Cities & Knights

1. New Game Pieces

	Red and Event dice
	Barbarians
	Knights
	Commodity cards
	City Improvements
	Metropolis
	Progress Cards (replace Development Cards)
	City Walls

2. Initial Placements

On your second initial placement, place a Golden Catan City city instead of a Golden Catan Settlement settlement.

3. Types of Dice

There are 3 types of dice: regular, red, and event dice.

The red die determines if players earn a progress card based on the players’ city improvement levels. For detailed information about Progress card distribution and its relation with the red die, click here.

Catan cities and knights barbarian event dice

Catan cities and knights science event dice

Catan cities and knights politics event dice

Catan cities and knights trade event dice

The Event die has 3 Barbarian ships, and 3 Castles. Each Castle represents a progress card type.

Barbarian ship - A ship on the Event die means the barbarian ship moves forward 1 space on the barbarian tracker
Castle - Distributes Progress Cards based on the castle’s color, the value of the Red die, and the player’s city improvement levels.

4. Collecting Commodities

Cities placed on sheep, wood, or ore produce 1 resource & 1 commodity.

+	=	Sheep & Cloth
+	=	Ore & Coin
+	=	Wood & Paper

Important things to know about commodities:

Only cities can produce commodities
Commodities count towards robber discard limit
Commodities can be traded like any other resource
Commodities can only be used to buy city improvements as long as you have at least 1 city on the board

5. Barbarians

Cities & Knights barbarian tracker example

When a Barbarian ship is rolled on the Event die, barbarians move one space forward on the track. Barbarian strength is equal to the sum of all cities on the board.

Red Catan city + Green catan city, + Golden Catan City = 3 Barbarian strength

6. Knights

Purchasing a knight

Catan cities and knights knights level 1 knight inactive

1 Knight costs 1 wool and 1 ore.

Can be placed anywhere at the end of or in between roads
Can break another player’s road length when placed in between their roads

Activating a knight

Activating a knight costs 1 wheat.

You CAN place a knight & activate it on the same turn.
You CANNOT place a knight, activate a knight, and take a knight action.

Attack power

Each player can have 2 Basic knights, 2 Strong knights, and 2 Mighty knights.

Catan Cities and knights level 1 knight active icon Level 1 (Basic knight)
1 strength

Catan cities and knights level 2 knight active icon Level 2 (Strong knight)
2 strength

Catan cities and knights level 3 knight active icon Level 3 (Mighty knight)
3 strength

Upgrading knights

Upgrading a knight costs 1 wool and 1 ore.

Upgraded knights will remain active or inactive.
You CAN place a level 1 knight & upgrade it on the same turn.
You CANNOT upgrade a knight twice on the same turn.
You can ONLY upgrade to level 3 knights after you reach the third level in Politic City Improvements (Fortress). However, you can obtain a level 3 knight without having Fortress, by using a Deserter card on another player who has a level 3 knight.

Knight actions (these will deactivate your knight):

Moving the knight - move a knight to any available spot in the same road network.
Displacing enemy knight - If your knight level is higher than an opponent’s you can displace the enemy knight so the opponent must relocate it or remove it. Both knights need to be connected to each other by roads.
Chasing away the robber - You can move the robber if it is on a tile that one of your active knights is touching. You may do this with multiple knights in the turn, as long as they were active before your turn started.

7. Barbarians vs. Knights

When the Barbarian ship reaches the end of the tracker, they attack.

	Barbarian strength = total number of Cities
	Strength of Knights = total strength of all Active Knights

If Knight strength is equal or greater to Barbarian strength:

Player with most active Knights is awarded with Defender of Colonist, worth 1 extra Victory Point.
If players are tied for the highest Knight strength, each of those players will choose a Progress card instead.

If Knight strength is less than Barbarian strength:

Player with lowest Knight strength gets their city destroyed, turning it into a settlement.
Players with no cities, as well as players whose cities are all metropolises, are not affected.

After an attack, barbarians return to the start of the track and all knights are deactivated.

Players who must destroy one of their cities, but already have 5 settlements on the board, must first rebuild that destroyed city before building any other cities.

8. No early robber

Players CANNOT move the Catan Robber Piece Icon robber until the first barbarian attack but players must still discard if they have over 7 cards (this includes using your knight to move the robber, as well as using a Bishop card).

9. City walls

City walls increase your discard limit by 2 cards, helping to protect you from losing cards when a 7 is rolled.

Catan cities and knights golden city wall

City wall costs 2 brick

City wall limitations:

Each player can place a maximum of 3 walls, reaching a maximum of 13 cards discard limit.
A city can only have 1 wall.
If a city is destroyed by the barbarians, the wall on that city is destroyed as well.

10. City improvements

3 different types of city improvements can be bought with commodities.

Catan cities and knights cloth commodity card

Trade
Yellow city improvement
Costs cloth

Catan cities and knights coin commodity card

Politics
Blue city improvement
Costs coin

Catan cities and knights paper commodity card

Science
Green city improvement
Costs paper

City improvement limitations:

You must have at least 1 city to buy city improvements.
City improvements affect what progress cards you receive based on red dice.
Each city improvement level requires more commodities to buy.

Upgrading cities

Each level of city improvement costs one more resource.

Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5

Upgrading a city improvement to level 3 unlocks a special ability

Trade (Trading House)
Trade commodities at a 2:1 rate for any other resource or commodity Catan cities and knights trading house

Politic (Fortress)
Allows upgrading level 2 knights to level 3 Catan cities and knights fortress

Science (Aqueduct)
If none of your numbers roll, or if your number is blocked, you get to select a resource of your choice from the bank (unless a 7 rolls). catan cities and knights aqueduct

11. Metropolis

The first player to reach level 4 in a city improvement type, can upgrade a city to a Metropolis, worth 2 Victory Points Colonist trophy icon .

Metropolis limitations:

Only 1 Metropolis for each city improvement type.
Players can steal a Metropolis if they reach level 5 city improvement first.
Barbarians cannot destroy a Metropolis.
Players can have more than 1 Metropolis.
Players must have an available city to buy a level 4 city improvement. You cannot upgrade to a metropolis or purchase a level 4 city improvement without an available city.

12. Progress cards

Catan cities and knights progress cards back

In Cities & Knights, Progress cards replace development cards.
There are 18 of each type of Progress Card.

Collect progress cards based on event dice + red dice + city improvement level.

Cities & Knights how to get progress cards

Progress card limitations:

You can only have 4 progress cards in your hand. However, you may have 5 on your own turn. If you end your turn with 5 progress cards, you must immediately discard 1 of them.
If you draw a 5th progress card when it’s not your turn, you must discard 1 progress card from your hand.
Victory points from progress cards (Printer & Constitution) do not count towards the 4 cards in your hand.

13. Trade progress cards

	2 Commercial Harbor	Force each player to trade you a commodity of their choice for one of your resources. You may finish using this card early without doing all available trades
	2 Master Merchant	Choose 1 player that has more victory points than you to see their resource and commodity cards. Choose 2 cards to steal from their hand
	2 Merchant Fleet	Pick 1 resource or commodity. You may trade it at a 2:1 rate for any other resource or commodity until the end of your turn
	6 Merchant	Move the merchant to any tile touching one of your settlements. You can do 2:1 trades with this resource as long as it stays there. Having control of this merchant gives you 1 victory point.
	4 Resource Monopoly	Select a resource for all players to give you 2 of
	2 Commodity Monopoly	Select any commodity for all players to give you 1 of

14. Politics progress cards

	2 Bishop	Move the robber and steal 1 card from each player on the tile the robber is moved to
	1 Constitution	1 revealed victory point
	2 Deserter	Choose an opponent to remove a knight of their choice. You may place one of your knights for free if you have an available spot
	2 Diplomat	Remove any open road. If it is your own road, you may relocate it.
	2 Intrigue	Displace an enemy knight touching one of your roads. If there is no available space for the opponent to place it, it must be removed from the board
	2 Saboteur	All players that have equal or more victory points than you must discard half of their resource/commodity cards.
	3 Spy	Select a player to see all their progress cards and steal 1 of them
	2 Warlord	Activate all of your knights for free
	2 Wedding	All players with more victory points than you will give you 2 resources or commodities of their choice

15. Science progress cards

	2 Alchemist	Play at the beginning of your turn before the dice roll. Determine the roll of the red and regular dice
	2 Crane	Build a city improvement for one commodity less. These cannot be combined together to pay for 2+ less commodities in one turn
	1 Engineer	Build a city wall for free if you have a city
	2 Inventor	Swap 2 numbers on the board (except 6, 8, 2, 12)
	2 Irrigation	Collect 2 grain cards for each individual grain tile you have a settlement or city on
	2 Medicine	Upgrade a settlement to a city for 2 ore and 1 grain
	2 Mining	Collect 2 ore cards for each individual ore tile you have a settlement or city on
	1 Printer	1 revealed victory point
	2 Road Building	Build 2 free roads
	2 Smith	Upgrade up to 2 knights for free

16. Points to win

The first person to get to 13 victory points (VP) is the winner.

In order to win, you have to reach 13 points on your turn. You may still lose if another player achieves 13 points on their turn even if you had 13 points before them. Note: points to win may vary while combining Cities & Knights and Seafarers expansions, depending on maps and scenarios.

Get points by doing the following:

	+1 point	Build a settlement
	+1 point	Upgrade a settlement to a city
	+2 points	Get the Longest Road. A minimum of 5 consecutive roads is required to get this achievement
	+1 point	Highest Knight strength when defeating the Barbarians (Defender of Colonist)
	+1 point	Having control of the Merchant
	+1 point	Earn a progress card that provides one Victory Point (Printer & Constitution)
	+2 points	Having a Metropolis

17. FAQ

● I received my 13th Victory Point with a Progress Card (or Defender of Colonist) on someone else's turn. Why didn’t I automatically win?

You can only win the game on your own turn. So you only win if you still have 13 points when your regular turn starts.

● Am I allowed to pick commodities from a city on a gold tile?

No, you are only allowed to pick resources from gold tiles, even with cities.