The coasts of Catan are menaced by neighbor countries. In this difficult war time, the King's Court is teeming with political activity. The leaders of Catan have to recruit large armies to defend inlands from robbers and provide protection to the border coasts, gain influence in the King's Court and develop the country by building roads, settlements and cities.
Your leadership may greatly benefit the Kingdom and eventually take you to the throne. Who will be the next King of Catan?
Setup
Remove the desert tile from the basic set. Place The Court tile in the center of the board.
Shuffle the remaining land tiles and place two rings around the Court tile (see enclosed Map file). This will give you a normal shaped Catan island. Harvors are distributed randomly and number tokens are placed in alphabetical order as in the basic Settlers game.
Do not place a number token on the Court tile. Place a "Soldier" token in every coastal intersection: start with the 10 violet tokens and moving clockwise 10 green tokens and finally 10 orange tokens.
The special cards "Longest Road", "Largest Army" and "Most Influence", and the Banner and Noble tokens are placed next to the game board. Leave the robber pawn outside the island until the first seven is rolled, then use it as usual.
New components
"The Court" hex: The court hex is located in the center of the map. The Court hex does not produce any resource. The players can send nobles to the dependence in Court in their color (see Special Rules below).
Noble tokens: There are 20 Noble tokens available. Once all tokens have been acquired it is not possible to recruit more Nobles.
"Most Influence" Card (enclosed influence.jpg file): The player with the largest number of Noble tokens in the Court gets the "Most Influence" card, which is worth two victory points.
"Foreign Soldier" tokens (30): 10 purple, 10 green and 10 orange tokens are placed surrounding the coast of Catan.
Banners (7): One in each foreign nation color (1, purple, 1 green, 1 orange) and 4 Tricolor. Each Banner is worth 1 victory point.
Special Rules
All rules are the same that in the basic Settlers game with the following exceptions:
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Initial Placement
During the initial construction turns, no player may place either of his/her two starting settlements or roads on an intersection that is occupied by a "foreign soldier" token. After the initial turns, it becomes possible to build settlements, roads and cities in those intersections.
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Taking Prisoners
When one of the road pieces connects to an intersection holding a foreign soldier this is taken prisoner and removed from the board. The number and color of the prisoners you take should be clearly visibly.
The first player that capture three prisoners in a given color win the Banner corresponding to that color, which is worth one victory point. If another player later captures a larger number of soldiers in that color, he/she takes the Banner away from the previous owner.
In addition, if a player has prisoners in all three colors, he/she wins one Tricolor Banner, which is also worth one victory point. Once obtained the Tricolor Banner cannot be lost.
A player can win Banners in different colors, but can posses only one Tricolor Banner. Several players can win a Tricolor Banner.
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Nobles And Court Influence
If at least one of the players' roads connect with one of the six intersection on the Court tile, he/she can then send Nobles to Palace by paying 1 wool and 1 grain card per noble (expensive clothes and maintenance).
Allocate the Nobles in the space in the Court corresponding to the player's color.
The first player that send three Noble tokens in the Court tile gets the "Most Influence" card, which is worth two victory points. If another player then allocates a larger number of Nobles in his/her space at the Court, he/she takes the card away from the previous owner. Only one player at a time can posses the "Most Influence" card.
End of the Game
The first player to accumulate 11 o more victory points during his/her turn immediately wins the game.
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