Catan: Cities & Knights Expansion

This expansion is not a standalone game. Requires the CATAN base gameto play.

CATAN: https://www.mightyape.co.nz/…tion/1593782

Flourishing trade brings prosperity to Catan. However, all thiswealth also attracts barbarians. The knights of Catan are needed! The expansioncan also be combined with CATAN – Seafarers and CATAN – Traders &Barbarians.

Use the hexes of the CATAN base game to assemble Catan inside the providedframe. Each of you has just finished building a settlement and a city, when darkclouds gather over the peaceful island of Catan. Wild barbarians, attracted bythe wealth of Catan, sail toward the island's shores. There is still enoughtime to prepare for confronting the intruders, though. The strength of thehostile barbarian army always corresponds to the number of cities on Catan. Inorder to successfully defend Catan, the knights of all players combined must beat least as strong as the barbarian army.

Knights are not used in the form of cards; instead, they are represented bywooden tokens that are placed on unoccupied intersections.Each token has an“active” side depicting a knight helmet in color and an “inactive” sidedepicting a black-and-white knight helmet. A knight can only fight after he isactivated; activation costs one grain. After paying the grain, you turn theknight token over so that its active side is face up. Each ring on the tokencounts as one strength point.

If the knights of all players combined have enough strength points to defeatthe barbarian army, the danger is averted for the moment. However, if theCatanian knights are too weak, a city will be raided and downgraded to asettlement.

This unfortunate event always affects the player who had the lowest totalstrength of active knights when the barbarians attacked. Besides defendingCatan, knights can also be used to chase away the robber or to displace anotherplayer’s knight.

When you are not busy defending Catan, you are competing for themetropolises, which represent two additional victory points. In order toestablish a metropolis (which is placed on top of a city), you first need toimprove your cities.

The construction of city buildings, such as the Library, Market, Abbey, orTown Hall, is indicated on development flip-charts.

You pay for city improvements with commodities such as coins, cloth, orbooks. How do you get commodities? Instead of two resources, cities adjacent tomountains, pasture, and forest hexes produce only one resource but also onecommodity derived from the respective type of resource.

With increasing city improvements, the odds to obtain new progress cardsbecome more favorable. Cards such as “Mining,” “Irrigation,” or“Building Crane” allow for faster settlement activities. Cards such as“Merchant,” “Merchant Fleet,” “Trade Monopoly,” or “ResourceMonopoly” create advantages with regards to trade. On the other hand, you canbother stronger players with cards such as the “Deserter,” “Spy,” or“Diplomat.”

Get used to a tougher life on Catan – and a longer but also more excitinggame. The first player to reach 13 victory points is the winner.

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