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Board Game Gifts for Someone Who Already Owns Catan and Ticket to Ride
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items Catan and Ticket to Ride are where most people start, and then the shelf stops growing because the next step is not obvious. Two ways out: buy an expansion for a game they already know, or buy the game that scratches the same itch better. Both are he...
Sections
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Expansions for the two they already own
The games they should own next
For when they want a whole evening
Expansions for the two they already own
The cheapest way to give someone a new game is to change one they already play. All of these need the base box, so only buy them if you know which edition they own.
The expansion to buy first. It adds three separate mini scenarios, so it is really three new games rather than one tweak, and none of them change the base rules enough to relearn anything.
Catan: Traders & Barbarians expansion
The one that changes Catan the most. Cities upgrade, knights defend against barbarians, and the game runs longer. Give this to someone who plays Catan often enough to be bored of it.
Catan: Cities & Knights expansion
The one to buy if their problem is player count. It takes Catan to five and six players and adds ships and exploration. Worth it for a household that plays with a big group, less so for three.
Catan: Explorers & Pirates expansion
Warehouses, depots and a stack of new destination tickets for the Europe map. The cheapest thing here, and the right gift for someone who plays the same map every time and has stopped being surprised by it.
Ticket to Ride: Europa 1912 expansion
The games they should own next
Four games that fit the same slot as Catan, an hour on a table with three or four people, and do it with less downtime. Any of these works as a standalone gift with no questions asked.
If they own the original US map, this is the version they should have bought. Tunnels, ferries and stations make the route blocking less brutal, so a losing player stays in it. Same rules, better game.
Ticket to Ride: Europe
The cleanest step up from Catan. You collect gem tokens, buy cards, and the cards make the next purchase cheaper. Thirty minutes, no dice, no trading, and nobody gets blocked out of the game by bad luck.
Splendor
Draft tiles, fill your board, lose points for tiles you cannot place. It is the prettiest thing on this list and the rules fit on one card, which is why it converts people who say they do not like board games.
Azul
The closest thing to Catan without the dice. You place a tile, you claim a road or a city, and the map is different every time. Plays fine at two, which is where Catan falls apart.
Carcassonne
Fifteen minutes, dominoes with terrain on them, and a genuine decision on every turn: take the good tile now and go last next round. Cheap, small, and it works with a seven year old at the table.
Kingdomino
For when they want a whole evening
Two to three hours, and a real jump in weight. Buy from this section only if they have said they want something heavier, because handing a Catan player Gloomhaven unprompted is how a box stays shrink wrapped.
Two hours, and the game everyone graduates to. You are terraforming the planet with cards that build on each other, and the run of combos in the back half is what people remember. Buy this for someone who has said Catan is too short.
Terraforming Mars Board Game
Deck building and worker placement in the same ninety minutes, wrapped in an Indiana Jones theme that carries people who do not normally like heavy games. The gentler of the two big boxes on this list.
Lost Ruins of Arnak
A hundred hour campaign in one box, and the most expensive thing here. Only buy it for someone who has said they want a game they play every week with the same people, because that is the only way it gets finished.
Gloomhaven (2nd Edition) Board Game
