Short answer

A free Catan Traders & Barbarians map generator. T&B is a five-scenario expansion box; each scenario uses the standard 19-hex base board with extra components placed on top — fishing tiles, river hexes, caravan markers, fortress, or barbarian camps. This generator produces the underlying balanced 19-hex layout you need for any of them.

What is Catan Traders & Barbarians?

Traders & Barbarians is the third major Catan expansion (after Seafarers and Cities & Knights). Unlike the other two, it isn't a single rule overlay — it's a collection of five scenarios and four short variants in one box. Each scenario layers different components on top of the standard 19-hex board. You play one scenario per game.

The five Traders & Barbarians scenarios

Fishermen of Catan — fishing-ground tiles around the coast; roll a 7 and the players also pull fish tiles. Catch enough fish to reduce the robber's bite or buy progress.
Rivers of Catan — three river hexes replace standard land tiles; bridges built across rivers earn gold coins, accumulating to victory points.
The Caravans — the desert becomes an oasis with two desert cities; players move camel caravans between their settlements and the desert to earn special VP and resource bonuses.
Barbarian Attack — barbarian camps appear on three forest hexes; players must build knights to drive them out before the camps overrun adjacent settlements.
Traders & Barbarians (the title scenario) — the largest of the five. Combines castle, glassworks, marketplace tiles, wagons, and barbarians into a single ~3-hour game. Considered the most strategically rich Catan scenario.

What this T&B generator builds

19 land hexes: 4 forest, 3 hills, 4 fields, 4 pasture, 3 mountains, 1 desert — same bag as base Catan.
18 number tokens distributed by the same balanced placement algorithm.
Default red-number rule enforced — no two 6/8 hexes adjacent.
Optional rule toggles identical to base Catan (2/12 adjacency, same-number adjacency, same-resource adjacency).
Robber starts on the desert — for The Caravans scenario, swap the desert for the oasis tile from your T&B box.
Shareable seed URL — every player at the table sees the same map.

How the standard board works across all five scenarios

Most T&B scenarios place extra tiles around or on the standard board:

Fishermen: fishing-ground tiles attach to coast intersections — board layout unchanged.
Rivers: three river hexes replace three land hexes. Use the generator's standard layout, then swap your three river hexes in per the scenario sheet.
Caravans: the desert becomes the oasis tile (a fixed scenario component); generator output stays valid.
Barbarian Attack: barbarian camps replace tokens on three forest hexes; otherwise the layout is the standard 19.
Traders & Barbarians (title scenario): a fixed scenario layout with the castle, glassworks, etc. — see the rulebook. The generator is most useful for the other four.

Recommended balance rules for T&B

Keep all four adjacency toggles at their defaults for a fair game. The shorter scenarios (Fishermen, Rivers) reward red-number balance more than the title scenario, where the fixed castle position already creates strong/weak production zones. If you're playing Barbarian Attack, consider the same-resource adjacency toggle — clustered forests make the barbarian camps more menacing.

Five-scenario rundown: which hexes change in each scenario

T&B is the only major Catan expansion where a single rulebook contains five fundamentally different games. Each scenario uses the standard 19-hex board this generator produces, but each one modifies, replaces, or overlays specific hexes in a different way — and the strategic implications of the generator's balance constraints differ accordingly.

Fishermen of Catan leaves all 19 land hexes untouched and attaches fishing-ground tokens to coast intersections. The generator's balance constraints carry over unchanged. Coastal hexes become disproportionately valuable because they reach two production sources (land hex + fish tile); a generated board with two red coastal hexes will skew strongly toward whoever settles them first. Keep the no-adjacent-reds default on for the fairest opening.

Rivers of Catan replaces three land hexes with river hexes after the standard board is laid out. The replacement is scenario-prescribed (specific positions, per the scenario sheet), so the generator's output is the underlying canvas. Critically, the three replaced hexes are usually mid-board positions, which means the generator's high-pip mid-board hexes get covered by rivers — so red tokens on the outer ring matter more in this scenario than in any other.

The Caravans swaps the desert for the oasis tile and adds two desert-cities. The robber's starting position changes (the oasis is not the robber's hex), and the relative value of the hexes adjacent to the desert spikes — they're now adjacent to a permanent VP source. The generator's resource-diversification constraint helps here: a corner adjacent to the oasis and two same-resource hexes is the dominant strategic position in Caravans, and avoiding that configuration on placement makes the scenario fairer.

Barbarian Attack places three barbarian camps on forest hexes, which the camps progressively destroy unless players build knights. Forest hexes become defensive obligations as well as production; a board with two red forests (a generator outcome possible only without no-adjacent-reds) is brutal in this scenario because the camps will steamroll the player nearest the high-production forest.

The Traders & Barbarians title scenario uses a prescribed fixed layout from the rulebook — the castle, glassworks, marketplace, and barbarian sites are placed at specific positions. The generator is less useful here than for the other four scenarios; use it for the four short scenarios and the variants, and follow the rulebook for the title scenario.

Common questions

Does Traders & Barbarians need a different board than base Catan?

No — every scenario builds on top of the standard 19-hex board. The expansion just adds new component tiles (river hexes, fishing grounds, oasis, castle, etc.) that you place over or around the base layout per the scenario sheet.

Which T&B scenario should I start with?

Most groups start with Fishermen of Catan — the gentlest learning curve, layered on the standard board with a single new mechanic (fish tiles). Rivers and Caravans are the next step up, and Traders & Barbarians (the title scenario) is a long evening for experienced groups.

Can I combine T&B with Cities & Knights or Seafarers?

The T&B rulebook specifies which scenarios are compatible with which other expansions. Fishermen and Barbarian Attack combine well with Seafarers; the title scenario doesn't combine with C&K directly. See the T&B rules FAQ for the full compatibility matrix.

Can I generate a T&B board for 5–6 players?

Yes — switch to the Traders & Barbarians 5–6 generator. You'll need both the T&B base box and the T&B 5–6 extension.

Is there a deluxe edition of T&B?

Several reprints. The 2025 edition (which this generator references) cleans up component lists and consolidates the four short variants — Harbor Masters, Friendly Robber, Catan Event Cards, and Catan for Two — into the same box.