Played Catan last weekend with the old expansion rules versus the new Traders & Barbarians variant. No contest which one is better.

My buddy Jeff brought over his copy of Traders & Barbarians after I grumbled about how the base Catan expansions just add more stuff without fixing the core issues. The fish and the camels in that variant made the whole game flow so much smoother. No more sitting there for 20 minutes rolling nothing while everyone else builds. Has anyone else tried switching out the standard expansion rules for one of the alternate variants?

2 comments

2 Comments

riveradams24d ago

Does the fish trading ever slow down the game too much for your group, or is it just the right pace?

dylanmurray24d ago

Yeah the fish mechanic alone changes everything, suddenly you're actually doing stuff during other people's turns instead of just watching. Once you get used to having that extra layer of strategy, going back to the standard expansions feels like driving a car with no steering wheel.