sheep a lot more useful, so that the resources balance out more. And it has a number of scenarios in it to widen the game experience.
> 
> Cities & Knights is a game-changing expansion. It ramps up the complexity a lot, adding three new resources (commodities), technologies, a bunch of new cards, and requiring you to protect your cities from barbarian invasions. I haven't found it that great. In my opinion, it detracts from the chief point of Catan: trading. With eight things to trade rather than five, it's just that much harder.




QfT. While Seafarers extends the game, C&K changes it into a new game. Trading is actually reduced, thus increasing the danger of being left behind early on. And a round of C&K takes so much longer, without any new quality, just adding MotS, instead.


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## Plane Sailing (Nov 25, 2009)

Thanks, that is useful advice.

Since I mostly play with my children (8 & 6), I think that Seafarers sounds like the better expansion to go for at the moment.


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## robotsinmyhead (Nov 25, 2009)

Plane Sailing said:


> Thanks, that is useful advice.
> 
> Since I mostly play with my children (8 & 6), I think that Seafarers sounds like the better expansion to go for at the moment.




Oh definitely.  While I like C&K better, Seafarers doesn't change the game much in difficulty or overall gametime.


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## Holy Bovine (Nov 25, 2009)

MerricB said:


> Seafarers is my favourite by a long way. Its main bonus to to make sheep a lot more useful, so that the resources balance out more. And it has a number of scenarios in it to widen the game experience.
> 
> Cities & Knights is a game-changing expansion. It ramps up the complexity a lot, adding three new resources (commodities), technologies, a bunch of new cards, and requiring you to protect your cities from barbarian invasions. I haven't found it that great. In my opinion, it detracts from the chief point of Catan: trading. With eight things to trade rather than five, it's just that much harder.
> 
> Cheers!




MerricB has the right of it.  If you enjoy the gameplay of Settlers for what it is (a trading game) C&K will alter that almost to the point of it being a completely new game.  I've played with C&K a few times and did not care for what it did to the game.  Overly long and complex it ground on for over 2 hours after we got the 'practice rounds' out of the way to learn the new rules.  That shocked us as Settlers is one of those games we finish in 1 hour maybe 90 minutes tops.  

Seafarers and the 5-6 players expansions are all we use now.  They work beautifully together and give us plenty of options and 'replayability'.


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## dreamchaser214 (Nov 25, 2009)

I also like the Seafarers' expansion. It's not that complex and it have wider range of strategies that players can pursue. I think the game plays best with only 3-4 people. The Cities & Knights expansion is good too, but makes the game much longer more complicated. I've just finished a game with my bro yesterday..haha. 

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