Catan: Cities & Knights

Catan: Cities & Knights upgrades the classic settler experience by adding three new commodities – paper, cloth and coins – that appear on forest, meadow and mountain hexes. Each city now yields a resource plus the matching commodity, which you spend to erect city improvements such as town halls, libraries and fortresses, granting bonuses and victory points. The single development deck is replaced by three commodity‑specific decks; the more improvements you build, the higher the chance to draw a powerful card on each dice roll. The biggest new element is the knights: you place them on intersections of your road network, use the strongest to move the robber and, crucially, to fend off periodic barbarian attacks. If the barbarians win, players with the fewest knights downgrade a city to a settlement; the most knight‑rich players reap rewards. The modular board stays, so the island layout changes each game, and trading remains vital – resource and commodity swaps become even more strategic. Playtime runs 90‑150 minutes for 3‑4 players, adding tactical depth while preserving the flow of the original Catan.