The knights defend the Island of Catan and attempt to thwart the Barbarians before they reach any of the Island cities. The aim of the players is to amass an army of knights (which replace soldier cards) before the Barbarians reach the shore.

The event dice offers the chance of gaining progress cards (explained in the commodities section below), but it comes with the risk of progressing the barbarians ship towards Catan. The expansion adds another dice to the game called an ‘event dice’ – players roll 3 dice instead of 2 each turn. This is represented by a boat that starts on a special game tile off Catan’s shores. Your job is to prepare before they do!Ĭities & knights introduces the mechanic of a barbarian invasion. The barbarian hordes have been watching you closely. You didn’t think you could build an empire on the Island of Catan without the rest of the world paying close attention did you. In this article, I am going to go through each of these expansions – and rate them from best to worst based on my experience with the game and how each of them changes the core mechanics. It is a game that even today I still break out often during one of our fortnightly game nights. I have played countless rounds of the game and each of its expansions. It is no wonder then that countless expansions have been released over the years to extend, expand, or simply change the way the game is played.Ĭatan for me (like so many others) was the game that got me hooked on board games. The game has maintained its popularity for over 24 years – and has earned its place in the board game hall of fame as one of the best ‘gateway’ games of all time.Ĭatan helped pave the way for modern board game mechanics and was a catalyst for the current ‘golden age of board games’ we are experiencing now. It is a game that anyone who is familiar with board games knows intimately. If a '7' is rolled before either the Robber or Pirate enters the game, only the 7-card hand size rule is enforced.I recently wrote an article about why Catan is one of the most popular board games of all time. The pirate enters the game once the first port hex is drawn and successfully connected to land (place on port). The robber enters the game once the first desert hex is drawn (place on desert). Place a seafarers VP chit under the settlement to delineate it.Īs long as it is not connected by land to any other island the player has already colonized, the victory point is granted-even if it is later connected by discovery. Players receive one additional victory point for their first settlement on each new island they colonize (regardless if the other player has already colonized it).

If the port hex is surrounded by water (adjacent land is not found), return the port tile to the bag and proceed as normal. If at anytime a land tile is revealed adjacent to this port hex, place the port adjacent to that land hex. If land is not adjacent to the new hex, leave the port on the tile and proceed as normal. If a port is placed on the hex and the new hex is adjacent to land, the port must be placed adjacent to it. On a 1, draw a port tile and place it on the hex otherwise, proceed as normal. If it is a water hex, roll the 6-sided die. If it is a land hex, a number token is drawn and placed on the hex. If a player builds a ship or road along edges toward an intersection where the hex tile is missing, a new tile is randomly drawn from the bag and placed. How to PlayPlayers alternate turns following the standard rules, including Seafarers.Įach player starts with 1 brick, wool, wheat, and wood.

Catan two player