<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<channel>
	<title>Game: Cities and Knights of Catan, The - 5-6 Player Expansion</title>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4101</link>
	<language>en-us</language>
	<lastBuildDate>Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:58:44 -0500</lastBuildDate>
	<pubDate>Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:58:44 -0500</pubDate>
	<webMaster>aldie@boardgamegeek.com</webMaster>
	<description>BoardGameGeek features information related to the board gaming hobby</description><item>
	<title>Thread: Re: User Review</title>
	<description>I was thinking about writing a session report of my game last night, but your review sums it up nicely.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2398445#2398445</link>
	<pubDate>2008-06-16T04:32:46+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Demarryl</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		Cities and Knights at XL Friday night meeting - outdoor gaming &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic341139_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/341139</link>
	<pubDate>2008-06-09T10:48:30+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Bridyhelphelp</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Thread: Re: Could someone post the rules for this expansion.</title>
	<description>The only difference for the expansion is the following:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Special building phase:&lt;br&gt;-You must roll all three dice&lt;br&gt;-The results of the event die are resolved&lt;br&gt;-Progress cards may be drawn if allowed by the event die&lt;br&gt;-All players produce the resources indicated by the red and white dice&lt;br&gt;-You may then do any or all of the following in any order&lt;br&gt; +Trade resources or commodities with other players or with the bank&lt;br&gt; +Build roads, settlements, cities, knights, city walls, or city improvements&lt;br&gt; +Activate, promote and/or perform actions with your knights&lt;br&gt; +Play any number of progress cards&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;-Other players may participate in the Special building phase&lt;br&gt;-Pass the dice to the next player, who begins their turn. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;*During the Special Building Phase, all other players who are not currently taking their turn may build anything for which they have resources available in their hand. Other players may not do any of the following:&lt;br&gt;     ~Perform any actions with their knights&lt;br&gt;     ~Play any progress cards&lt;br&gt;     ~Make any trades with other players or with the bank&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;*Other players are allowed to:&lt;br&gt; &gt;Build roads, settlements, cities, knights, city walls, or city improvemtns&lt;br&gt; &gt;Activate or promote knights&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;*Additional important note, The original rules for the &quot;Settlers of Catan 5 &amp; 6&quot; expansion indicate that a player may purchase Development cards during the special building phase. Since the development cards are not used when playing Cities and Knights of Catan, this is no longer an option. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Knight Activation:&lt;br&gt;Normally, a knight may not perform any actions on the turn that it has been activated. However, a knight can be activated during the special building phase. Since the special building phase is the last part of a turn, the knight could then perform an action during it's controlling player's next turn. </description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2370306#2370306</link>
	<pubDate>2008-06-04T23:39:17+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>bluef0x</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Re: Could someone post the rules for this expansion.</title>
	<description>The extra building phase?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Hm… Come to think of it, I don't know that either. Are there any special rules apart from this?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;(First I thought this was a question for C&amp;K, not for just the 5-6 player expansion).</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2370135#2370135</link>
	<pubDate>2008-06-04T22:21:59+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Zimeon</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Re: Could someone post the rules for this expansion.</title>
	<description>&lt;b&gt;dcclark wrote:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;i&gt;Do you have any specific questions?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br&gt;What are the rule changes for playing cities &amp; knights with 5-6 players?</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2370017#2370017</link>
	<pubDate>2008-06-04T21:31:30+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>bonnyaclyde</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Re: Could someone post the rules for this expansion.</title>
	<description>Do you have any specific questions?</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2369966#2369966</link>
	<pubDate>2008-06-04T21:13:10+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>dcclark</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Re: Could someone post the rules for this expansion.</title>
	<description>Can't help you with a scan, but I can recite them here if you want to… though it'll take some time to write them down.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2369934#2369934</link>
	<pubDate>2008-06-04T21:03:53+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Zimeon</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Could someone post the rules for this expansion.</title>
	<description>I cannot find the rules for playing with this expansion could someone please post them or post a file with a scan of them?&lt;br&gt;Thanks in advance.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2369566#2369566</link>
	<pubDate>2008-06-04T19:16:22+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>bonnyaclyde</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		Land of Catan by Lunco &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic329195_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/329195</link>
	<pubDate>2008-05-03T22:21:32+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>handofachlys</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		Mayfair 4th Ed 5-6 Player Expansion Box Contents &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic325131_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/325131</link>
	<pubDate>2008-04-23T01:06:23+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>brassmatch</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Re: looking for scenario for 5-6 Cities &amp; Knights AND seafarers first time with teams</title>
	<description>......&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;I guess people don't really pay attention to the expansion message boards.  Frankly, dunno why I set mail notifications for C&amp;K 5/6 extension.  Still don't know how to play C&amp;K.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;I've 'replied' for the post on the Settlers board.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2160994#2160994</link>
	<pubDate>2008-03-16T05:32:49+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>ackmondual</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: looking for scenario for 5-6 Cities &amp; Knights AND seafarers first time with teams</title>
	<description>I'm trying to setup our first 5-6 C&amp;K game. I'd like to do it with seafarers as well, if we can find a good scenario. The basic C&amp;K instructions has notes on how to combine it with seafarers, it suggests not using scenarios with lots of island or unexplored areas, leaving the scenarios New Shores, Cross the Desert, and Greater Catan. The 5-6 expansion of Seafarers doesn't have New Shores, so that leaves Desert Crossing and Greater Catan.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;I think we're going to try a team variant as well, for 2 reasons: 1) one of the players hasn't played either expansion before, and 2) we're trying to even things out, we don't want someone stuck in a badly losing position for a long game, not having fun. The team variants suggest victory at 30pts/team, which is between the victory conditions of Desert Crossing and Greater Catan.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;We've never tried it, but I don't like the look of the Desert Crossing, it just doesn't look interesting. I'd like a scenario like New Shores for 5-6 players. I'm wondering if it's out there somewhere on one of the online playing systems.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Any suggestions?</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2159881#2159881</link>
	<pubDate>2008-03-15T15:17:17+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>briforge</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		4th Mayfair Boxfront &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic268842_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/268842</link>
	<pubDate>2007-11-15T19:48:30+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Aingeru</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Thread: Re: User Review</title>
	<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/thumbs-up.gif&quot; alt=&quot;thumbsup&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt; for using the word &lt;i&gt;quadratic&lt;/i&gt; in a review.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1764771#1764771</link>
	<pubDate>2007-10-05T04:35:22+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Leezer</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Thread: Re: Is the plastic version compatible with the wooden one?</title>
	<description>Thanks, guys.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1686448#1686448</link>
	<pubDate>2007-08-27T03:39:25+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>BrenoK</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Re: Is the plastic version compatible with the wooden one?</title>
	<description>I haven't played and 5-6 player Catan expansions, so I don't know what all it comes with.&lt;br&gt;Most of the game's components don't need to be uniform, so it shouldn't matter.  If the expansion comes with additional cards (I don't know whether it does or not) then this may be an issue if the cards are different sizes or have different backs.  You are not meant to be able to distinguish one card from another in an opponent's hand.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1685442#1685442</link>
	<pubDate>2007-08-26T13:27:48+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>MasterDinadan</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Re: Is the plastic version compatible with the wooden one?</title>
	<description>I suppose it they would be combatible. You would just have some different shaped knights out there. The cards too, if you have some older and much more used ones, will stand out to... but that doesn't matter.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;-DK</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1685435#1685435</link>
	<pubDate>2007-08-26T13:17:13+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>DKahnt</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Is the plastic version compatible with the wooden one?</title>
	<description>I recently posted here a few pictures of a different edition of this expansion, one with plastic bits, that a friend of mine brought for me from europe. (&lt;A target='_blank' href=&quot;http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/239948&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/239948&lt;/A&gt; &amp; &lt;A target='_blank' href=&quot;http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/239947&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/239947&lt;/A&gt;)&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;It's probably produced to be compatible with the Catan version with plastic bits.  I currently have only the basic game in the Mayfair edition, the one with wooden bits. (comparison shot: &lt;A target='_blank' href=&quot;http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/219984&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/219984&lt;/A&gt;)&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Since I've never played (and don't own: my friend made a mistake bringing this for me) the 5-6 player or the C&amp;K expansions, I ask you guys a question: do you see both versions being compatible?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Thanks</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1682317#1682317</link>
	<pubDate>2007-08-24T15:33:55+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>BrenoK</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		Another close-up of this different edition of the expansion. &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic239956_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/239956</link>
	<pubDate>2007-08-22T16:00:37+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>BrenoK</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		A close-up on the plastic pieces of this edition of the expansion &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic239948_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/239948</link>
	<pubDate>2007-08-22T15:44:59+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>BrenoK</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		It seems that this is a different (plastic-pieced) edition of this expansion &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic239947_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/239947</link>
	<pubDate>2007-08-22T15:43:46+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>BrenoK</dc:creator>
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	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		Set up for Catan with 7 players - see also file with more instructions in Catan - 5+6 players expansion &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic231935_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/231935</link>
	<pubDate>2007-07-24T09:59:12+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Luk Van Baelen</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		stickers &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic219504_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/219504</link>
	<pubDate>2007-06-10T22:20:41+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>ArtEmiSa64</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Image</title>
	<description>
		5 player game ending &lt;br&gt;
		&lt;img src="http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic197723_mt.jpg"&gt;
	</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/197723</link>
	<pubDate>2007-03-25T01:41:36+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Hertzog</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Thread: Re: To play Cities &amp; Knights 5/6 expansion, do you also requ</title>
	<description>Yes, you need the 5/6 expansion for Catan to play 5/6 C&amp;K.  The 5/6 expansion has the additional tiles for the larger board and the additional pieces for the 5th &amp; 6th players (roads, settlements).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If you play 5/6 C&amp;K, be prepared for a long game. Ours tend toward 3+ hours.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1396027#1396027</link>
	<pubDate>2007-03-18T02:39:02+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>ginn5j</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Thread: To play Cities &amp; Knights 5/6 expansion, do you also require </title>
	<description>To play the 5/6 player expansion for Cities and Knights Settlers, do you also need the 5/6 expansion for the basic set?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;That is, to play the 5/6 exp for C&amp;K, do you need:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;a) 3/4 Settlers basic + 3/4 Settlers C&amp;K + 5/6 C&amp;K exp&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;or do you need:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;b) 3/4 Settlers basic + 3/4 Settlers C&amp;K + 5/6 basic exp + 5/6 C&amp;K exp ?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Cheers,&lt;br&gt;Jon.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/1395996#1395996</link>
	<pubDate>2007-03-18T02:03:39+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>EYE of NiGHT</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: 5-Points-in-One-Turn Blow-Out Win ...</title>
	<description>Our group played Settlers of Catan Cities &amp; Knights with 6 players last night.  We played to 13 points and it was lots of fun.  It played out a bit differently than many of our previous games.  First, let me mention some of the house additions we make when we play.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;We set up a random board, so the water and land tiles are all intermixed.  We also add the gold tiles.  When a gold tile’s number is rolled, a settlement on it receives a gold chit.  These chits can then be used in trading only – either to other players or for card exchanges.  A gold chit can substitute for any card in an exchange (whether it’s 4:1, 3:1, or 2:1) – except that there must be at least one card turned in as well.  So with a 3:1 port, you could exchange a card and 2 gold chits for any other card.  Gold shits don't count against your hand size limit.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;We also add 2 jungle tiles and 2 volcano tiles, but these are also played differently than most of the published variants.  Both have numbers on them.  When their number is rolled, the red die is checked.  If the red die is odd, then jungles produce wheat and volcanoes produce brick.  If the red die is even, jungles produce wood and volcanoes produce rock.  There are no other effects and neither tile produces commodities.  If you have a city on one these, when rolled it simply produces one of each of its resources – no need to check the red die.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;With the set up we had last night, wheat was scarce.  There were no red numbers on wheat and only 2 players started with a settlement on wheat (one on a 4 and the other on a 10).  It took several rounds to get knights built and protect Catan from the barbarians, but somehow we managed (with several 4:1 trades).  In fact, the barbarians never reduced a city the entire game.  Slowly we crawled ahead until the scores stood at 8, 8, 7, 7, 6, &amp; 5.  A pretty close game – or so we thought.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;In one turn around the table, we rolled nothing but 4’s and 8’s.  These were big production numbers for the player to my left.  In that one round, she amassed a huge number of resources &amp; commodities – over 25 cards!  She managed to build 2 improvements with commodities, for 3 &amp; then 4 cards, thus getting 2 points for being the first to advance that far, and also built enough roads &amp; ships to take longest road – another 2 points.  She then converted a settlement to a city for another point.  One turn – 5 points.  She already had 8, so that put her at 13 and the victory.  The rest of us just sort of sat there in shock for a few moments.  And she still had enough cards left to build a settlement.  The whole game had been completed in just under two and a half hours.  Where are all those 7-rolls when you need them?&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/945195#945195</link>
	<pubDate>2006-06-08T12:51:33+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Leo-T</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: First victory!</title>
	<description>After several games of normal Catan, this was my first attempt at Cities and Knights, and with five players, at that. I had a fairly slow start, especially where city development was concerned, although I managed to churn out settlements reasonably quickly. One player, Ian, had managed to get himself a city on a 6 brick space and the brick port, and a city on a 6 on wood, so rapidly acquired the aqueduct, and drew ahead. He managed to hit 12 points before a concerted effort of one player to seize longest road, along with a barrage of attacks from progress cards and losing a city to the barbarians knocked him back down to nine. I failed to appreciate at the start of the game how important metropolises were, so got rather stuck on nine points, with longest road and all 3 metropolises hard to get, but a couple of lucky rolls made me decide to try and hit the Great Exchange first. I nearly made 9 cloth in one turn to go from level 3 to 5, but fell one short, so had to wait an agonising round during which two other players could have one before completing the build, and also using a spy card to steal a merchant, the extra VP being just enough for the win. The game finished very close - scores of 13, 12, 11, 11, 10, and lasted for three and a half hours, although it could have ended in half the time had Ian had a little more luck on 12VPs. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;I enjoyed the extra possibilities in Cities and Knights - I felt it added a lot more strategy, but with the disadvantage that the game was beginning to drag by the end - players were getting so many cards and so many options that each turn dragged on, and not being able to trade except on your own turn meant that there were a couple of occasions where I got a lot of cards, but couldn't get rid of them before the robber struck. I wouldn't play C&amp;K over normal settlers all the time, but will definitely play again.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/811082#811082</link>
	<pubDate>2006-02-19T20:00:53+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>bigfluffylemon</dc:creator>
</item><item>
	<title>Thread: SoC C&amp;K 5/6 Session</title>
	<description>Thanks for the session report. Three of us just played our first-ever game of C&amp;K on Tuesday. Our combined inexperience stretched the game to 3.5 hours, and ended only when we declared that our time limit had been reached (as it was then 1:00 in the morning on a &quot;work night&quot;). &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The game ended in a two-way tie (with me collecting the &quot;bronze medal&quot; in 3rd place), and the last ten minutes became a flurry of activity as we each angled to have the most victory points by the deadline. The &quot;lead&quot; changed hands four times in the last ten minutes before ending in a tie.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;We'll go at it hammer-and-tongs tomorrow night as I host two tables of SoC. One 5-6 player table for the basic game (plus Seafarers?) as many guests have never played before, and a smaller 3-4 player table for Cities &amp; Knights (plus Seafarers?).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/rock.gif&quot; alt=&quot;:what:&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;In retrospect, I could've written an entirely-separate Session Review...but I'd rather just give yours a bump and &quot;thumbs up&quot;.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/807211#807211</link>
	<pubDate>2006-02-16T17:20:21+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>aardball</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Special combination: Cities&amp;Knights+Seafarers+Desert Raiders</title>
	<description>Our weekly games night [in a beer pub called the “Beer Pub” where they have a fine selection of 100 beers, but I’m side tracking …&lt;img src=&quot;http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/soblue.gif&quot; alt=&quot;:soblue:&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;] we wanted to play SoC-Cities&amp;Knights, but were faced with a problem: 6 players and we only had the material for 3-4 players.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;So we had to do some improvising by building a big enough board by combining:&lt;br&gt;1. SoC 3-4 players&lt;br&gt;2. SoC Seafarers 3-4 players&lt;br&gt;3. Soc Cities&amp;Knights 3-4 players&lt;br&gt;4. SoC De Woestijnruiters [Dutch expansion kit – single scenario &gt; look in Seafarers section for The Desert Raiders] è includes 2 volcanoes&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;We shuffled all of the tiles and put them in the frame upside down. Then we turned the tiles face up and made sure:&lt;br&gt;- we had different islands&lt;br&gt;- deserts were distributed across the islands&lt;br&gt;- volcanoes and gold mountains were distributed&lt;br&gt;The number tokens were randomly distributed, making sure that no 2 reds [6 and 8] were adjacent. Both Pirate and Robber were used.&lt;br&gt;The Barbarians card was put next to the board so not integrated in the frame], but was used as this is key component of Cities&amp;Knights.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;For initial placement of settlements and cities we added the rule that these can be build on the gold mountain, nor on the volcano tiles.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;As a rule, ALL cities on ALL islands were counted when the Barbarians attack.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;All this building, re-arranging, discussing and agreeing on the “rules” only took us 45 minutes&lt;img src=&quot;http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/mad.gif&quot; alt=&quot;:angry:&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;At last we could start.&lt;br&gt;We quickly discovered that most of the players were not producing much in the beginning of the game:&lt;br&gt;- all of the desert tiles were used and 2 volcanoes and 2 gold mountains leaving fewer tiles that could produce&lt;br&gt;- initially nobody could build on the 2 volcanoes and gold mountains and as they happened to be in the middle of the islands, most players had 3-4 tiles that could produce for their initial settlement and city [typically one has 5-6 tiles that produce]&lt;br&gt;But after this slowisch start, more settlements and cities were build, so the game moved along.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;By the way, we also play the extra building phase slightly different to add a tactical element: our interpretation of the rules said that - because it's an &lt;b&gt;additional building phase&lt;/b&gt;, this would &lt;b&gt;only apply when the player did build something&lt;/b&gt;, hence allowing all other players to also build.  It does add an additional &quot;tactic&quot;: when you as active player notice that other players have too many cards, you can decide NOT to build, hence they can not build themselves ... leaving them with too many cards and the 1-in-6 risk of dice showing the terrible &quot;7&quot;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The end of the game was pretty dramatic as I learned a new rule [dear me &gt; I’m known in the gaming group as the one that knows the rules the best; they call me DaRulezMan&lt;img src=&quot;http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/arrr.gif&quot; alt=&quot;:arrrh:&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;].&lt;br&gt;In the extra building phase, I expanded my city and that got me a Metropole and the required 13 points. So I declared myself the WINNER!&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Another player [GGRRRMBBLL!&lt;img src=&quot;http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/devil.gif&quot; alt=&quot;:devil:&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;] noted that the rules state that you win when you have 13 points and it’s your turn. As it wasn’t my turn [I used the extra building phase to get my 13 points], I could not win. Obviously, all players joined forces and were able to steal some VPs from me. In the end, I still won after a few rounds having 13 VPs in my turn.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;All in all an interesting night: it took us 3.5 hours to finish the game but we all enjoyed it.&lt;br&gt;Cities&amp;Knights is still my favourite game and every opportunity to play it is welcomed.&lt;br&gt;</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/806827#806827</link>
	<pubDate>2006-02-16T10:32:58+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Luk Van Baelen</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: First try at Cities/Knights, 5 players</title>
	<description>Winfield Gamers met at Brandon S.'s house for a six-player throwdown on Brandon's newly acquired C and K expansion.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Playing were three of the four standard Gamer couples: Brandon and Donelle S, Matt and Andrea B, and Jason and Jamie H. Andrea went home early, leaving a five player game.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Setup was varied since the numbers were spread around. No one ever got much of a handle on any resource, although 6 and 8 didn't roll nearly as often as they should. Jason jumped to an early lead with the longest road, having collected and spent several brick/wood combos to build all fifteen roads. Donelle made good several trades to acquire two additional cities. Brandon was the most successful with progress cards, using the merchant several times, building roads, and getting 2:1 trades on anything. Matt started slowly, but quickly collected several commodities to reach level four on Trade and Science, and a metropolis on Politics. Jamie's 6 and 8 failed to produce like they should have, but she also achieved metropolis on Trade; however, Brandon took it later.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Notable events:&lt;br&gt;-Brandon used the Spy to take Jason's Wedding card, then collected 8 cards that built a city and several knights.&lt;br&gt;-Donelle gained two &quot;defender of catan&quot; VP cards by consistently having the strongest knights/army when the barbarian attacked.&lt;br&gt;-The robber failed to cause anyone to lose 1/2 of their cards.&lt;br&gt;-The barbarian was deflected every time except the first time.&lt;br&gt;-Donelle got both VP progress cards on the last go-round.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Final&lt;br&gt;Donelle 13&lt;br&gt;Matt 12&lt;br&gt;Brandon/Jason 9&lt;br&gt;Jamie 8&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Donelle's second win ever! (pretty good for a Reluctant Gamer only a month ago)&lt;br&gt;</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/609534#609534</link>
	<pubDate>2005-09-03T06:44:22+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>jasonhibbs</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Session Report</title>
	<description>What would be played for &quot;C&quot; week?  We had almost 50 games to choose from, but with 5 players many options dropped by the wayside.  Dave, Sterling, Carrie, and Jeff gathered at Rich's house for Wednesday's gaming session.  Looking at the options, Cities and Knights of Catan became the consensus choice and we launched into this version of the Catan family.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;C&amp;K tweaks the base game of settlers by adding commodities (gold, paper, cloth) to the base resources (ore, wood, sheep, etc) from the base game.  These commodities can be used to enhance one's cities which in turn brings additional benefits and eventually victory points.  As might be guessed from the title, the other change is in the knights.  No longer cards, they are figures that can be deployed on the board to help protect roads and building sites.  But most importantly, the knights protect Catan from the barbarians that will destroy cities if the there are not enough knights to defend Catan.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;With 5 players, we knew it would be a bit of a longish game.  The board set-up hinted at what was to come as the distribution of numbers and resources was very bipolar.  As a result, the prime spots were picked for settlements quickly leaving very little choice for Rich and Jeff as the 4th and 5th player.  As the second placement is a city, the initial city placements weren't very favourable either.  An added insult was that the remaining &quot;not as bad as that one&quot; hexes for city placement tended to favour just resources not the commodities needed for city enhancements.  But everyone managed to find a spot to place their city and the game began.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;And how it began.  The first two times around the table, we rolled quite a few 6's, even rolling 6 several times in a row.  Rich had a city next to a 6 mountain, so was collecting ore and gold hand over fist.  The gold was quickly used to upgrade his city 3 levels (spending 1, then 2, then 3 gold cards).  But it was Sterling who managed to gain wheat (which was in short supply early on) to upgrade his first settlement into a city.  Each city on the map adds to the barbarians strength (which is the total of the cities on the board) so the need for knights was obvious.  Everyone chipped in with knight development so that by the time the Barbarians did land, there were 9 knights on the board defending 6 cities.  No one person had the strongest knight, so 4 players shared a development card as a reward.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Sterling managed to use the SPY card to take a peek at Rich's development cards and took the MEDICINE card which allows a settlement to be upgraded to a city for 1 less wheat and 1 less ore than normal.  The use of the WEDDING card gave Sterling cards from Dave and Carrie and sufficient resources to use the stolen MEDICINE card.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;By this time, the second wave of Barbarians hit the shore and were again repulsed by Catan's army.  This time, though Rich had the strongest knight and received 1 victory point as defender of Catan. Scores at this point were close with everyone at 6 points except Jeff who was at 5 points which included longest road which Jeff had captured by playing 4 road segments to connect his settlement and city with an 11 segment road.  With such a move, it was very unlikely anyone was going to invest to get these 2 victory points from Jeff.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Dave added a few more settlements to get to 8 victory points.  Rich upgraded his city to a metropolis for 2 victory points to get to 8 also.  Sterling developed his metropolis to reach 8 victory points. At this point we were about 2 hours into the game, and as can be seen everyone was progressing rather uniformly.  A bit more play of the game and we had Jeff and Rich at 9 victory points (Jeff having built settlements and cities along his road) while Dave and Sterling were at 9 points and Carrie at 6 points.  The fourth Barbarian attack gave Rich another Victory Point for 10 while Jeff gained the Merchant for an additional point for 10 points.  Dave captured the third metropolis to give him 10 victory points while Sterling added another city for his 10th victory point.  Now we were at 3 hours into the game and with the ending condition of 13 points, we wondered how long we would go on.  Especially as development had slowed to a crawl in a quagmire of limited resources and commodities.  So we adopted &quot;sudden death overtime&quot; wherein the next victory point would win the game (ie play to 11 points).  Dave was the person who managed to do this ending our unintended mini-marathon for &quot;C&quot;&lt;br&gt;week.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Looking back, the resources just were not coming out when needed.  We definately went through gluts of a resource while others were deficit. I remember having 10 brick in my hand at one point (and little else) while I think Dave had a handful of sheep (or was it wood) at another point.  The C&amp;K expansion does add more stuff going on in the game, but it also results in a very level playing field - either that or our playing styles are so simlar we tend to do the same things at the same time.  We were attacked 4 times by the barbarians, but repulsed them each time.  I don't know how much longer the game might have gone if the barbarians started destroying cities...or perhaps that would have let one person sprint into a bit of a lead by having a bit of an advantage in resources/commodities.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;I have managed to play each of the flavours of the Catan lineage.  But I have yet to combine C&amp;K with Seafarers, and really question if I would want to.  From my own personal style, I have begun to suspect that 4 players is about right for Catan games.  One thing that does happen with 5 (or 6 players) is that all can build after each trading round.  While there are modest restrictions (can't trade with the bank or utilize harbors, etc) this does allow everyone to get stuff on the board.  In our game, it meant that all knights were established and activated fairly quickly.  With 4 and limited opportunities to build, this might not be so easy and add a new dynamic to the game.  That said, I have a warm fuzzy with the Catan series.  As a late comer to the games, I don't have the passionate adoration for the games that others have.  As a result, I don't necessarily want to play them on a frequent basis.  Two or three times a year seems about just right for these games. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;So ends our &quot;C&quot; week.  More choices than the previous week, but in the end only 1 game played (or less than the previous week's 4 games).  Next week will be &quot;D&quot; which I suspect will be a bit more limited in options.  Hope to see everyone again next Wednesday.&lt;br&gt;</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/79779#79779</link>
	<pubDate>2005-01-25T13:38:08+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>RPardoe</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: User Review</title>
	<description>OK. Since no one else reviewed this, I will. I don't expect that this review will garnish any rewards (hoping for at least a 1.5), but here goes.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;If you are reading this, you have already played:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;- Settlers of Catan. 'Nuff said.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;- Settlers of Catan 5-6 player expansion. Did you like it? I didn't. Settlers is a perfectly long enough game, and with three or four players, there is just the right amount of trading and time spent on each turn. With 5-6 players, not only is there more time between each player's turn, it becomes trivially easy to convince someone to trade with you, there is too much chaos, the board arrangement is unequally seeded, and the extra building phase between turns creates chaos, rules problems (can I win if it's not my turn? why can't I use my port?), and an awkward turn structure. It is also longer. And less elegant.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;OTOH, some people like it, because it lets more people play their favorite game at the same time. More power to 'em.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;- Cities and Knights. Again, some people like it. I certainly did for a year or more. But read the reviews for C&amp;K and you can also see some of the problems: much longer, much harder to catch up, rich get richer, less elegant, etc... Still more interesting and a change of pace. In my opinion, add a rule that the game ends when the winning player is six points ahead of the losing player, and don't forget to add the now official rule that 7's are ignored until the barbarian hits for the first time.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Which brings us to C&amp;K 5-6 plr expn. If you already know the above, then you should know the following: this expansion quadratically combines all of the worst facets of all of the above, and linearly the best facets of the all of the above.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Which is to say:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;- The game is freaking long, man. We played 5 1/2 hours, once. Other games were on the order of 4 hours. This is for a gaming group that takes 60 - 90 minutes for Settlers, 120 minutes for C&amp;K.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;- The turn order, rich get richer, and less elegant problems are much more pronounced, especially if you are in last place. It's one thing to be in last place in a 60 - 90 minute game. It sucks to be in last place in a 120 minute game. Being in last place in a 4 - 5.5 hour game is like being forced to read aloud The Americans by Henry James to a class of 11th grade dope users while being hit in the back of the head by spitballs. &quot;Unpleasant&quot; would be my word of choice. And I know whereof I speak (actually, no, I don't).&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Still, if you would rather grin weakly for five hours eating Cheetoes and hanging out at your game group, than return to your unpleasantly cold and bare bachelor pad for another night of tater tots, David Letterman, and thumbed-through Victoria Secret's catelogues, then ... uh ... try to convince them to play Acquire.</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/67851#67851</link>
	<pubDate>2004-11-28T14:42:18+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Shade_Jon</dc:creator>
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	<title>Thread: Session Report</title>
	<description>To start the night, at Mike M's request we decided to play Cities and Knights of Catan.  After setting everything up for a 4-player game, Devon arrived, so we decided instead to play with 5.  Mark had never played before so after a quick rules run-through we began.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Playing with 5 players on a small gameboard is not something that I'd want to do again... I was cut off almost immediately by Jason and Mark.  Then Mark got himself trapped between the ocean and the desert when Mike started building roads.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;The pirates hit quickly and both Mark and I lost our initial cities.  Neither of us recovered.  Devon and Jason got some very good production rolls early in the game (I don't think that an 8 was rolled until well into the game and I had towns on both of them!)&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Longest road changed hands only twice because of the crowded map and ended up with Devon, which gave him enough for the win.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Final scores:&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Devon   12&lt;br&gt;Mike M   9&lt;br&gt;Jason   8&lt;br&gt;Mark   4&lt;br&gt;Jim   4&lt;br&gt;</description>
	<link>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/6775#6775</link>
	<pubDate>2003-03-09T05:16:08+00:00</pubDate>
	<dc:creator>Jim_P</dc:creator>
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