Catan: Cities & Knights - Barbarian Attacks

Barbarian Attacks

Cities and Knights introduces a third die, known as the event die, which serves two functions. The first applies to the concept of barbarians, a periodic foe that all players must work together to defend against. Three of the sides of the event die have a picture of a ship on them. The other three sides have a symbol of a city gate, allowing players who have sufficiently built up a city to obtain progress cards (see below).

The barbarians are represented by a ship positioned on a track representing the distance between the ship and Catan (i.e. the board). Each time the event die shows a black ship, the barbarian ship takes one step closer to Catan. When the barbarians arrive at Catan, a special phase is immediately performed before all other actions (including collecting resources). In this special phase, the barbarians' attack strength, corresponding to the combined number of cities and metropolises held by all players, is compared to Catan's defense strength, corresponding to the combined levels (i.e. 1 point for each basic, 2 for each strong, and 3 for each mighty) of all activated knights in play.

If the barbarians are successful in their attack (if they have a strength greater than Catan), then the players must pay the consequence. The player(s) who had the least defense will be attacked, and will have one city reduced to a settlement. If they only have settlements, or metropolises, then they are immune to barbarians. In that case, the next player or players who had the least defense will be attacked.

Should Catan prevail, the player who contributes the most to Catan's defense receives a special Defender of Catan card, worth a victory point. Regardless of the outcome, all knights are immediately deactivated, and the barbarian ship returns to its starting point on the track. In the event of a tie among the greatest contributors of knights, none of the tied players earn a Defender of Catan card. Instead, each of the tied players draw a progress card (explained below) of the type of their choosing. There are 6 Defender of Catan cards.

As the likelihood of having the barbarian move closer to Catan is very high, a variant in common usage is that the robber (and with Seafarers, the pirate) does not move until the first barbarian attack, nor can a knight move the robber before that point.

Examples where cities are lost:

1. Player A has 3 cities and 1 active strong knight. Player B has 1 city and 2 active basic knights. Player C has 2 cities and 1 active basic knight. When the barbarians attack, player C will lose one of his cities, because the attack strength (6 cities) is greater than all knights combined (5 knights).
2. Player A has 3 cities and 2 active basic knights. Player B has 1 city, which is a metropolis, and no active knights. Player C has 2 cities and 1 active mighty knight. Player B's city is a metropolis, and metropolises cannot be destroyed by the barbarians, so Player A loses a city because they have the next fewest number of active knights.
3. Player A has 2 cities and 2 active basic knights. Player B has 3 cities and 1 active strong knight. Player C has 2 cities and 2 active basic knights. All players will lose a city, because they all tie in the number of knights activated, and the barbarian attack strength (7 cities) is greater than number of active knights (6 knights).
4. Player A has 3 cities and 1 active mighty knight and 1 active basic knight. Player B has 2 cities, which both are metropolises, and 1 active basic knight. Player C has 1 city, which is a metropolis, and no active knights. First in line to lose a city is player C, but because his city is a metropolis we need to look at the person next in line. This would be player B, but the same applies for him: he has activated only 1 knight, but both of his cities are metropolises. This leaves player A to lose a city.