Catan: Explorers & Pirates is the fourth major expansion to Catan, released in 2014, late in the English 4th edition and 2nd international edition cycles. This expansion is an alternate take on the seafaring and exploration themes of Seafarers, primarily differing in the fact that ships being individual seagoing vessels rather than an abstract representation of a shipping line over water. Its similarity to Seafarers is reflected in the color coding for Catan products, where dark blue is used to contrast that of the light blue used in Seafarers.

Because it is a competing idea, this expansion is designed from the ground up to be incompatible with Seafarers. Unique to this expansion is that there is only one set of rules for all of the scenarios, but each scenario uses only a subset of the rules to slowly introduce specific mechanics therein, with “Land Ho!” using a minimal set of rules and “Explorers & Pirates” using the full set. Thus, like Cities & Knights, this expansion is often seen as one with only one scenario.

Compatibility with other expansions is only available via an addendum on the Catan website.

Scenarios

• “Land Ho!”
• “The Pirate Lairs”
• “Fish for Catan”
• “Spices for Catan”
• “Explorers & Pirates”

Parts List

The Explorers & Pirates expansion includes the following:

• Hexes
  • Parrot (Green Moon) Unexplored Area:
    • 1 Hills
    • 1 Fields
    • 1 Forest
    • 2 Mountains
    • 1 Pasture
    • 2 Ocean
    • 3 Pirate Lairs
    • 3 Fish Shoal
    • 3 Spice Farm
  • Goose (Orange Sun) Unexplored Area:
    • 1 Hills
    • 2 Fields
    • 1 Forest
    • 1 Mountains
    • 1 Pasture
    • 2 Ocean
    • 3 Pirate Lairs
    • 3 Fish Shoal
    • 3 Spice Farm
  • English 6th Edition:
    • 23 Ocean
    • 1 Council of Catan
• Number Tokens
  • Parrot (Green Moon) Unexplored Area:
    • 1 - 3
    • 1 - 4
    • 1 - 5
    • 1 - 6
    • 1 - 9
    • 1 - 10
  • Goose (Orange Sun) Unexplored Area:
    • 1 - 4
    • 1 - 5
    • 1 - 8
    • 1 - 9
    • 1 - 10
    • 1 - 11
  • Pirate Lairs
    • 1 - 2
    • 1 - 3
    • 1 - 5
    • 1 - 6
    • 1 - 8
    • 1 - 11
• Player Pieces
  • 4 Harbor Settlements per player
  • 3 Ships per player
  • 2 Settlers per player
  • 9 Crews per player
  • 1 Pirate per player
  • 3 Markers per player
• Miscellaneous Player Assets
  • 1 Building Cost Card per player
• Frame Pieces
  • End piece with embedded pasture hex (A1)
  • 2 one-hex frame extensions (B1)
  • 2 two-hex frame extensions (B2)
  • English 6th Edition:
    • 3 mission track frame pieces
    • 2 three-hex frame extensions
  • English 4th-5th Edition, 2nd-4th International Edition:
    • End piece with embedded ocean hex (A2)
    • 2 three-hex frame extensions with side piece interlock (B3)
    • Six-hex interlocking side pieces (C1 and C2)
    • Central ocean interlocking piece (D1)
    • Central Council of Catan interlocking piece (D2)
    • Ocean hex (E)
    • Six-hex central piece (F), divided into two halves (F1 and F2) in English editions
    • Three-hex piece (G)
• 6 Fish Hauls
• 24 Spice Sacks
• Coins
  • English 6th editions, 3rd-4th international editions:
    • 40 - 1 gold
    • 36 - 3 gold
  • English 5th edition:
    • 48 - 1 gold
    • 40 - 3 gold
  • English 4th edition:
    • 47 - 1 gold
    • 45 - 3 gold
  • 2nd international edition:
    • 40 - 1 gold
    • 48 - 3 gold
• 3 Mission cards (English 4th-5th edition, all international editions)
• 3 Mission scoring bonuses
• 1 set of 10 sorting tiles (English 4th-5th edition, 2nd-4th international edition only)

The Explorers & Pirates extension includes the following:

• Hexes
  • Parrot (Green Moon) Unexplored Area:
    • 1 Field
    • 1 Forest
    • 1 Mountains
    • 1 Pirate Lair
  • Goose (Orange Sun) Unexplored Area:
    • 1 Hills
    • 1 Mountains
    • 1 Pasture
    • 1 Pirate Lair
  • 9 Ocean (English 6th edition only)
• Number Tokens
  • Parrot (Green Moon) Unexplored Area:
    • 1 - 2
    • 1 - 5
    • 1 - 9
  • Goose (Orange Sun) Unexplored Area:
    • 1 - 3
    • 1 - 4
    • 1 - 10
  • Pirate Lairs
    • 1 - 9
    • 1 - 10
• Frame Pieces
  • Central interlocking piece (D3). English sets depict Ocean on one side and Council of Catan on the other, international sets only have the side with the Council of Catan.
  • 4 Ocean hexes (EE)
  • Three-hex piece (EG)
• Player Pieces
  • 4 Harbor Settlements per player
  • 3 Ships per player
  • 2 Settlers per player
  • 9 Crews per player
  • 1 Pirate per player
  • 3 Markers per player
• Miscellaneous Player Assets
  • 1 Building Cost Card per player
• 2 Fish Hauls
• 12 Spice Sacks
• Coins
  • 6 - 1 gold (English 6th edition only)
  • 6 - 3 gold (English 6th edition only)
• 1 set of 5 sorting tiles (English 4th-5th edition, 2nd-4th international edition only)
• 1 set of 2 Paired Player Markers (English 6th edition, 4th International edition only), with figure stands

Notes:

• With the exception of the English 6th edition, the gold coins used in Explorers & Pirates are of a different design than their counterparts in Traders & Barbarians. They are intended to be interchangeable, however, do note that both expansions have coins in different denominations.
• Some select English 5th edition and 3rd international edition sets will use the Paired Player Turn rule, and thus include the Paired Player markers
• As with the other extensions, the color of the 6th player is brown prior to the English 6th edition and 4th international edition, and purple afterwards.