Settlers of Catan, Cities and Knights expansion

Cities and Knights (Staedte und Ritter) is an expansion to the game Settlers of Catan. It contains many new features, many of which were taken from Die Siedler von Catan/Das Kartenspiel. Cities and Knights is more intense than the original because there are many more chances to "attack" each other due to the power of the new Progress cards that are added to the game. The game is played to 13 VPs. It may be combined with various Seafarers scenarios: in particular, ones with large central islands and no unknown tiles are recommended, such as New Shores, Into the Desert, and Greater Catan.

New Dice Instead of rolling 2 dice, a player now rolls 3 dice: one event die, which has 3 sides with the barbarian ship, and one side each Yellow, Blue, and Green gates; a red d6, and a white d6. The significance of the gate sides of the event die are covered under Progress Cards. The barbarian ship is covered under The Barbarian Attack.

New Productions Cities on ore, wood, and sheep produce one regular and one commodity (coin, paper, and cloth, respectively). The commodities are mainly used to upgrade your civilization level. These cards have the same back as regular resource cards (grain, sheep, timber, ore, clay), can be traded and traded for like regular resources, count against your hand limit when a 7 rolls, and can be stolen by a player moving the robber (or pirate).

Delayed robber The robber (pirate) cannot be moved until after the first barbarian attack. If a 7 rolls before then, players must still check if they have too many cards in hand, and discard if needed, but otherwise nothing happens. You may also not use a knight to chase the robber (pirate) until after the first barbarian attack. This rule was added by Mayfair Games in January of 2004.

Knights You can buy knights, which come in three strengths (or levels). One knight costs 1 ore and 1 sheep, and is initially placed as a Level 1 (Weak) Inactive Knight. To activate a knight, its owner must pay one grain to the bank. Knights may be promoted one level by paying 1 ore and 1 sheep, up to a maximum of 2 promotions to reach the 3rd level. You may not promote Level 2 (Strong) Knights to Level 3 (Mighty) Knights until you have reached the 3rd level Politics City Improvement (see below). After activating, a knight cannot perform any action until its owner's next turn, except to defend Catan from the Barbarians. A knight which takes any action must deactivate. It may be reactivate the same turn, but it cannot take a second action, because it must wait until the owner's next turn.

All knights (regardless of rank or active status) can be used to block an opponent or cut his road. A knight interrupts a road like a settlement does, and it also blocks an opponent from building past the knight (unless he already has roads/ships beyond the knight, just like if the knight were a settlement).

For all other actions, a knight must be active. If the robber (or pirate) is in a hex adjacent to an active knight, that knight's owner may deactivate the knight to move the robber (pirate), like playing a Soldier card in the original game, placing it where he wishes and stealing a resource or commodity card at random from an opponent with a settlement, city, or metropolis (ship) adjacent to the hex he places it in. Under official rules, this cannot be done before rolling the dice, unlike playing a Soldier card.

Active knights may also move along the trade routes they are on, deactivating and moving to a new, empty vertex. They may travel past buildings and knights you own, but not those of your opponents.

Active knights can attack an opponent's knight that is adjacent to the same trade route as the active knight. The attacking knight must exceed the opponent's knight in rank to make an attack. When attacked, the opponent's knight is displaced, and must move to a new, empty vertex in its current trade route. If there is no such vertex, the knight is returned to its owner. If there is at least one such vertex, the knight's owner choose where to place it and the knight retains active/inactive status. This is the same as playing a (Blue) Intrigue card.

Active knights contribute to the force that defends Catan from the Barbarians (see below).

City Improvements

Instead of buying Development Cards, you build up your Trade (Yellow - requires Cloth), Politics (Blue - requires Coin), and Science (Green - requires Paper) levels. To increase a City Improvement Level, you must pay one more of the require commodity than the previous level (the first level costs 1). You must also currently own a city. As you build up your City Improvement Levels, you have a greater chance at drawing the Progress Cards, which have replaced the Development Cards and are divided into three categories, one for each area. For more information on Progress Cards, see that section.

Upon reaching the 3rd level of improvement in any category, you receive a special bonus ability. In Trade, you gain the ability to trade commodities at a 2:1 ratio. In Politics, you gain the ability to promote Level 2 (Strong) Knights to Level 3 (Mighty). In Science, you gain the ability to take one resource of your choice when you would otherwise receive no production and the dice roll is not a 7 (e.g., you have no buildings on a hex with a 3 on it, so when the 3 rolls, you may choose to take one wheat, timber, ore, sheep, or clay).

Upon reaching the 4th level of improvement, if you are the first player to do so in the game, you earn the Metropolis for that branch. The Metropolis arch is placed over any one of your cities that is not already a Metropolis. You must have a city eligible to become a Metropolis to advance to a City Improvement level that would earn you the Metropolis for that branch (e.g., if you only have 1 city and it's already a Metropolis from the Trade branch, you cannot advance to the 4th science level if no other player already owns the Science Metropolis). The Metropolis is worth 2 extra Victory Points (in addition to the city it is on, so that city plus the Metropolis arch makes 4 points total) and is immune to the Barbarian attack. Most players play that Metropoli are also immune to the (Blue) Sabotage Progress Card, but this rule has not been confirmed as official.

If an opponent currently owns a Metropolis arch for a branch and you beat that opponent to the 5th and final level of City Improvement, you steal the Metropolis arch from that player (you must have a valid city to place it on). The first player to reach the 5th level in any branch secures the Metropolis for it, since no higher level exists.

Progress Cards

To obtain Progress Cards, the event die must show a colored gate. Each player looks at his City Calendar which is used to track City Improvement levels, and notes what the highest red die for that level shows on his calendar. When the rolled red die shows a number no higher than the highest one on your City Calendar page that matches the event die's gate color, you draw a Progress card of the gate color. The first level of City Improvement enables you to draw a card on a red 1 or 2, and each subsequent level increases the maximum red die value by 1, so that at the highest level, you draw a card any time the event die shows that color gate.

If you draw a (Blue) Constitution or (Green) Printing Press card, you must play it immediately. These cards are each worth 1 VP and may not be concealed like Development Cards could be. Otherwise, you may look at the card and place it face down in front of you. If you draw a 5th (with 5 or 6 players, a 6th) card when it is not your turn, you must choose and discard one card face-down under the appropriate pile. You may discard the new card. If it is your turn and you draw a card over the limit, you may play cards on your turn to come below the limit, but if you do not, you must discard a card at the end of your turn. You may play cards on the turn you draw them, and there is no limit to the number of cards per turn you may play. With the exception of the Victory Points, they must be played on your turn. Except for the (Green) Alchemist card, you may not play a card before you roll the dice (and you must play the Alchemist before you roll the dice).

The progress cards, and number of each available are:

Politics (Blue):

• Spy (3): You may look at an opponent's progress cards, and take the one of your choice.
• Warlord (2): You may immediately make all your knights active without having to spend any grain.
• Intrigue (2): You may displace one knight belonging to an opponent, if it is on an intersection connected to one of your trade routes.
• Diplomat (2): You may remove an open road belonging to an opponent or yourself. If you remove one of your own, you may immediately place it elsewhere.
• Wedding (2): All players with more victory points than yourself must give you two resource or commodity cards of their choice.
• Saboteur (2): You may choose an opponent's city to turn on side. This city will only receive resources as for a settlement until the owner pays one wood and one ore.
• Deserter (2): You select an opponent; he removes one knight of his choice, and you place a knight of equal or lower strength.
• Bishop (2): You may move the robber to a new hex and draw one resource from all players with cities or settlements adjacent to that hex.
• Constitution (1): One victory point.

Trade (Yellow):

• Merchant (6): You may place the merchant on a hex adjacent to one of your cities or settlements. You may then trade the resources of that type at a 2:1 rate.
• Resource Monopoly (4): You name a resource, and your opponents must each give you two of that resource if possible.
• Trade Monopoly (2): You name a commodity, and your opponents must each give you one of that commodity if possible.
• Master Merchant (2): Select an opponent with more victory points, and look at his resource and commodity cards. You may take two of your choice.
• Merchant Fleet (2): You may trade all resources and commodities at a 2:1 rate during the turn you play this card.
• Commercial Harbour (2): You may ask each opponent for a single commodity card; if they have it, they must trade it to you for one of your resource cards.

Science (Green):

• Smith (2): You may promote any two of your knights by one level each, subject to normal promotion rules.
• Crane (2): You may build a city improvement for one less commodity than the indicated cost.
• Road Building (2): You may immediately place two new roads or ships at no cost.
• Alchemist (2): You may play this card before the dice roll, and choose how the numbered dice will land.
• Medicine (2): You may upgrade one settlement to a city for two ore and one grain.
• Engineer (2): You may build a city wall at no cost.
• Irrigation (2): You may collect two grain for each field hex adjacent to your cities and settlements.
• Mining (2): You may collect two ore for each mountain hex adjacent to your cities and settlements.
• Inventor (1): You may exchange any two number tokens on the board, except for 2, 6's, 8's, and 12.
• Printer (1): One victory point.

Barbarian Attack

Whenever the event die shows the Barbarian ship, the large black Barbarian ship moves one space closer to Catan. It is initially 8 spaces away and returns to this starting point after every attack. When the Barbarians reach Catan, they attack. Every City and Metropolis counts as 1 attack point, and every active Knight counts as 1-3 defense points, depending on what level they are. If there at least as many defense points as attack points, Catan wins, else the Barbarians win. Note that the Barbarians do NOT attack if there is not at least one City or Metropolis on the board. They still progress as normal, but on reaching Catan, they give up and go back home.

If Catan wins and there is a single player who contributed the largest force (by strength) of active knights to the defense, that player receives one of the "Defender of Catan" cards, worth 1 VP. There are 6 such cards in a standard set (more with the 5-6 player expansion). In the extremely unlikely event that you would need another, the Defender of Catan instead receives the Progress Card of his choice.

If Catan wins and there is a tie for players contributing the largest force, all such tied players draw one Progress Card from the deck of their choice, starting with the active player and proceeding clockwise among tied players.

If Catan loses, all players who have cities (not counting Metropoli) and who are tied for contributing the least active force or the single such player must reduce a city of his choice to a settlement. This means that if a player who has only settlements and/or Metropoli, and he contributes the least strength of knights during a lost attack, he will not have to reduce a city, but instead the player or players who contributed the next least strength must reduce their cities instead. If the loss of a city would result in a sixth settlement for a player, the city is placed on its side until such time as it can be rebuilt or a settlement becomes available. Any city walls under a lost city are returned to their owner.

City Walls

For the cost of two clay, you can build a wall around a city, protecting it from the influence of the robber. Each city may have only one wall, and each wall allows you to have two more cards in your hand before you have to discard on a 7 roll. So if you have two walls on two different cities, you will not have to discard unless you have more than eleven cards in your hand. Each player can have up to three city walls.

The Merchant

The merchant is a new piece that gets called onto the board only through the use of the (Yellow) Merchant Progress cards. When played, you move the merchant token to a tile adjacent to one of your buildings and are granted the ability to trade that resource at the 2:1 ratio until the Merchant is moved again.

Additionally, the Merchant is worth one victory point while it remains in your possession (this is not printed on the US cards). The fact that there are several Merchant cards in the decks mean this is a fluid point that can easily be stolen. Many players save the Merchant until their final play.