My brother in law has the original, basic version of Settlers. We want to have a big game around the holidays. What expansions do we need to get for the most amount of players to play? I've read you can buy multiple expansions? Is there any way to allow 10-12 people playing one game?

I have never heard of 10-12 player Catan.

There is an expansion for the base set that provides the extra tiles/colors you need to get to 5-6.

If you want other expansions like Cities and Knights, you need to buy that expansion, plus the additional expansion for 5-6 players.

One way to do it is have two 5-6 player games and then have the top two/three finishers in each board come together for a final round. Consolation board for the others.

If you combined 3 or so base sets/expansions you could probably set up a big game, you'd just need to pay close attention to whose pieces are whose due to there being color over lap on the pieces. I bet if you looked on board game geek or on the Catan subreddit you'd find a set of house rules that could do that.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the 5-6 Player Expansion also changes the rules. There's an additional phase after a player's turn where everyone has the opportunity to build/buy dev cards before the next player rolls the dice. The rule helps prevent you collecting a lot of resource cards as the other 5 players play, only to lose them all before your turn happens again.

I love the dev phase in bigger games

Thanks for the input. That's kind of what I found googling but thought I would give the Nerdery a try. I know some suggested buying the expansions then spray painting the extra pieces a different color.

The other thing that I've discovered is that if you want to play an themed expansion, you'll need:

Original game
Original 5-6 player expansion
Themed Expansion
Themed Expansion's 5-6 player expansion

Scooley is correct on that last point.

To get to 5-6 players on just the base game, you have to buy the 5-6 player expansion for the base set.

But if you decide you want Cities & Knights expansion to play with 5-6 people, you have to buy Cities & Knights and City & Knights Expansion.

Cities & Knights will give most bang for buck in terms of making the game more interesting.

But I find you need to play with people who have played just the Base set before you try to add in more rules, especially if they are people who have only played games like Monopoly... takes too long to teach both rule sets to a newbs.

Thanks again for all of the input. I ended up getting the seafarers extension and expansion. Most have us have played before but it sounded similar to the base game and the best extension for us. Like "91" said, cities and knights seemed a little more extensive and would probably take a good amount of time figuring out new rules.

seafarers is the right call it main supports the longest road/build settlement strategy. The 6 island map is fun a great way to learn how ships work. Also should there be a 5,6,8,9 Treasure island you should 3 settlement/city it every chance you get, even to the detriment of poor starting position. Sure you'll get targeted but if you keep knight Dcards handy with some of the gold you have it is hardly a problem. After seafarers I would recommend cities and knights to complement it. I found that cities and knights essentially doubles the possible strategies and win conditions of the game.

Good insight. Looking forward to playing again and with a larger group. It's been a while. Should get interesting with the wine, egg nog and other booze involved.