Catan: Traders & Barbarians 5-6 Player Expansion

The More, the Merrier on Catan

There's a particular kind of chaos that emerges when six players descend on the island of Catan — alliances form and dissolve in the span of a single turn, harbours become battlegrounds of negotiation, and every brick and ore suddenly feels precious. If your Catan sessions have been turning away players at the door, this is the expansion that opens it wide.

What It Is

Published by Catan GmbH, Traders & Barbarians 5–6 Player Expansion extends one of the best-selling board games of all time — and one of its most celebrated expansion sets — to accommodate a full table of five or six players. Traders & Barbarians is the scenario-focused expansion for Catan, known for adding narrative variety and cooperative twists to the classic island-building formula. This add-on gives you the board tiles, resource cards, playing pieces, and everything else needed to bring two more settlers into the fold without sacrificing the experience.

If your group has already explored everything Traders & Barbarians has to offer at four players and keeps finding a fifth or sixth person ready to roll dice and trade sheep, this expansion is the natural next step. It does not include the Traders & Barbarians base expansion — you'll need that separately — but paired together, the combination opens up Catan's most scenario-rich experience to a bigger table.

Who It's For

This expansion is built for established Catan households and game groups who've outgrown their four-player setup. It plays five or six players and is recommended for ages 12 and up, making it well-suited to older family groups, friend circles, and game nights where leaving someone out isn't an option. Sessions will run longer with more players at the table — plan for two hours or more — so this one fits best with groups who enjoy a relaxed, social evening over a competitive sprint.

Features & Highlights

The expansion includes all the additional components needed to extend Traders & Barbarians scenarios to five or six players — extra hex tiles to widen the island, additional resource and event cards, and new playing pieces in two more colours. The component quality matches the main Catan line, so everything integrates seamlessly with your existing set. If you're a Catan collector building out a comprehensive library of expansions, this is an essential piece of the puzzle that keeps your biggest sessions running smoothly.

Specifications