"CATAN: Seafarers" is the first expansion for the iconic board game "CATAN", which truly expands the playing area. While the base game features a regular hexagonal board with sides of three hexes, this expansion stretches the board both wider and taller (4×5, with eight hexes instead of five along the “equator”).

Expansion Overview

Thanks to the increased number of hexes, the unpredictability of how the board will form in each game has grown. Of course, many scenarios in the expansion provide strict hex layouts, but free creativity is also encouraged: the 9th scenario isn’t a fixed setup but simply an invitation to lay out the hexes in a frame randomly. However, the real excitement comes not from a standard “random” layout, but from the Seafarers scenarios with precise hex placement and, more importantly, additional rules.

In *Seafarers*, new rules operate on two levels. There are rules common to every scenario using this expansion, and “private” rules that apply only to specific scenarios, often involving unique components. The common rules are few:

• First, rules for building ships and creating sea routes, along with an update to the “Longest Trade Route” rule, which now includes sea segments.
• Second, a new landscape type joins the hex family—“gold river,” a joker that lets a player take any resource card.
• Finally, the pirate enters the game—a sea robber with movement and plundering rules. If both the robber and pirate are in play, they annoy players separately: when a player rolls a fateful “7,” they can either displace the land robber to an opponent’s territory or drive the pirate away from their sea routes, but both bandits cannot act simultaneously.

We recommend watching the video rules in the “Video” section and, if desired, exploring the illustrated PDF rules in detail in the “Files” section.

One Last Note

The *Catan: Seafarers* expansion doesn’t radically change or complicate the base game’s rules. It makes the game significantly more variable through a larger map and diverse scenarios. Galu the Rooster recommends *Seafarers* to all owners of the *CATAN* board game, and for those planning to buy the base game, he suggests getting this expansion as a bundle right away.