http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop/product/0480-0499/pages/0494.htm Hints Back Press Info ?Cities and Knights? represents a very well designed fusion with the card game. What? s left to do for a game reviewer? Well, he remains silent, takes the game in and enjoys playing. Kärntner Tageszeitung A new drug for Settler addicts! Now, Settlers must defend themselves against a barbarian invasion. If the Settlers are not prepared - they need activated Knights for the defense ? the Barbarians will come down on the weakest defender. The punishment is harsh. There are also commodities in addition to the resources. Metropolises and city walls are new to the game as well. Die Nordsee-Zeitung ?Cities and Knights? is a ?must have? for all Settler fans. Leipziger Volkszeitung Time goes by fast in the world of Catan ? a more affirmative compliment can hardly be made to a game. The cities play a special role in the the Catan variant ?Cities and Knights?. With the help of commodities players improve cities in various ways. The knights, too, are playing a prominent role in this variant. They can interrupt trade roads, keep in check other knights and chase away the robber. Most importantly, the knights are used to defend Catan against the invasion of the barbarian army. FAZ 6 5 4 3 2 1 Short info: Requirements: In comparison to the basis game somewhat more emphasis on tactics and strategy. For whom: For all, from 12 and up, who have played the basis game quite a lot and wish to add some depth to game play. Number of players: 3-4 players (5& 6 with expansion) Game duration: About 2 hours What is it about? Use the hexes of the Catan basis game and construct the regular island within the provided frame of sea hexes (1). As soon as every player has built a settlement, dark clouds gather over the peaceful island of Catan. Wild barbarians, attracted by the wealth of Catan, sail towards the shores of the island (2). There is enough time to make necessary preparations for standing up to the intruders, though. The strength of the hostile barbarian army always corresponds to the number of cities on Catan. In order to successfully defend Catan, the knights of all players combined must be at least as strong as the barbarian army. Knights are not being used in form of cards. Instead, they are represented by disks that feature knight helmets. A knight can only fight after an activation by means of paying a grain. After paying said grain, a player flips the knight disk, which now shows one or more fists. Each fist counts as one strength point (3). If the knights of all players combined show sufficient fists to beat the barbarian army, the catastrophe can be averted for the moment. However, if the Catanian knights are too weak, a city will be raided and downgraded to a settlement. This unfortunate event always affects the player, who has contributed the least amount of knight strength. Besides defending Catan, knights can be used to chase away the robber or to defend against another player?s knight. When players are not busy defending Catan, they are competing for the metropolises (4), which represent two additional victory points. In order to establish a metropolis (which will be put on top of a city), players need to improve their cities beforehand. The construction of city buildings, such as library, market, cloister or town hall, is indicated on city improvement schedules (5). Players pay with commodities such as coins, cloth or books for city improvements (6). How do you get commodities? Cities adjacent to forest, pasture and hill hexes produce only one resource (instead of 2 resources) and also a commodity derived from the type of resource. With increasing city improvements the odds become more favorable for players to obtain new development cards. Cards, such as ?mining?, ?irrigation? or ?building crane? allow for faster settlement activities. Cards, such as ?trader?, ?trade fleet?, or ?monopoly? create advantages in terms of trade. On the other hand, one can irritate stronger players with cards, such as the ?deserter?, ?spy? or ?diplomat?. Get used to a tougher life on Catan ? and a longer but also more exciting game play. The player who gains 13 victory points first, wins the game. Hints In ?Cities and Knights? a player rolls with 3 dice at the beginning of his turn: with the two regular dice and an event die. Three sides of the event die show the barbarian ship. That means that there is a 50% chance per turn that the barbarian ship approaches one step closer towards Catan. Considering this circumstance, it may be possible that the barbarian ship lands on Catan after 3 or 4 turns. Therefore, it is very important to start building knights early in the game and to activate them. Such preparation will help to avoid being the target of the barbarian army, i.e. losing a city. Grain is very important in terms of defending Catan. Knights are of no use as long as they are not activated. There are certain ?house rules? that may soften the impact of the barbarian attack. Sure, one can for instance declare the first barbarian raid as void or allow each player to have one activated knight at the beginning of the game. Personally I am not a big fan of such variants. One major appeal of the game is due to exactly the threat of the barbarian army, which players have to prepare for as early as possible in the game and include the threat of the barbarian army in their strategic planning.