The competitive medieval landscaping jigsaw Carcassonne is infamous for churning out unnecessary expansions, but if you really like the game, the more the merrier (except the universally unpopular The Catapult, it seems. I'm not going to pay £50+ to confirm).
I'm not interested in the standalone spin-offs, but collecting and mixing in as many compatible modules as possible makes for more dynamic games, even if it means having to look up fiddly rules every now and then (and if your stack is already overflowing the tile tower or bag, it's best to impose a time limit for sanity).
But which are the most worthwhile of the major expansions, and I am obviously just going to say the first two, like everyone else does? Here's my incomplete ranking, based on the long-out-of-print first editions to be extra useful for consumers in 2026.
8. Bridges, Castles & Bazaars (2010)
7. The Tower (2006)
6. The Princess & the Dragon (2005)
5. Count, King & Robber (2007)
4. Hills & Sheep (2014)
3. Abbey & Mayor (2007)
2. Inns & Cathedrals (2002)
1. Traders & Builders (2003)
I've only played with mock-ups of the components, which are as well devised as ever, but by this point it feels too much like a box of extra stuff for the sake of it. The bridges and castles are a bit too intrusive on top of the landscape and the auction is too intrusive on the game flow. Ultimately, it's mostly pointless. I don't need or particularly want it in the collection.
Too mean for friendly family play and too single-minded in focus to compete with the more varied expansion sets. The only other thing it includes is the tile tower accessory, which is a less streamlined solution to a problem that was already solved by the bag, especially once it gets full at 180 tiles (amateurs!)
Another mean-spirited set that also distastefully shifts the genre from historical to fantasy, this is only still hanging around in the Big Box because my child likes it, so it has its audience. The dragon's destructive rampages can be funny though, the portals are often handy, and the princesses can be cruelly effective, but the fairy's point bonus is so fiddly, excessive and easily forgotten that we just ignore it. It saves having to buy extra score tiles too.
Most of the expansions are variety packs (Tower and Catapult excepted), but this is the one that was conspicuously an omnibus of existing mini expansions, to the point that it includes two alternate starting set-ups that need extensive annotations if you're planning to awkwardly combine the things you've bought together. I love the shrines adding some cultural diversity and the King and Robber's encouragements to build big and long, and I include those in every game, but the rest I can take or leave.
This peaceful expansion is like the inverse of the Princess & Dragon, with its pleasing agricultural theme, landscape features that give rather than take (when you manage to find a use for them) and a pot luck minigame where everyone's a winner until they're not. I'd like to place it even higher, but as the 9th major expansion released, it's pretty inessential.
A more sensible return to form after some gimmicky releases, this meeple-heavy assortment solves some problems and variably enhances the game, though the mayors weren't the most necessary innovation. The abbey tiles are satisfying (and don't look as awkward as I'd feared) and the barns make farming more perilous, but the trundling wagons are my favourite part.
Considered an indispensible extension by many, this widespread attitude made me a little resentful when I felt bullied into buying it early on to "complete" my game (how's that going?), but they have a point. The extra tile configurations and big follower are always handy, the inns make road building more worthwhile, the cathedrals are powerful double-edged crucifixes, and having another colour option is nice, even if I doubt I'll ever need to play with six (let alone the seventh and eighth player options from my Big Box. How would you get anything done?)
It's not far and away the leader (maybe if they'd included something more exciting than the pig), but it's more interesting than the first expansion and feels more indispensable than anything that came after. The trade goods are fun to collect, the builder's game changing and so's the tile bag. Though if you're as far gone as I am, you're gonna need a bigger bag.
