Knights & Barbarians

What changes from the classic game

• First to 13 victory points wins.
• There are no development cards and no Largest Army. Progress cards replace them.
• Your second opening placement is a city, not a settlement.
• A city on forest, pasture or mountains produces 1 resource plus 1 commodity: paper from forest, cloth from pasture, coin from mountains. Cities on other tiles still produce 2 resources. Commodities can be traded and stolen like any card.
• Every roll includes an event die. A ship moves the barbarians a step closer. A city gate lets players with that city improvement draw a progress card.

The barbarians

After 7 ships the barbarians land. Their strength is the number of cities on the island. The island's defence is the combined level of every active knight.

• If the island holds: the player with the most active knight strength is named Defender of the Isle and scores a point. If players tie, each draws a progress card.
• If it falls: whoever contributed the least knight strength (and owns a city) loses a city, which drops back to a settlement. Metropolises are safe.

Then every knight stands down and the fleet starts sailing again. Until the first landing the robber stays on the desert, and a 7 only makes people discard.

Knights and walls

Action	Costs	What it does
Raise a knight	1 sheep, 1 ore	A basic knight on an empty corner your roads reach. Knights block other players' roads.
Activate	1 wheat	Only active knights defend the island or take actions.
Promote	1 sheep, 1 ore	Basic to strong to mighty. Mighty needs Politics level 3.
Move or chase the robber	free	An active knight rides your roads to a new corner, or chases the robber off a tile it touches. Either way it stands down.
City wall	2 brick	You can hold 2 more cards when a 7 is rolled. Up to 3 walls.

City improvements and metropolises

There are three improvement tracks, each paid for in one commodity. Level 1 costs 1 commodity, level 2 costs 2, and so on up to level 5. You need a city to improve.

• Trade (cloth): at level 3, a trading house lets you swap commodities 2 for 1 with the bank.
• Politics (coin): at level 3, a fortress lets you promote strong knights to mighty.
• Science (paper): at level 3, an aqueduct gives you a resource on any roll that gives you nothing else.

The first player to reach level 4 on a track raises that track's metropolis on one of their cities, worth 2 extra points. Reaching level 5 first takes it from a player who is still on 4. The AI rivals take losing a metropolis about as well as you'd expect.

Progress cards

Hold up to 4 and play any number on your turn after rolling. They include Road Building, Irrigation, Mining, Smith, Engineer, Printer, Resource Monopoly, Trade Monopoly, Merchant Fleet, Master Merchant, Warlord, Bishop, Constitution, Wedding, Spy and Saboteur. Printer and Constitution score a point the moment you draw them.