Catan: Traders & Barbarians is a new expansion for The Settlers of Catan.
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: varies
The Components
Catan: Traders & Barbarians comes with a varied set of components. These include:
Wooden Bits: Almost 100(!) new wooden bits for use in Catan. These include 22 camels, 36 barbarians, and a set of knights, bridges, and wagons for each of the (four-player) player colors. Each of these figures is a fairly complex design that goes a ways beyond what you typically find among wood bits in Eurogames.
Cards: A double-deck of 120 cards. These include a set of "Catan Event Cards", new decks of development cards for two of the scenarios, some wagon technology cards for "Traders and Barbarians" and some reference cards for "The Fishermen of Catan". They're all full-color, with attractive artwork on some of them, though the cards are slightly on the flimsy side.
Cardboard Bits: Finally, the set includes a variety of cardboard bits, which are all printed on medium weight-glossy card board. These include a variety of new terrain tiles, new victory point cards, and various chits for the various scenarios.
Rulebook: An attractive 24-page full-color rulebook. It's been very carefully organized, to highlight each variant and scenario and also show how some of the "variants" interact together. There are also plenty of examples and full-color illustrations.
Last year Mayfair released a new edition of the base Settlers of Catan game, and Traders & Barbarians matches its new look and feel. Long-term players will probably want to know how well this new supplement integrates with older editions. Pretty simply: I had no problems using it. THe tiles and other components all looked fine together. You won't be able to use the new sea frames included with this set, but they're just a new way to lay out the harbors: no biggie (though vastly superior, in my opinion).
Overall, Catan: Traders & Barbarians includes a generous count of components, all of good quality. My only complaint is the box's tray, which is terrible for organizing this set of variants and expansions. Nonetheless, it earns a solid "4" out of "5" for Style: well above average.
The Gameplay
Catan: Traders & Barbarians contains 4 "variants", which are small-scale expansions which can be used with any game and 5 "scenarios" which are larger-scale expansions which probably can't be played together. The scenarios are said to be arranged into a campaign, which just means that there's a story that theoretically connects them. (It has no game play effect.)
I'm going to provide a quick overview of each of the variants and expansions in turn. First, the four variants:
The Friendly Robber: This is essentially a house rule that keeps players with less than 3 VPs from being attacked by the robber.
Catan Event Cards: This is a deck of cards that replaces dice rolls. Instead, you draw a card, and whenever 31 of the 36 cards have been drawn (as marked by a special New Year card) you reshuffle. The cards were previously released separately, and thus I've written a separate review of them already.
Harbormaster: This introduces a new VP Card, the harbormaster which is worth 2 VPs (and thus should increase the VP target of your game by 1). Any settlement built at a harbor earns 1 "harbor point" and any city earns 2 "harbor points". The first player with 3 harbor points gets the Harbormaster card, and it then changes hands when other players exceed that count.
Catan for Two: This introduces a method for playing The Settlers of Catan with just two players. It does so by introducing two neutral players that the real players can build for, as well as trade tokens which are a new resource which players can manage and which they can use to get cards from the neutral players.
The following five scenarios involve much more extensive changes than the variants, often involving specific maps and new tiles.
The Fishermen of Catan: In this scenario, fishing spots can be found along the harborless edges of the board and in an inland lake. These produce fish when their numbers are rolled, and the fish can be turned in for a number of advantages. A variant of this set was previously released, without the lake, and I've written a longer review of it.
The Rivers of Catan: Two rivers run through Catan. Building along them produces gold, while building over them requires bridges (which cost slightly more than roads). The gold can be turned in for resources, but the "Wealthiest Settler" earns +1VP, while the poorest settler(s) earn -2VPs. I previously reviewed a very different version of this called Catan: The Great River, but the new ruleset is almost entirely different, except insomuch as a river produces gold pieces.
The Caravans: Three caravans start out from the oasis, a new tile. Each turn players can vote which direction a caravan goes by using resources. Having the caravan cross your settlements and cities increases your VPs, while it increases you road length when it runs along your road, all around making it a value thing to manage.
Barbarian Attack: In what feels like a miniature version of Cities & Knights, barbarians loot the edges of Catan, causing the hexes to stop producing while players create knights which can move about Catan and overcome barbarians, producing victory points for all players involved in the victory.
Traders & Barbarians: Three hexes on the board require special commodities, and each player has an upgradable wagon which he moves around Catan, delivering these items from one hex to another. Roads take on a new importance because they can speed up improve your wagons' movement and you can charge your opponents for their use.
Relationships to Other Games
First and foremost, Traders & Barbarians is a supplement to The Settlers of Catan. It's been marketed as the third big box expansion to Settlers, following The Seafarers of Catan and , though it's actually quite different from those earlier expansions; they were big-picture rules changes for Settlers while this expansions instead is a collection of scenarios.
Many of the scenarios in Traders & Barbarians have previously been published. As already noted, there are Mayfair versions of the Catan Event Deck, the Great River, and the Fishermen of Catan. Additionally other expansions like The Caravans previously appeared as German giveaways while the German Atlantis supplement included a few of these expansions.
Thus, overall Traders & Barbarians contains some totally new material, some modifications to older scenarios, and some retreads, all of which have notably upgraded components from previous publications. Of course, if you haven't seen the smaller-profile expansions over the last couple of years, this will all be new to you.
The Game Design
First let me say that out of the nine variants and expansions to this game, I only played six and a half of them. I did not play the (very minor) Friendly Robber variant nor did I play the (more notable) two-player Catan variant. I ran through all five of the scenarios, which I think are the bulk of supplement, but my experience with the Rivers of Catan was with the older Great River, which is pretty notably changed from its publication here. Caveat reader.
Beyond that, there's such a large amount of stuff in this expansion that it's hard to examine it all as a whole, but let me give it my best shot.
First, I think that there are three elements in these set which are generally great expansions to Settlers and which generally help to improve and balance the game. They're the type of thing that I think most players should use most of the time. The first of these are the Catan Event Cards, which still maintain the randomness of Catan, but keep it within bounds, reducing the chance of long runs of good or bad luck. The second of these are the two expansions that affect the waters: the Harbormaster variant and the Fishermen scenario. Generally, it's a huge disadvantage to build along the coast in Catan, so I really appreciate the fact that you can now start to consider it as a real alternative. (And though Fishermen is listed as a scenario, I think you could instead use it as a variant, mixing it right into any of the other scenarios, possibly without that central lake.)
Beyond that, the scenarios do a pretty good job of offering alternatives to the normal gameplay of Settlers. I wouldn't want to use any of the other four scenarios in every game I played, but having them all available is a lot of fun and can give a lot of variety to your game. The only disadvantage is that you'll take more time setting up Settlers when you're using any of these expansions. I found it a bit unwieldy every time I laid out one of these special games.
Before I close out, let me single out some of the high points of the individual scenarios:
- Rivers really doesn't feel like it changes the base game much, but it's nice to have a slightly different layout for the board.
- Caravan is interesting because it introduces an auction to Settlers. This well-loved mechanic hasn't shown up much in Catan (except for in an old historical scenario which I didn't think worked that well), so it's nice to see it here.
- Barbarian Attack and Traders & Barbarians are both very different scenarios (despite their similar names), but I like them for the same reasons. Often Settlers is a very static game, but these scenarios make it more dynamic by introducing the movement of pieces. I particular like the way that the latter scenario works, because in moving wagons across your roads you're taking real advantage of your road network in a way that normal Settlers games don't allow.
I'll admit that Traders & Barbarians is a hodge-podge. It doesn't have the elegant cohesion of the previous Settlers boxes. However, it's a great hodge-podge which will add lots of fun variety to your Settlers game. I personally consider it the best Settlers expansion: Seafarers had great gameplay, but was too expensive, while Cities & Knights was too complex for my liking. Contrariwise Traders & Barbarians has no real downside. It's the first expansion I'd suggest any Settlers fan purchase.
I've given it a "5" out of "5" for Substance; this is another fine example of what a gaming supplement should do.
Conclusion
Catan: Traders & Barbarians is a supplement that will add a lot of nice variety to your Settlers of Catan game. Some variants, such as the Harbormaster and the Event Deck, should become de facto standards for almost any Settlers game, while others like The Caravans and Barbarian Attack offer some really nice variety that will allow you to play the classic game in new ways.
If you enjoy The Settlers of Catan, this is the first expansion that you should buy.
