Who introduced me this game? A group of geeks? Perhaps.
This time, I did not mention what I remember for the first time. I am going to talk about a recent game experience. It was at Samuel's place. We had Samuel, Samual's two cousins, Antoine, Axel, and us. Samuel's apartment is nicely decorated. Quite a cozy place.
We decided to play the Cities and Knights of Catan.
How to play the Cities and Knights of Catan?
The basic game rules are similar to those in the Settlers of Catan. Five things are different: commodity card, city improvement, fight against pirates, progress card, and merchant.
1. Commodity card
Commodity card is one of the main additions in the Cities and Knights of Catan. Commodity card is the advanced card for some resources. Like resources, commodities are produced by hexes. Like resources, commodities can be stolen by robber. But, unlike resources, commodities are produced only by cities, not settlements. There are three commodities: Coin (the advanced card for rock), Paper (the advanced card for wood), and Cloth (the advanced card for sheep).
2. City improvement
You want to cultivate your city residents to have better knowledge and skills. That is why you need to have city improvements. You use commodities to improve your cities (not settlements). You will be benefited after your cities get improved. The city improvements come in five levels, and in three different categories. Each category of improvements requires a different commodity. Like reality, city improvements in Cities and Knights of Catan get harder when the level of the city improvement is higher. A higher level city improvement requires more commodity cards in that category. Whoever improves his cities to the third level will earn a special ability.
3. Fight against pirates
This part is fun. In this game, everyone needs to team up to defend pirates. Pirates attack the Catan island once a while during the game. You need to rely on others and others need to rely on you to protect the Catan island. If players fail to protect the Catan island. All players need to downgrade one of their cities. The city downgrade will return a dramatic loss. In the Cities and Knights of Catan, soldiers are replaced by knights. Unlike soldiers, knights need a consistent maintenance (you need to make sure your knights are strong). When you advance your city at some level, you will be able to acquire an ultimate knight.
4. Progress card
Progress card is another main addition in the Cities and Knights of Catan. Like commodities, progress cards are organized into three categories. Yellow progress cards are for commercial development. Green progress cards are for technological advancements. Blue progress cards are tricky. They allow for political moves or attacks. In Cities and Knights of Catan, there is a special dice called event dice. When a castle appears on the event die, progress cards of the corresponding type may be drawn depending on the value of the red die. Higher levels of city improvements increase the chance that progress cards will be drawn. When your city improvement is at the highest level, you can draw progress cards regardless of the value on the red die.
5. Merchant
Merchant works similarly as robber. But, unlike robber, merchant gives a beneficial power. Merchant meeple can only be deployed through the use of a Merchant progress card on a hex near a city or a settlement. The player with the control of the merchant can trade the resource of that type at a two-to-one rate, as if the player had a control of a corresponding two-to-one harbor. Merchant meeple gives the player 2 victory points. Merchant is a quite powerful and useful element. You will see how important merchant is and see how eager people are for merchant especially when the game approaches to the end.
At that night, I realized my skills for Cities and Knights of Catan were still at rookie level. Many advanced players were there. Axel and Antoine were quite good. They knew exactly what strategies were needed at each turn. Totof had a good card portfolio too. I think I need more practices.
