• Cities And Knights Online
• Catan Cities And Knights Rules
• Settlers Of Catan Cities And Knights

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They’ve coded an excellent Java version of Catan that allows you to play solo or multiplayer; basic ‘Catan’ or ‘Cities and Knights of Catan’. Catan Cities And Knight Serial Numbers. Convert Catan Cities And Knight trail version to full software. Settlers of Catan Cities and Knights is a stand alone expansion to the award winning strategy game of trading and resource development by Mayfair games.

The Cities and Knights of Catan (German: Städte und Ritter) is anexpansion to the boardgameThe Settlers of Catan forthree to four players (five to six player play is also possiblewith the Settlers and Cities and Knights five tosix player extensions; two-player play is possible with theTraders & Barbarians expansion). It contains featurestaken from The Settlers of Catan, with emphasis on citydevelopment and the use of knights, which are used as a method of attackingother players as well as helping opponents defend Catan against acommon foe. Cities and Knights can also be combined withthe Seafarers of Catan expansion orwith Catan: Traders & Barbarians scenarios (again, five to sixplayer play only possible with the applicable five to six playerextension(s)).

Differences fromThe Settlers of Catan

Because of the new gameplay elements introduced in Citiesand Knights, the game is typically played to 13 victorypoints, as opposed to 10 as in the The Settlers of Catanbase game.

Cities And Knights Online

The following cards are not used in Cities and Knights:

• the Development Cards -- which have been replaced by ProgressCards.
• the Building Cost Cards -- the information on these cards isprovided by the CityUpgrade Calendar.
• the 'Largest Army' Card -- having a large army is still anadvantage, but does not earn victory points so directly as in theregular version of The Settlers of Catan.

Commodities

One of the main additions to the game is commodities, whicheffectively act as secondary resources produced only by cities (andnot settlements). Like resources, commodities are associated with atype of terrain, can be stolen by the robber (withSeafarers, also the pirate), can count against theresource hand limit, and may not be collected if the robber is onthe terrain. Resources may be traded for commodities, andcommodities may be traded for resources. Commodities can then beused to build city improvements (provided the player has a city),which provide additional benefits.

The commodities are paper (which comes from forest terrain),coin (which comes from mountain terrain), and cloth (which comesfrom pasture terrain).

When combining Cities and Knights withSeafarers, the rules are ambiguous with regards to whethercommodities are collected along with normal resources whencollecting from a Gold River tile, as well as whether or notcommodities can be collected directly from Gold River tiles.

A city on grain or brick gives two of each, as in the originalSettlers. A city on wool, ore, or wood, produces onecorresponding resource as well as one corresponding commodity(cloth, coin, or paper). Grain and brick, however, act as fuel inspecial functions: grain activates knights, and brick can be usedto build city walls.

In total there are 36 commodity cards: 12 paper (from forest),12 cloth (from pasture), and 12 coin (from mountains).

Cityimprovements

A player with a city may use commodities to build cityimprovements, which allow several advantages. There are cityimprovements in five levels, and in three different categories.Each category of improvements requires a different commodity andhigher levels require more cards in that commodity. At the thirdlevel, players earn a special ability, depending on the type ofimprovement.

The first player with an improvement at the fourth level canclaim any of their cities as a metropolis, worth four victorypoints instead of two for that city. Each type of improvement hasonly one associated metropolis, and no city can be a metropolis oftwo different types (because of this, a player with onlymetropolises and settlements may not build improvements beyond thethird level). If a player is the first to build an improvement tothe final level (out-building the current holder of themetropolis), they may take the metropolis from its currentholder.

Knights

Catan Cities And Knights Rules

The other significant concept in Cities and Knights isthe concept of knights, which replace the concept of soldiers andthe largest army. Knights are units that require continuousmaintenance through its activation mechanism, but have a widevariety of functions. Knights can be promoted through three ranks,although promotion to the final rank is a special ability grantedby a city improvement (namely, the Fortress).

Knights are placed on the board in a similar manner tosettlements, and can be used to block opposing roads, active ornot. However, knights must be activated in order to perform otherfunctions, which immediately deactivates the knight. Knights cannotperform actions on the same turn they are activated, but can bereactivated on the same turn as performing an action. These actionsinclude:

• Moving along a road (with Seafarers, a line ofships)
• Displacing opposing knights of a lower rank, forcing the lowerranked knight to retreat
• Dispelling the robber (with Seafarers, also thepirate) if it is stationed nearby

If a knight is promoted or forced to retreat, its active statusdoes not change.

The standard Cities and Knights game comes with 24knights, 6 of each color. The 5/6 player extension adds a further12 knights, 6 each of two new colours.

Barbarianattacks

Cities and Knights introduces a third die, known as theevent die, which serves two functions, the first of which appliesto the concept of barbarians, a periodic foe that all players mustwork together to defend against. Three of the sides of the eventdie have a picture of a ship on them. The other three sides have asymbol of a city gate.

The barbarians are represented by a ship, which is positioned ona track in special 'double-hex', representing the distance betweenthe ship and Catan (ie. the board). Each time the event die shows ablack ship, the barbarian ship takes one step closer to Catan. Whenthe barbarians arrive at Catan, a special phase is immediatelyperformed before all other actions (including collectingresources). In this special phase, the barbarians' attack strength,corresponding to the combined number of cities and metropolisesheld by all players, is compared to Catan's defense strength,corresponding to the combined levels of all activated knights inplay.

If the barbarians are successful in their attack (if they have astrength greater than Catan), then the players must pay theconsequence. The player(s) who had the least defense will beattacked, and they will lose one of their cities and have itreduced to a settlement. If they only have settlements, ormetropolises, then they are immune to barbarians. Therefore, thenext player or players who had the least defense will be attacked.There may also be the case where reducing a city would leave aplayer with six settlements (a player is only given fivesettlements), in which case the city token is turned on its sideuntil another city is built.

Should Catan prevail, the player who contributes the most toCatan's defense receives a special Defender of Catan card,worth an extra victory point. Regardless of the outcome, allknights are immediately deactivated, and the barbarian ship returnsto its starting point on the track. In the event of a tie among thegreatest contributors of knights, none of the tied players earn aDefender of Catan card. Instead, each of the tied players draw aprogress card (explained below) of the type of their choosing.Similarly, if there are no Defender of Catan cards remaining, aprogress card is drawn instead. There are 6 Defender of Catancards.

As the likelihood of having the barbarian move closer to Catanis very high, under Cities and Knights the robber (andwith Seafarers, the pirate) does not move until the firstbarbarian attack, nor can a knight move the robber before thatpoint.

Examples where cities are lost:

1. Player A has 3 cities and 2 active knights. Player B has 1 cityand 2 active knights. Player C has 2 cities and 1 active knight.When the barbarians attack, player C will lose one of his cities,because the attack strength (6 cities) is greater than all knightscombined (5 knights).
2. Player A has 3 cities and 2 active knights. Player B has 1city, which is a metropolis, and no active knights. Player C has 2cities and 3 active knights. Player B's city is a metropolis, andmetropolises cannot be destroyed by the barbarians, so Player Aloses a city because they have the next fewest number of activeknights.
3. Player A has 2 cities and 2 active knights. Player B has 3cities and 2 active knights. Player C has 2 cities and 2 activeknights. All players will lose a city, because they all tie in thenumber of knights activated, and the barbarian attack strength (7cities) is greater than number of active knights (6 knights).
4. Player A has 3 cities and 4 active knights. Player B has 2cities, which both are metropolises, and 1 active knight. Player Chas 1 city, which is a metropolis, and no active knights. First inline to lose a city is player C, but because his city is ametropolis we need to look at the person next in line. This wouldbe player B, but the same applies for him: he has activated only 1knight, but both of his cities are metropolises. This leaves playerA to lose a city.

Progresscards

The other significant function of the event die concerns itselfwith Progress cards, which replace development cards. Because ofthe mechanics of progress cards explained below, one of the twowhite dice used in Settlers is replaced by a red die.

Progress cards are organized into three categories,corresponding to the three types of improvements. Yellow progresscards aid in commercial development, green progress cards aid intechnological advancements, and blue progress cards allow forpolitical moves. When a castle appears on the event die, progresscards of the corresponding type may be drawn depending on the valueof the red die. Higher levels of city improvements increase thechance that progress cards will be drawn, with the highest level ofcity improvement allowing progress cards to be drawn regardless ofthe value on the red die.

Progress cards, unlike the development cards they replace, canbe played on the turn that they are drawn, and more than oneprogress card can be played per turn. With the exception of twotypes of progress cards, however, they can only be played after thedice are rolled. Progress cards granting victory points are playedimmediately (without regards to whose turn it is), while theAlchemist progress card, which allows a player to predetermine theroll of the white and red dice, necessitates the card being playedinstead of rolling the numerical dice. (The event die is stillrolled as normal.)

Players are allowed to keep four progress cards (five in a fiveto six player game), and any additional ones must be discarded onthe spot (unless the 5th card is a victory point, which is playedimmediately and the original progress cards remain).

In total, there are 54 progress cards: 18 science, 18 politics,and 18 trade.

Citywalls

City walls are a minor addition to Cities and Knightsthat increase the number of resource and commodity cards a playeris allowed in their hand before having to discard on a roll of 7.However, they do not protect the player from the robber---he stillmay not produce resources or commodities from a hex on which therobber has been placed. Only cities and metropolises may havewalls, and each city or metropolis can only have one wall, up tothree walls per player. Each wall that the player has deployedpermits the player to hold two more cards before being required todiscard on a roll of seven. This results in a maximum of 13cards.

If the barbarians pillage your city, then the city wall is alsodestroyed and the wall is removed from the board.

The game comes with 12 city walls, 3 of each color.

TheMerchant

The merchant is another addition to Cities and Knights.Like the robber, the merchant is placed on a single land hex.Unlike the robber, the merchant has a beneficial effect.

The merchant can only be deployed through the use of a Merchantprogress card (of which there are six), on a land hex near a cityor a settlement. The player with the control of the merchant cantrade the resource (not commodity) of that type at a two-to-onerate, as if the player had a control of a corresponding two-to-oneharbor.

Settlers Of Catan Cities And Knights

The player with the control of the merchant also earns a victorypoint. Both the victory point and the trade privilege are lost ifanother player takes control of the merchant.

CityUpgrade Calendar

In place of The Settlers of Catan standard improvementcost card, Cities and Knights gives a calendar typeflip-chart to each player, of course still matching that playerscolour. The top of the chart has the standard costs from theSettlers game (for settlements, upgrade to city, androads). It does not include the Development Card cost as thosecards are not used in a Cities and Knights game. It doesinclude the costs of hiring a knight, upgrading a knight's level orstrength, and the cost to activate (feed) a knight. It alsoincludes the cost of a ship, which are not used in a regular gameof Cities and Knights, but presumably this is to cater forplayers who have combined Cities and KnightsandSeafarers.

Those are only the rudimentary costs of the game however. Thecalendar also shows the costs of the next city improvement in eachof the three categories - as a city is improved in a category, thatsegment has its card flipped down calendar style to reveal thenewly built improvement, any advantages gained by the improvement,and the updated cost of upgrading to the next level in thatcategory. Each segment, as it is flipped down, also shows theupdated dice pattern needed to earn the player a Progress card inthat category.

Externallinks

• Catan: Cities & Knights at BoardGameGeek
• Official website of the author Klaus Teuber
• Official PC version of Catan - Cities &Knights