so you’ve played Settlers of Catan now and you’re looking for something more challenging, even more invigorating… is it even possible?

why yes it is, settlers of catan: cities and knights – takes all the brilliance, variety, strategy and intrigue of Settlers and then sends it up a notch (or a couple of notches)

there are a bunch of expansion packs for settlers of catan and i haven’t tried them all (heard too many disparaging remarks about seafarers to even warrant trying it) but for me cities and knights stands shoulders above them all – takes the basic game that is Settlers and adds a bunch of new dimensions to it so instead of just collecting resources (brick, wheat, ore, wood, sheep), when your city is touching a card whose number gets rolled you can now pick up the commodities of coin (ore),book (wood), and cloth (sheep) which allow you to improve your cities and add a range of new special effects and bonuses.

but that’s not all, you had better build up your knight population and make sure they are activated (i guess they make bread from the wheat which keeps them active) for when that barbarian ship attacks the land – a successful defence could see you one victory point closer to victory, but being the weakest defender in a failed defence could see one of your cities being downgraded to a settlement – a huge backward step in the game…

settlers is a great game with maybe two or three strategies which will hopefully lead you to victory, if the are accompanied by good settlement placement and favourable dice… but cities is so great cos once again you have a game board which changes every game but now there are a bunch of different strategies to pursue, while being aware of what those around you are trying to do and so requires a lot more careful strategy and plotting…

once you’ve played cities and knights, you will struggle to return to just basic settlers so if you’ve never played it, do yourself a favour…

to see my next review of the very cool Carcossane game click here