Game 118: Cities and Knights of Catan

 

Cities and Knights of Catan is an expansion to Settlers of Catan.  It's been on our shelves for a LONG time (probably as long ago as 1998 when it first came out), but it's also been a long time since we played it; it's probably been over a decade at this point.  Normally if we're going in this "direction," we just grab the original Catan off the shelf.  I do remember playing this one quite a bit, though, in the early days, especially with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law Tony and Stacey.  I think this expansion is a very nice addition to the original game, but over the years David has tended to get more and more tired of extra complication, which is probably part of why we haven't played this in a long time.  Of course we have lots of other options of games to play too, so it's not JUST that.  Among the things this expansion adds are knights (and I've always been one for chivalry, so I'm all about that!) and barbarians and walled cities.  The initial set-up is almost identical to the original game, except that there is Barbarian Tile and Barbarian Ship that need to be included in the initial layout.  Other new elements come in as the game goes on.
Instead of Development Cards there are Progress Cards, which come in three types.

Along with Resource Cards (wood, brick, wheat, sheep, ore), there are also Commodity Cards (paper, cloth, coin).

Also, unlike the original game in which you build settlements and cities, in this expansion you are actually developing or "improving" your cities with such things as a market, a fortress, an aqueduct, a counting house, etc.  There is a cost involved in building, of course, but there is also pay off, as some of these improvements provide special benefits depending on the roll of the dice.  Being the first to build to a certain level provides the advantage of a metropolis (of which there are only three in the game).  Each player has a flip book as a reference for all of the above.

It's kind of crazy how the board came together for this particular gaming session.  We always set it up randomly, and we ended up with a situation in which the 6s were next to each other, both on ore hexes, and very near a 2-for-1 ore port.  I got to go first and decided to place my first settlement on the intersection of those hexes nearest the ore port. 

As much as I hoped they would let me go for it, of course my opponents didn't allow that 2-for-1 ore port to remain open for me!

I had a very hard time throughout the game getting wheat; look at all that wheat way over there in the west!  I was the first person to get a knight in play and to start leveling up, but I got quite boxed-in and ended up with very limited options, which got a bit frustrating.

I did manage to get a walled city (red with the flat block under it), but Caleb is the only one who got a metropolis (blue with yellow).  I think he ended up with two of them.

The board was rather full near the end, which makes sense with four players.

Playing this for the first time in over a decade was a bit of a mixed bag for me.  I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Catan in general.  It is definitely a modern classic that can be a ton of fun to play, but it's also possible for one or more players to get really stuck and unable to get resources, and the game can end up going very long.  It's tough to sit there for hours unable to really be part of the game.  It just seems to depend on the day and on the set up.  I don't tend to be a sore loser or a poor sport no matter what, but I can get more than a little frustrated when a game goes on for 2 hours with me being unable to do anything at all!  Overall Catan (in all its forms) is GREAT, and the above isn't always a problem, just sometimes.

This particular session ended up taking nearly 3 hours, and I was somewhat stuck for much of that time, so it wasn't thrilling, but it was still pretty fun.  I've really come to enjoy playing Double Catan, where you have two versions of the original game set up and two games are being played simultaneously, each player having a partner on the other board.  When a 2 or a 12 are rolled the player rolling one of those numbers and his or her partner switch places.  That provides some variety, and if you're stuck on one board you at least have a chance to potentially have some success on the other board!