Cities & Knights
1. New Game Pieces
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Red and Event dice |
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Barbarians |
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Knights |
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Commodity cards |
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City Improvements |
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Metropolis |
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Progress Cards (replace Development Cards) |
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City Walls |
2. Initial Placements
On your second initial placement, place a 
city instead of a 
settlement.
3. Types of Dice
There are 3 types of dice: regular, red, and event dice.
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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. |
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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.
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Wool & Cloth |
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Ore & Coin |
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Lumber & 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
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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.
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+ 6. Knights
Purchasing a knight
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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
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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.
Level 1 (Basic knight)
1 strength
Level 2 (Strong knight)
2 strength
Level 3 (Mighty knight)
3 strength
Upgrading knights
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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.
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Barbarian strength = total number of Cities | |
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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.
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8. No early robber
Players CANNOT move the 
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 Progress 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.
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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.
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Trade Yellow city improvement Costs cloth |
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Politics Blue city improvement Costs coin |
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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 commodities at a 2:1 rate for any other resource or commodity
Allows upgrading level 2 knights to level 3
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).
11. Metropolis
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The first player to reach level 4 in a city improvement type, can upgrade a city to a Metropolis, worth 2 Victory Points |
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
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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.
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
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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4 Resource Monopoly | Select a resource for all players to give you 2 of |
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2 Commodity Monopoly | Select any commodity for all players to give you 1 of |
14. Politics progress cards
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2 Bishop | Move the robber and steal 1 card from each player on the tile the robber is moved to |
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1 Constitution | 1 revealed victory point |
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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 |
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2 Diplomat | Remove any open road. If it is your own road, you may relocate it. |
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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 |
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2 Saboteur | All players that have equal or more victory points than you must discard half of their resource/commodity cards. |
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3 Spy | Select a player to see all their progress cards and steal 1 of them |
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2 Warlord | Activate all of your knights for free |
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2 Wedding | All players with more victory points than you will give you 2 resources or commodities of their choice |
15. Science progress cards
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2 Alchemist | Play at the beginning of your turn before the dice roll. Determine the roll of the red and regular dice |
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2 Crane | Build a city improvement for one commodity less. These cannot be combined together to pay for 2+ less commodities in one turn |
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1 Engineer | Build a city wall for free if you have a city |
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2 Inventor | Swap 2 numbers on the board (except 6, 8, 2, 12) |
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2 Irrigation | Collect 2 grain cards for each individual grain tile you have a settlement or city on |
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2 Medicine | Upgrade a settlement to a city for 2 ore and 1 grain |
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2 Mining | Collect 2 ore cards for each individual ore tile you have a settlement or city on |
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1 Printer | 1 revealed victory point |
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2 Road Building | Build 2 free roads |
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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.
Get points by doing the following:
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+1 point | Build a settlement |
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+1 point | Upgrade a settlement to a city |
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+2 points | Get the Longest Road. A minimum of 5 consecutive roads is required to get this achievement |
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+1 point | Highest Knight strength when defeating the Barbarians (Defender of Colonist) |
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+1 point | Having control of the Merchant |
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+1 point | Earn a progress card that provides one Victory Point (Printer & Constitution) |
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+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.