Catan: Cities & Knights – How to Play

Hi there! If you’re interested in playing the amazing board game called Catan: Cities & Knights, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll explain the rules to you in a simple and easy way, so you can start enjoying this exciting game right away!

Objective

Your goal in Catan: Cities & Knights is to become the strongest and most influential player on the island of Catan. You achieve this by building settlements, cities, and roads, and by accumulating resources like grain, brick, lumber, ore, and wool.

Components

Before we get into the rules, let’s quickly go over what you’ll find in the game box. You will receive a game board, number tokens, resource cards, development cards, building costs cards, city walls, metropolis tokens, knight figures, and various other pieces.

Gameplay

The game is played in turns, with each player having the chance to perform various actions. On your turn, you can roll the dice to gather resources, trade with other players, build constructions, activate knights for protection, or play development cards.

Development Cards

Development cards are a key part of the game. They provide you with various advantages such as extra resources, the ability to move the robber, or even steal resources from other players. These cards can play a crucial role in determining who gains an edge in the game.

City Improvements

In Catan: Cities & Knights, you can improve your cities by constructing various city improvements. These include buildings like libraries, marketplaces, city walls, and metropolises. Each improvement offers different benefits that can contribute to your success.

Knights

Knights are your protectors in the game. By successfully using your knights, you can defend your settlements and cities from the dreaded barbarian attack. Knights can also be used to move the robber or to disrupt your opponents’ plans.

Barbarians

Speaking of barbarians, they are a constant threat in Catan: Cities & Knights. If the barbarians are not defeated, they will raid the island, causing chaos and disrupting the production of resources. It is up to you and the other players to join forces and defend Catan!

Conclusion

So there you have it! The basic rules of Catan: Cities & Knights. With its strategic gameplay, interactive elements, and exciting mechanics, this game is sure to provide hours of fun and excitement. Gather your friends, set up the board, and let the adventure begin!

As I guide you through the process of reimagining the content, think of sailing on an adventurous sea of words, where waves of creativity carry you to new shores of expression. Imagine yourself exploring a vast language landscape, searching for fresh ways to share information and engage the reader with an air of wonder and curiosity. Your captaincy of language will lead you to reinvent the text while preserving its essential components. So set sail, my friend, and let’s embark on this exciting journey together.

• Imagine a special “barbarian tile” with movement spaces for the barbarian ship.
• Now picture 36 commodity cards, filled with surprises and treasures.
• Behold the grandeur of 54 progress cards, ready to unfold their mysteries.
• Gaze upon the 6 “Defender of Catan” victory point (VP) cards, symbols of triumph.
• Flip through the 4 development flip-charts, also known as “city calendars.”
• Marvel at the wooden playing pieces, painted in vibrant hues.
• Discover the three metropolis pieces, yellow city gate pieces that add a touch of majesty.
• Unveil the metropolis tokens, crafted from sturdy cardboard.
• Glance at the labels on two sheets of knights, ready to pledge their loyalty.
• Spot the mighty barbarian ship, a wooden vessel waiting to take command.
• Observe the merchant, a wooden cone piece representing economic prowess.
• Roll the event die, adorned with ships and city gate symbols, for a touch of chance.

An Array of New Game Pieces

Progress Cards: Unleash Their Power

In this realm of Cities & Knights, the ordinary development card deck of Catan is replaced by three captivating card decks.

Knights: Unleash Their Courage

Hey there! So, if you’re getting ready to play Cities & Knights for the first time, there’s a little prep work you need to do. It’s important to label all 24 knight tokens before you get started. These tokens are those round wooden “disks” you’ll be using in the game. Just a heads up, there are 6 tokens for each color.

Now, let’s break it down. Each player has a total of 6 knights, and each knight comes in a different color. Here are the details:

• 2 basic knights: These ones have 1 ring and an open helmet.
• 2 strong knights: These guys have 2 rings and a full helmet.
• 2 mighty knights: These are the big shots with 3 rings and a great-helm with crest.

Once you’ve got all the tokens and knights sorted out, you need to attach 2 labels to each knight token. Easy peasy! The front side of each token should have the “inactive” symbol, which is just a black and white image. And the reverse side of each token should have the “active” symbol, which is a full-color head.

Just a quick reminder: double-check that you’re attaching the correct stickers to each token. The front side should have an “inactive” knight of the matching level, and the back side should have an “active” knight of the same level. Keep it consistent, like having an inactive basic knight on the front and an active basic knight on the back.

Now, onto the Development Flip-chart!

Hey there! So, here’s the deal – before you start playing your first game, there’s this little task you need to take care of: separating the spiral-bound pages of the development flip-charts. Sounds easy enough, right?

Let me break it down for you. Each page of these flip-charts is perforated, which means it’s divided into three parts. So, when you gently pull the sections of each page apart, you’ll end up with 5 pages, each divided into 3 separate sections.

So here’s the deal: when you wanna keep track of the cool stuff you’re adding to your city, you use these really nifty development flip-charts. They’re like little notebooks that have all the info you need. Each page shows you how much each thing costs and what the next level of improvement will cost. When you buy something, you just flip to that page and you’re good to go!

Now, on each page, you’ll also find a picture of the thing you bought. It’s like a little illustration to show it off. And there are these red dice, too. They’re there to tell you if you get any progress cards. By the way, when you reach the third level of improvement in each category, you’ll unlock a special ability. Pretty cool, huh?

City Walls

City walls are like little wooden blocks that you can put under your cities. To build a city wall, you pay 2 bricks to the bank. Each city wall you have makes it so you can keep more cards in your hand when a “7” is rolled. City walls add 2 cards to how many you can safely hold.

You can only put a city wall under a city, not a settlement. If a city with a city wall becomes a settlement (because of the barbarians), you have to take the wall off the board. You can only put one city wall under each city and you can have up to 3 city walls total.

Setting it up

When you play Cities & Knights, you usually play on a game board that has random and variable elements, similar to the base game of Catan. However, if you’re new to Cities & Knights, I suggest using the prepared board set-up. It’s designed to be ideal for your first game and offers a balanced distribution of resources, especially grain, and commodities that may be scarce during the game.

To set up the board, start by constructing the frame and then place the hexagonal tiles, or hexes, within the frame according to the Game Overview. If you’re playing with a random board, place the land hexes in the center of the frame as usual.

Next, locate the “barbarian tile” and place it as indicated. This tile represents the barbarian ship, which will move along a track towards Catan. If you’re using a random board, make sure to shuffle the harbor tokens and place them in their usual positions.

Now, it’s time to sort the resource cards. Take the resource cards and separate them into five stacks, one for each type of resource. Make sure to place these stacks face-up near the island.

Alright, let’s get started with setting up the game. First, we need to sort the new commodity cards into three stacks, one for each commodity. Take the cards and place them face-up next to the resource cards.

Next, let’s divide the progress cards into three stacks based on the flag color on the back of each card. We have green, blue, and yellow stacks. Shuffle each stack separately and place them face down near the island.

Now, we need to place the important game elements near the island. These include the three metropolises, the trader cone, the three dice (one yellow, one red, and one event die), and the “Longest Road” card.

Next, we’ll place the black wooden ship on the “barbarian ship” space on the Barbarian Tile. This ship will move along the track on its way to Catan.

Lastly, we’ll place the robber on the desert hex. Watch out for that sneaky robber!

Alright, now it’s time for each player to choose a color and take all the pieces of that color. Each player will receive:

Hey there! Let’s talk about the cool stuff you’ll find in the Catan base game. Here’s a list of all the awesome components that come with it:

– 5 settlements, 4 cities, and 15 roads: These are the building blocks of your civilization in the game. You’ll use them to expand your territory and create a thriving community.

– 6 knights: There are different types of knights – basic, strong, and mighty. These brave warriors will protect your land and help you defend against any threats.

– 3 city walls: These sturdy walls will fortify your cities and give you an extra layer of defense. You can never be too cautious, right?

– Development flip-chart: This handy chart will keep you on track as you progress through the game. It’s like having your own personal guidebook!

So, now that you know what’s included, get ready to embark on an exciting adventure in the world of Catan. Gather your resources, strategize your moves, and may the dice be ever in your favor!

So, you’ve built the board and set up your game pieces. Now it’s time to start playing! Let’s get things rolling by placing our initial settlements, cities, and roads. But first, we need to determine who goes first. So, each of us will take a turn rolling the dice, and the player with the highest roll gets to start.

Once we know who’s going first, we can begin placing our settlements and roads. Starting with the first player and moving clockwise around the table, we’ll each take a turn placing one settlement and one road, just like in the regular Catan game.

After everyone has placed their initial settlements, we move on to the second placement round. This time, we start with the player who placed their settlement last in the first round, and we go counterclockwise around the table (meaning the first player from the first round will be the last to place this time). Each of us will now place one city and one road, following all the usual rules for placement that we learned from the Catan base game. Remember, no city can be placed closer than two spaces away from any settlements.

When you start your city, you immediately receive resources. You get one resource for each terrain that your city is next to. Place your development flipchart in front of you, showing the first page to indicate that you haven’t built any improvements yet.

Now let’s go over how a turn works. The player who placed the last city goes first, and then the other players take turns clockwise. On your turn, you do the following actions in order:

1. Roll all three dice.

2. Resolve the result of the event symbol on the dice.

3. You may draw progress cards based on the event die result.

4. All players produce the resources shown on the red and yellow dice.

5. All players produce the commodities shown on the red and yellow dice.

You know, there are a bunch of things that you can do when you play this game. Let me break it down for you.

First off, you can trade resources and commodities with the bank or other players. Imagine all the possibilities!

Next, you can build different things like roads, settlements, cities, knights, city walls, and city improvements. It’s like building your own little world!

And don’t forget about your knights! You can activate, promote, and perform actions with them. They’re like your own personal army.

Oh, and we can’t leave out the progress cards. You can play as many as you want. Just imagine the power!

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the “Alchemist” progress card is a special one. You can only play it before the dice are rolled. It’s the only card that can be used before the dice are rolled and the results are figured out.

So, there you have it. These are the specific actions you can take in the game. Now go out there and have some fun!

When I play the game, I start my turn by rolling all 3 of the dice. The dice roll determines a lot of things – which terrain hexes will produce resources and commodities, what actions the barbarians will take, and if I get any progress cards. I have to follow a specific order to resolve the effects of the dice roll:

1. First, I use the event die to find out what event will happen this turn.
2. If the dice show the ship symbol, I have to move the barbarian ship 1 space closer to the island of Catan. The ship follows the track on the Barbarian Tile. It starts its journey on the space with the ship illustration. The barbarians attack when the ship reaches the last space.
3. Hey there! Let me tell you something interesting about playing Catan Cities & Knights. Whenever you see one of the city gate symbols (blue, green, or yellow) showing, it means that all of us players might have a chance to draw a progress card. To be eligible for this exciting opportunity, all you have to do is match the number rolled on the red die with one of the red die icons on your flip-chart. And here’s the kicker – the flip-chart section you should be looking at should match the color of the city gate rolled on the symbol die. Super important, right?

Example: I got a yellow gate on the event die and a “1” on the red die. If you’ve bought the market, you can draw a yellow progress card. Starting with me, each eligible player gets to draw the top card from the progress card stack that matches the color of the city gate on the event die. Remember to keep your progress cards a secret until you use them. And don’t hold onto more than 4 progress cards at once.

When you play the game, you’re going to add up the red and yellow dice. This total determines which hexes produce resources and commodities for all players. If a hex’s number matches the sum, it produces 1 resource for each settlement next to it. If you have a city bordering a producing hex, the production depends on the type of terrain rolled.

Just like in the base game of Catan, any hex that has the robber on it doesn’t produce any resources or commodities.

But here’s an important rule: if you roll a “7” on the dice, no hexes produce anything. Instead, you have to move the robber to a new place. And guess what? You might even get to take 1 card from another player’s settlement or city that’s next to the robber. How sneaky!

Oh, and here’s an extra twist: you can’t move the robber until after the barbarians make it to the island of Catan for the first time. So you better watch out for those barbarians!

So that’s how production works in the game. Keep these rules in mind and you’ll be on your way to becoming a Catan master!

When the first barbarians come knocking, if you roll a “7,” we all need to make sure we don’t have too many cards in our hands. The twist here is that the robber stays put in the desert, and nobody loses a card.

But wait, there’s more! You can’t use any fancy progress cards, like the Bishop, to move the robber until after that first barbarian attack. Gotta keep things fair!

Let’s Make Some Deals and Build Stuff

In Cities & Knights, you can trade and build as much as you want, whenever you want. No need to finish all your trading before diving into construction.

Remember, the regular Catan rules still apply to trading in Cities &Knights (just with the new commodity cards). Oh, and no tradesies with progress cards. They’re off limits.

Building in the game follows the same basic rules as always. The cost of constructing roads, settlements, and cities remains the same. However, there are two new additions that you can choose to build during your turn. And, from now on, you cannot purchase development cards with resources. These new items are city walls and knights.

City Walls

To build a city wall, you need to pay two brick resources to the bank. Take the square wooden piece representing the city wall and place it under any city you own on the game board. There are three important things to remember when it comes to placing city walls:

1. You can only build city walls under cities, not under settlements.
2. You can only build one city wall under each city.
3. At no point can you have more than three city walls.

Hey there! Let’s talk about city walls and how they affect your gameplay in the board game. Now, I’ve got a nifty little tip for you – pay close attention!

So, here’s the deal. Every city wall you control gives you the ability to hold more cards in your hand, especially when the production dice roll a “7”. Cool, right? I mean, who doesn’t want to hold more cards?

Here’s how it works. Each city wall adds a whopping 2 cards to the maximum limit of cards you can safely hold in your hand when a “7” is rolled. Let me break it down for you:

Let’s say you have 2 cities, and each city has a city wall. Guess what? You can safely hold up to 11 cards in your hand without having to discard half of them when a “7” is rolled. That’s pretty neat, don’t you think?

But hold on a second. There’s a catch. If those pesky barbarians decide to pillage your city and reduce it to a mere settlement, then your city wall is toast. Yep, it gets destroyed. And you know what that means? You have to remove the city wall from the board. Bummer, right?

Now, let’s move on to knights.

When it comes to knights, let’s take a closer look at them. Knights are like these round wooden tokens, each with something special about them. You know, they have different labels on each side. On one side, you’ve got this cool symbol of a knight’s helmet, but it’s all black and white. That’s the inactive side, which means that knight can’t do anything.

But on the other side, things get really exciting. That’s the active side, and it’s full of color. The helmet on this side shows you how strong the knight is, and it’s not just about the fancy design. The type of helmet and the rings around it tell you everything you need to know.

Let me give you a little reminder. If you see an open-face helmet with just one ring, that means you’re dealing with a “basic knight.” They’re not super powerful, but they can still get the job done. Now, if you see a full helmet with two rings, that’s a “strong knight.” They’re a step up from the basic knight and can really pack a punch. But if you come across a great-helm with a glowing sun and three rings, watch out! That’s a “mighty knight,” and they’re the strongest of them all.

If you want to “hire” a knight, you have to give one wool and one ore to the bank. This lets you choose a basic knight (with an open helmet and one ring) and place it on the game board. New knights are always placed with the inactive side facing up. You can put your knight on any intersection that doesn’t have another knight on it and is connected to your roads. Once you have a knight, there are two special things you can do:

Activating a Knight

Before a knight can do anything, you have to activate him. To activate a knight, you have to give one grain to the bank. Then you can turn the knight token over to the active side, which has a colored helmet.

I want to talk about knights in the game. They’re really interesting because their strength doesn’t affect how much they cost to activate. No matter if it’s a basic knight or a really powerful one, they both only cost one grain to activate. But here’s the thing: you can only activate a knight on the same turn you build it. You can’t use it to do anything yet.

Promoting a Knight

Now, let me tell you something cool. You can make your knights even stronger! All you have to do is pay some extra resources. If you want to promote a basic knight to a strong knight or a strong knight to a mighty knight, you’ll need one wool and one ore. It’s like giving them a power-up.

When you promote a knight, you have to give back the old knight token, but don’t worry, you can buy it again later if you want. Instead, you’ll get a new token that shows the knight’s new strength level. And the new knight has to go in the same spot as the knight you just promoted.

The status of the knight doesn’t change when you promote him. You can promote a knight on the same turn he was built or later. A knight can only be promoted once per turn. You can only promote a strong knight to a mighty knight if you have bought the third level of the politics (blue) city improvement, also known as the “Fortress.”

When it’s your turn, after rolling the dice, you can play as many progress cards as you want in any order. You can play them in between other actions you take during your turn. When you play a progress card, you need to resolve all of its effects and then put it face down under the progress card stack that matches its color.

In addition, let’s talk about commodities for a moment.

In Cities & Knights, we’ve got some new materials that we think are pretty cool. Instead of the usual materials like lumber, wool, grain, brick, and ore, we now have something called “resources”.

But wait, there’s more! We also have three new materials called “commodities”. They are cloth, coin, and paper. Commodities are kind of like resources, but they’re also a little different. Let me tell you all about them:

In the world of cities, commodities are special things that are made in the forest, pasture, and mountains. Only cities can produce commodities. When you get a commodity, it goes into your hand with your other resource cards. But be careful, because commodities count toward the robber’s limit when a “7” is rolled. The robber can steal your commodities, or you might have to get rid of them.

You can tell a commodity card apart from other cards because it has a border with a ribbon that matches its color. Cloth has a gold ribbon, paper has a green ribbon, and coin has a gray ribbon. Resource cards, on the other hand, have plain borders. Both types of cards have the same back with a map.

You can trade commodities just like you can trade resources. You can trade them with your friends whenever you want. You can even exchange four of the same commodity for one resource or another commodity of your choice.

If you have a settlement or city next to a 3:1 harbor, you can trade 3 of any item for 1 of any resource or item you want. You can also trade 4 of any resource for 1 of any item you choose (3:1 at a harbor; 2:1 if you have the corresponding special harbor).

You need items to get city upgrades.

Some progress cards specifically mention “resources” or “commodities”. These cards only affect the material they mention.

City Upgrades

As a prince of Catan, one of the most important things I consider is improving my cities. I can achieve this by using item cards.

Hey there! Let me tell you about how you can make your cities better. There are three areas where you can focus on: trade (yellow), politics (blue), and science (green). You have the option to improve all three areas, even if you only have one city.

To keep track of your city improvements, you have a flip-chart. This flip-chart is divided into three parts, one for each area of development. Each part has five pages, representing the five levels of improvement you can achieve. When you start the game, open page 1 of your flip-chart, which tells you that you have no improvements yet.

These improvements are represented by important buildings that you can build in your cities. For example, you could construct a market, a cathedral, or a library. The cost of each building is shown in the lower right corner of each page of your flip-chart.

Example: When it comes to buying items in the game, the Market is a key component. It costs 1 cloth to purchase items from the Market. Simply pay 1 cloth and flip the Market section of your development flip-chart.

Improving various aspects always starts with a cost of 1 commodity. For the second improvement, you’ll need 2 of that same commodity. Keep in mind that the cost increases by 1 for each subsequent improvement.

However, there’s a rule to consider when buying improvements. If you don’t have any cities on the board, meaning the barbarians have pillaged all of them, you won’t be able to purchase any city improvements until you’ve built at least 1 city.

Each improvement you make increases the likelihood of drawing progress cards. Each improvement is represented by a picture, and above that picture, you’ll find a row of red dice.

In this game, each die has a number. If I roll the event die and it shows a city gate, I have a chance to draw a progress card of the same color. However, there’s a catch. The number on the red die has to match one of the dice shown on my development flip-chart in that color’s section. The more I improve my city, the higher my chances of drawing progress cards.

For example, let’s say I have the market improvement, which is represented by 2 red dice. If the event die rolls a yellow city gate and the red die shows a “1” or “2”, then I can draw a yellow progress card.

When I was working on improving each area for the third time, something amazing happened. I unlocked a special ability that I could use for the rest of the game. It didn’t matter if other players also reached the third level or if I continued to improve beyond that. The special ability I got was unique depending on the color of the improvement:

• Trading House (yellow): I can trade two commodities of the same type for any commodity or resource I need. I can only make this trade during my turn, just like using a harbor. But remember, this special trade advantage only works for commodities, not resources.
• Fortress (blue): After I build a fortress, I can upgrade my strong knights to mighty knights. Of course, I still have to pay the usual cost to promote the knights.
• Aqueduct (green): If I don’t get any resources or commodities when the dice are rolled for production, I can take any one resource I want from the bank. But, be aware, I can’t use this ability when a “7” is rolled.

The Metropolis

When you’re looking to create a metropolis, building city improvements becomes crucial. A metropolis is a special kind of city, visually represented by a distinct yellow city gate that fits over the regular wooden city pieces.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that there can only be three metropolises in play at any given time, with one for each of the three areas: trade, politics, and science.

In order to claim a metropolis, you need to be the first player to achieve the fourth level of improvement in any one of these areas. This means reaching the fourth level in either the bank, the cathedral, or the theater. Once you’ve accomplished this, you can place one of the metropolis gates on any of your cities on the game board.

It’s crucial to note that you can only take a metropolis if no other player already controls the fourth level improvement of that particular area. Each area can only have one metropolis, whether it’s for trade, politics, or science. If you’re lucky enough to secure a metropolis, you should proudly display the corresponding metropolis token on your flip-chart. This will make it clear to everyone that your metropolis is associated with a specific area.

Having a city with a metropolis is super valuable – you get a whopping 4 victory points for it! That’s 2 points for the city itself and an extra 2 points for the metropolis.

If you can reach the fifth level of improvement in a matching color before another player does, you can snatch their metropolis. And if they beat you to it, they can take both the metropolis piece and the colored metropolis token. But don’t worry, if you reach the fifth level of improvement in any area, no one can take your metropolis away.

A metropolis is like a fortress – it’s immune to the barbarians. They can’t pillage it or reduce its strength. But keep in mind, the strength of the barbarian army is determined by the number of metropolises.

Did you know that you can create multiple metropolises in this game? If you’re the first player to reach the fourth level of improvement in more than one area, or if you reach the fifth level and take someone else’s metropolis, you can add another metropolis gate to one of your cities.

However, there’s a catch. You’re not allowed to purchase any improvements beyond the third level of a specific color unless you have a city where you can build a metropolis. So, if you don’t have such a city on the board, you’ll have to wait until you’ve built at least one more city.

Your Progress Cards

Getting Progress Cards

If you want to get a progress card, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:

• You have to have at least one level of city improvement in one or more development areas. The first level shows two red dice, the second level shows three, and so on.
• When the event die is rolled on anyone’s turn, it has to show the city gate symbol that matches the color of one of your city improvements.
• At the same time, the number on the red die that is rolled has to match one of the red dice shown on your city improvement, which has the same color as the city gate on the symbol die.

If you meet these three conditions, you can draw the top card from the stack that matches the color of the city gate on the event die. If multiple players can draw on the same turn, each player draws in turn order, starting with the player whose turn it is.

For example, let’s say Player A rolls a “6” on the white die, a “3” on the red die, and the event die shows a yellow city gate. Player B has already built a town hall (blue) and a merchant guild (yellow). Since player B’s yellow improvement displays a red die with “3,” they are eligible to draw a yellow progress card.

Playing Progress Cards

During your turn, you can play as many progress cards as you want. However, you can only play progress cards after rolling the dice (with one exception: the “Alchemist” card). Here are some important rules regarding the play of progress cards:

When I draw victory point cards, I have to play them right away. The sneaky Spy can’t steal them, and I can’t keep them hidden in my hand. These cards don’t count towards the limit of 4 cards in my hand.

I can never have more than four progress cards in my hand. If I happen to draw a fifth progress card and it’s not my turn to play it, I have to choose one card to get rid of and put it at the bottom of the right stack.

I can play progress cards on the same turn I draw them.

I can’t trade progress cards with other players, and the robber can’t steal them either.

When I play a progress card, I put it face down beneath the correct progress card stack. Victory points, though, stay face-up and in the game.

Knights

In the game of Cities & Knights of Catan, knights play a crucial role in achieving victory. Without them, the barbarians will attack and plunder your cities, shattering your chances of winning.

Similar to settlements, knights are positioned at the intersection of three hexes. But unlike settlements, knights are not bound by the distance rule. They can be strategically placed to hinder the progress of other players, and they have the power to disrupt another player’s “longest road.”

Example: Imagine a brave knight standing where two players’ roads meet. This knight has the power to stop the opposing player from building past it. Let’s say the red player has four potential spots (marked with arrows) where they can place their knight. If the red player puts their knight at spot “A”, the blue player won’t be able to build beyond that point. Only the red player can extend their road there. Another scenario is if the red player positions their knight at spot “B”. This move will disrupt the blue player’s road, making it shorter and affecting their chances of having the longest road.

There are three types of knights available: basic knights, strong knights, and mighty knights. A basic knight has a strength level of 1, a strong knight has a strength level of 2, and a mighty knight has a strength level of 3.

Let me tell you about knights in Catan. They serve you in two important ways. First, they help protect our beloved land from the barbarian army. And second, during your turn, your active knights can perform one special action. Each knight is allowed to choose one action per turn.

There’s just one rule – a knight cannot be activated and perform an action in the same turn. But don’t worry, you can reactivate a knight later in the same turn after it has already performed an action. Although, keep in mind that a knight can only perform one action per turn.

When a knight does perform an action, its token is flipped over to the inactive side. To activate the knight and use its action again, you’ll need to pay one grain.

Now, let’s talk about the different actions your active knight can perform:

Moving a Knight

If you want to move a knight in the game, you can choose another intersection for it to go to. But before you can move the knight, you need to connect the intersection it’s currently on to the one you want it to move to by building roads.

Each intersection can only have one knight on it at a time. However, if the knight is moving, it can pass through as many intersections with knights of the same color as it wants, as long as there are roads connecting them.

Once you’ve moved the knight, it becomes inactive and can’t be used again until a later turn.

If you want to build a settlement on an intersection where one of your knights is currently located, you have to move the knight first. But if there are no empty intersections for your knight to move to, then you can’t move it and you can’t build at that intersection.

For example: I can choose to move my active knight at intersection “A” to either of the intersections marked with arrows. However, I cannot move it to “B” or “C” because I don’t have roads connecting these intersections to “A”.

Moving an Opponent’s Knight

When it’s your turn, you have the option to move one of your active knights to an intersection where your opponent’s knight is located. This action is known as “displacing” a knight. However, there are certain conditions that must be met for you to be able to displace an opponent’s knight.

You can only displace a knight if it is weaker than the knight you are moving. In other words, a stronger knight can only displace a basic knight, while a mighty knight can displace a basic or a strong knight. However, a basic knight can never displace another knight.

Hey there! So, here’s the deal. When I’ve got a knight on the board and it gets displaced, I have to move it to any empty intersection that’s connected to where it used to be. But, no funny business allowed—I can’t displace my own knights, that’s a no-go. Oh, and if there’s no empty intersection for my displaced knight to move to, it gets kicked off the board. Ouch, right?

<

Now, when I successfully displace one of my opponent’s knights, I get to move my own knight to where the displaced knight used to be. But here’s the catch: my knight then gets turned over to his inactive side. A bit of a bummer, but that’s the way the game goes. Gotta strategize!

Picture this: It’s another intense round of the game, and the red player is back in action! They strategically move their powerful knight to the intersection pointed out by the red arrow. This move makes sense because their knight is stronger than the opposing blue knight (you can see that from the number of rings), and they have a road that connects these two intersections.

Now it’s the blue player’s turn, faced with the challenge of moving their displaced knight to either “A” or “B”. Both of these intersections are connected to the blue knight’s original location by roads. For this turn, they choose to move to “B”. It’s worth noting that “C” is not a connected site, so that option is off the table.

Driving Away the Robber

Here’s a neat trick: you can use any of your active knights to chase away the robber. It doesn’t matter if your knight is strong or weak – they all have the power to do it. The only condition is that the robber must be on one of the three hexes that are next to that knight.

Imagine this: you’re playing a game, and there’s a robber causing trouble. But guess what? I have a trick up my sleeve. When you want to get rid of that robber, you can move him to any numbered hex on the board. And here’s the best part – when you do that, you get to steal one resource from any player who has a settlement or city next to that hex. It’s just like playing a knight card from the Catan base game deck. Pretty cool, right? But remember, once you’ve chased away the robber, your knight card is flipped over and deactivated. So make sure to use it wisely!

Example: You can make the robber leave the gray hexes by moving your knight to intersection “A” or “B” and then paying one grain to activate the knight. Once activated, you can use the knight to chase away the robber in a future turn.

Prepare for the Barbarian Attack!

Catan is always at risk of being attacked by barbarians from across the sea. Each turn, when the event die shows a black ship, the barbarian navy moves closer to Catan. Once the ship reaches the red-circled space on the shore, the barbarians attack!

When the barbarians attack, here’s what you need to do:

Find Out How Strong the Barbarians Are

Did you know that the strength of the barbarians in Catan is determined by the number of cities owned by all players? It’s true! The more cities there are on the island, the stronger the barbarians become.

Figuring Out How Strong Your Knights Are

The good news is that all active knights, regardless of whether or not their owners have any cities, will defend against the barbarians. However, inactive knights don’t contribute anything to the defense, so only the active ones count.

Here’s something to keep in mind: the strength of each knight depends on its type. Basic knights are worth 1 point, strong knights are worth 2 points, and mighty knights are worth a hefty 3 points. Simply add up the total value of all your active knights to find out how strong your defending army is.

Comparing the Strengths of Attackers and Defenders

Now, let’s talk about the battle itself. There are two possible outcomes:

• If the strength of the defenders (which includes all active knights) is greater than or equal to the strength of the barbarians (which is determined by the number of cities), then the defenders win, and the barbarians go back to where they came from.
• If the strength of the defenders is less than the strength of the barbarians, the defenders lose. The barbarians overthrow the island and chaos ensues.

So, the key is to have a strong army of knights and as many cities as possible to increase your chances of fending off the barbarians and protecting your island!

If the barbarians are stronger, they win! And if they win, they raid one or more cities. Those cities are transformed into settlements, like a major downgrade. The barbarians target the player with the weakest active knights when they attack. If a player didn’t contribute any knights, they automatically become the weakest. If multiple players tie for the weakest knights, they all lose one city.

Here’s the important part: We don’t consider players with no cities or only metropolises when determining the weakest knights. They are safe from the barbarian attack.

When the barbarians attack a city that has a city wall, the city wall gets destroyed and taken off the board. For example, let’s say Player A and Player B both have two cities. Player C only has a metropolis, and Player D only has settlements. The barbarians have a strength of 5, which means they have 4 cities and 1 metropolis. Players A, B, and D have activated one simple knight each for defense, while Player C doesn’t have any active knights. The knights defend with a strength of 3, which is weaker than the barbarians. So, the barbarians win, and Catan loses. As a result of the loss, both players A and B lose one of their cities. Player C doesn’t lose anything because he only has a metropolis, and Player D doesn’t have any cities to lose. Even though Player C contributed fewer knights than the other players, he is immune to the attack. As a result, the next smallest contributor is the one who suffers the effects of the barbarians.

If the knights have a strength equal to or greater than the barbarians, the knights win and Catan is saved! The player with the highest total strength of active knights (this doesn’t necessarily mean they have the most knights) is declared the “Defender of Catan”! They receive one of the six “Defender of Catan” victory point (VP) cards as a reward. Each VP card is worth 1 VP and is placed face-up in front of the player.

However, if two or more players tie for the highest total strength of knights, no one becomes the Defender of Catan, and no one gets a VP card. Instead, each of the tied players gets to draw the top card from any of the three progress card stacks. The players choose the order in which they draw the cards, starting with the player whose turn it is, and then proceeding clockwise.

No matter what happens during the attack, the barbarian ship returns to where it started. All knights on the board are turned over so that their inactive side is facing up. From the next player’s turn onward, the barbarians will set off on a new journey to the prosperous island of Catan.

When Your Last City is Lost

If you’re unlucky enough to have your last city pillaged by the barbarians, don’t fret. You get to keep any city improvements you built before the attack, as well as all your progress cards.

You can still draw and play progress cards as usual. Just remember that you can’t construct any more city improvements until you’ve built at least one city. Once you have a city again, you can resume purchasing city improvements without any restrictions.

The Merchant

The game introduces a special game piece called the merchant, which is activated when a player plays a “Merchant” progress card (found in the yellow stack).

When you play one of these cards, you have the opportunity to place the merchant on a land hex that is adjacent to one of your cities or settlements. As long as the merchant is in place, you have the advantage of trading the resource (not commodity) that is produced in that land hex at a 2:1 rate.

It’s important to note that all the regular trading rules for a 2:1 harbor apply to these transactions.

I want to highlight: As long as you control the merchant, you will receive an additional victory point!

If another merchant card is played, the player who played that card (including you) gains control of the merchant. They have the ability to move the merchant to any hex adjacent to one of their settlements or cities. The new controller of the merchant receives the trade benefit and the bonus victory point.

Game Over

Guess what? If you manage to amass 13 or more victory points during your turn, you win the game! And not just any win – you become the “Lord of All Catan” and receive boundless adoration and love from all the people of Catan!

Deck of Cards

Now, I know you’re curious about the cards, so let me give you the lowdown. Check out the detailed information about them right here: