As long as you retain control of the “Merchant”, you gain 1 victory point.A knight in any activation state blocks construction of opponents at intersections.If, after a longest road is broken, players tie for longest road or no one has a 5+ segment road, then the “Longest Road” card is set aside until someone qualifies for it.You can break an opponents road by building a settlement or knight on an open intersection along his/her road.Each player takes resources from the bank for their 2nd settlement only.In counter-clockwise order starting with the last player, each player places their 2nd settlement & road.In clockwise order starting with the 1st player, each player places their 1st settlement & road.Roll a die to determine starting player.Randomly place number chits on all of the hex tiles except the desert, and ensuring that no 6 or 8 numbered chits are within 1 hex of each other.If playing with fish, randomly place the fix 'boomerang' pieces on the outer most land areas, and the piece must not have 2 fish points on an inside corner of hexes.If playing Seafarers, the harbors can be placed on any sea hex bordering a land hex.Randomly place harbors face down on the outside of game board.If playing with fish, ensure that each fish lake is surrounded by land.Setup the game board by placing hex tiles randomly inside the 3-4 or 5-6 player borders.If not, the player(s) with the fewest knights each have a city downgraded to a settlement. If the island is successfully defended, the player(s) with the most knights are rewarded. These knights can be used to claim certain intersections and move the Robber (taking the place of Soldier cards), but are also used to defend the island from periodic barbarian attacks. (Some cards are balanced better as well - the new Resource Monopoly card, for example, can take no more than 2 of the named resource from any one player.)įinally, players can also build knights on the island along their network of roads. These cards are similar to the development cards in the base game, but with a wider range of effects. Building more improvements will increase these chances, but cards cannot be bought directly in any way. Building city improvements gives players a chance to draw these cards with every roll of the dice. Second, the deck of development cards is replaced by three different decks, each corresponding to one of the commodities. (To make commodities easier to obtain, each player starts the game with 1 city and 1 settlement on the board.) These commodities allow players to build city improvements that confer various advantages and eventually points. Cities that would normally produce two of one of those resources instead produce 1 resource and 1 of the corresponding commodity.

The game changes the base game in three main ways:įirst, there are 3 new commodities in the game, distinct from resources - paper, cloth, and coins, which can be acquired from Forest, Meadow, and Mountain spaces, respectively.

Adds tactical complexity to the game and game length. Adds several new aspects to Settlers of Catan but the two major ones are creating knights to protect the land from invading barbarians and building city improvements that confer benefits upon that city's owner.

Catan cities and knights