| | |  | Games | Home » » Catan: Seafarers Game Expansion | | | | | | | Description: | | In The Seafarers of Catan you control a group of seafaring settlers exploring and taming the uncharted Isles of Catan. Embark on a quest to settle the island, build ships, and chart the nearby waters. Guide your settlers to victory with clever trading, cunning development, and by establishing the most productive sea lanes. Acquire your resources through card play and the luck of the dice. Discover far-off mines and use gold and combinations of resources--grain, wool, ore, brick, and timber -- to develop your ever-expanding empire. Of course, the best strategy and a dash of luck decides who will be the undisputed ruler of the Isles of Catan. You need The Settlers of Catan board game to use this expansion, sold separately. | | | Features: | |
• This expansion requires the Settlers of Catan game
• Adds depth and complexity
• Compatible with all other expansions as long as the base game is used
• New Packaging & Tiles!!
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 3.12 inches | | Product Width:
| 11.62 inches | | Product Height:
| 9.38 inches | | Package Length:
| 11.7 inches | | Package Width:
| 9.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.1 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.6 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 62 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 62 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
248 of 248 found the following review helpful:
 The best of all Catan exansion setsDec 18, 2008
By Nathan Beauchamp
"ConsumerAdvocate"
The Settlers of Catan won board game of the year in 1995 for a reason. I'm not sure if there is an 'expansion pack of the year' award, but if there was, Seafarers would win hands down. I've played a lot (and I mean a LOT) of strategy board games in my time, and Seafarers combined with Settlers of Catan is the best over all strategy game I've ever played.
If you're looking at this expansion, you likely already are sold on Catan (or addicted!) and are looking to expand your game. You have a good number of options, including the 5-6 Player Extension, Seafarers, or Cities & Knights. All of them are solid, but if you were going to just get one, it would have to be Seafarers. Here is why:
1. Diversity of maps
The 5-6 player expansion allows you to play with more players, but it is basically the same game as the 3-4 player version. You don't get the addition of over a dozen different maps like you do with Seafarers. Knights and Cities is more of a different game altogether, and will be more unfamiliar than Seafarers. Don't get me wrong, the other two expansions are fantastic, but get this one first.
2. Strategy
Seafarers unlocks a whole new realm of strategy. You can now build boats, discover islands, expand outward, control the pirate (like the robber, but used on water hexes), and generally play the game a few new and unique ways that are extremely satisfying. Whether you're playing "Into the Desert," with its fantastic static map that forces very careful placement, or "Four Islands," with its emphasis on resource management and aggressive island expansion, or just the basic Seafarers map (a new twist on the standard 3-4 player map) the level of strategy has been increased over all in a fantastic variety of ways. You can play longer maps that penalize 'lucky' players who choose bad numbers, or maps with exotic things like the Gold resource hexes (which produce a resource of your choice!), or maps that reward a conservative or aggressive style: you have so many options you will never get bored!
3. Replay value
With so many strategies available, and with potentially millions of variations on the maps, Seafarers never gets old. Just the "Into the Desert" map kept me busy for months. All of the maps are great, unique, and a whole lot of fun to play.
A few caveats:
1. This is an expansion. It is not playable without The Settlers of Catan. Also, make sure you are buying an expansion of the same edition as your 3-4 player board!
2. I have both the 3rd and 4th generation boards, and I actually prefer the 3rd generation with its more subdued graphics. That is a matter of preference however, so if you have the 4th generation 3-4 game and like it, you will like this expansion's aesthetics just as much.
3. Some of the maps in the map book also require The Settlers of Catan 5-6 Player Extension. You don't NEED to have the 5-6 player expansion, but be aware that about 20% of the maps require Seafarers, the 3-4 player game, and the 5-6 player expansion.
Built on a masterpiece of a board game like Settlers of Catan, it's no wonder this expansion is simply fantastic. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It deserves 7 stars.
30 of 33 found the following review helpful:
A Great Expansion to a Great SeriesMar 04, 2008
By Anne M.
I found this expansion to be a great addition to the Settlers series. It adds much game play value to the original base game (Settlers of Catan) and it allows for even more creativity in creation of your own game maps.
Durability-wise, this expansion is the same as the other settlers games--the board pieces are on nice quality cardboard and the pieces are made of painted wood. The box this expansion comes in is of very high quality as well.
Again, this game has lots of little pieces so be aware of that (though they do all come with storage baggies, and everything fits nicely and securely in the box.
Make sure that you have the 4th edition of the original expansion set, as this one is incompatible with the 3rd edition. If you have the 3rd edition you need to purchase the 3rd edition of Seafarers as well.
17 of 18 found the following review helpful:
Wonderful Expansion to the Best Game EverJun 20, 2008
By Deb Ryan
"debtomr"
The frame to make the older and newer versions compatible is available from Mayfair Games on their site for about $10. If you buy the 4th edition of Settlers and Seafarers together, you have nothing to worry about. And I strongly recommend it. Seafarers adds some nice new wrinkles to Settlers while preserving the spirit of the original game. You, your neighbors, and your kids will get hooked! But remember, you have to start with Settlers!
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Fantastic addition to base gameMay 11, 2009
By Star Trek Guru
"MHG"
If you own the base Settlers of Catan, you should immediately order this expansion set. The base Catan game can get a bit cramped with 4 players. Even the expansion base game with 5-6 players gets cramped and the strategies can get a bit rote once the game has been played more than 20 times. With the Seafarers extension, the board really opens up. The strategies become more varied, and the value of the resources becomes more balanced. In the base game wheat and ore are paramount because of their use in building cities. In Seafarers, sheep and wood are elevated in importance because of their use in building ships. Trading resources becomes even more important. Finally, this set is a tremendous value. There are at least 3-4 excellent scenarios of playing this expansion so you really are getting a lot for your money. Very highly recommended.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Set sail and explore! Hidden islands and unknown riches await!Nov 22, 2009
By Winston Lee
Seafarers of Catan offers a new dimension to the game: the ability to build a trading route to outlying islands across the vast ocean and settle there.
This expansion requires The Settlers of Catan to play, and is equipped with 4 sets of ships, additional resource hexes, many sea hexes, additional number tokens, new harbor tokens, a pirate ship, and an extensive rules and scenarios book.
The expansion uses much of the same rules as The Settlers of Catan. The biggest addition is that coastal settlements/cities can serve as links between the mainland and neighboring islands. A trade route of ships can be build from a coastal settlement/city along the coastline, or out to sea, much like building roads on land. 1 ship costs 1 Lumbar and 1 Wool to build.
In addition, once per turn. 1 ship on the end of an open trade route can be moved to a new location, as long as it remains connected to the trade route or to a coastal settlement/city. This game mechanic increases players' abilities to expand and explore when they are ready to.
Settling on islands can be beneficial as they may provide resources that are scarce on the mainland, or it can enable (a) player(s) to capitalize on significant (and sometimes) unrivaled production of certain resources. This is important because ports are typically located on the mainland in most scenarios, and will become extremely useful later on.
There are also 2 Gold Hexes provided. Gold Hexes provide players who have built there with resources of their choice when the number on the token is rolled. Gold Hexes are located on outlying islands, and are usually worth the effort and resources to reach and settle there.
Due to the extra cost of building ships, most games are played to 12 or more Victory Points. In addition, "The Longest Road" card is aptly renamed as "The Longest Trade Route", which includes the longest chain of unbroken ships and roads.
The Robber has a new partner called the Pirate Ship. When a 7 is rolled, either the Robber or Pirate Ship can be moved. The Pirate Ship serves to prevent further extension of marine trading routes (i.e. no ships can be built along the sea hex border upon which The Pirate Ship is located). Adjacent ships cannot move away from the hex either. In addition, the turn player can take one resource card from a player whose ships are located next to the Pirate Ship.
With the option to move either the Robber or the Pirate Ship, players can elect to keep the Robber on a desired hex instead of being forced to move it. This can severely diminish a player's lead.
Like Settlers of Catan, Seafarers takes the most exciting aspect of the game and expands upon it. Seafarers offers a virtually unlimited number of board layout possibilities. The scenario booklet included profiles several scenarios such as: Heading for New Shores, The Four Islands, and The Fog Island (and a few more).
Heading for New Shores employs the normal Settlers of Catan board, and adds outlying islands, which include the popular Gold Hexes.
In The Four Islands scenario, players start on 1 or 2 "home islands" and earn additional points for settling on the others. Certain resources may be more abundant on the non "home islands". In addition, the various ports are distributed among the islands, providing additional incentive to expand.
In The Fog Island, players begin on the mainland and build out to unknown, uncharted territory covered by fog. As ships extend from the coast, face down and randomly shuffled hexes are revealed as land or sea (if it is a resource producing land hex, 1 resource of that type is provided as a discovery bonus). 1 random number token is then assigned to the newly discovered resource producing island hex.
Of course, players are free to create their own "New World" as they like and employ any or all of the new game aspects introduced.
I highly suggest Seafarers for those who have only played Settlers and are seeking a modest game addition to enhance their Catan experience. The ability to generate new maps and scenarios is what keeps the game exciting for me, and it has been highly rewarding for me and my friends to expand and explore.
If you are on the fence, search for Seafarers of Catan. You will see many images of how much fun people have had while playing this expansion.
I hope you found this review to be helpful. Thank you.
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