CATAN – The Legend of the Conquerors Developer Blog Series – Part 4
Before you lies the northwest of Catan.
Each player has already built two settlements and one city. You know that the first conquerors will soon land on the sea hexes marked with landing markers.
The invaders won’t waste any time to penetrate into the interior of the island to conquer the northwest of Catan. That won’t be difficult for them because the conquerors are in the majority.
Your shared task is to resist the intruders as long as possible and prevent them from conquering more than seven hexes with number tokens (in a three-player game) and more than 10 hexes with number tokens (in a four-player game).
Each player receives two personal overview cards – one describes the conditions for a player’s victory (or the defeat of everyone), and the other describes the “Attack of the Barbarians” event, “The Conquerors Land” event, and “The Conquerors Advance” event.
When will the conquerors will put an end to your placid life as settlers? Don’t worry – you will first have time to spread out in the northwest of Catan by building roads, settlements, and cities and to build and promote new knights.
Don’t forget: The more knights you have, the stronger they are, and the better you work together to coordinate your knights with the other players, the greater your chance to defy the conquerors.
The Chapter 1 Tile determines when the conquerors arrive. If you roll a ship on the event die, move the barbarian ship to the next space, just as in Cities & Knights. If you move the ship to a space showing a double-sided ax, a battle ensues according to the “Attack of the Barbarians” event you’re already familiar with from Cities & Knights.
While the conquerors seek to defeat and overtake Catan, the barbarians only want to plunder your cities and make off with the loot. Unfortunately, we will not save you from having to face two enemies: the barbarians and the conquerors, but we are convinced that you can do it.
The conquerors land on Catan in four waves, and in each wave they are stronger. If you move the barbarian ship to a space depicting a purple flag, the conquerors land and you must place a conqueror on each hex marked with a landing marker. When the barbarian ship moves to the space with a “2” flag, you conquerors of strength “2.” When the ship moves to the space with a “3” flag, place conquerors of strength “3,” and so forth.
Needless to say, the conquerors don’t calmly remain on their landing hexes. When you move the barbarian ship to a “The Conquerors Advance” event space, you advance each conqueror one hex. The direction in which you move the conquerors is determined by means of the directional die and the directional token.
For the left conqueror shown in the picture, a yellow sword was rolled. According to the direction of the yellow sword depicted on the directional token, you’d move that conqueror straight ahead. From left to right, you then also move the other conquerors in the direction indicated by the swords on the directional token, depending on whether the red, yellow, or green sword was rolled on the directional die.
If you move a conqueror to a hex with a number token, that hex is conquered, and you must turn its number token over. If you move it to a hex that is occupied by one or more knights, a battle ensues. In my next blog post, I’ll let you know how to wage such a battle.
