Cities & Knights Strategy Guide: How to Win with Knights, Commodities & Progress Cards

Cities & Knights Is a Different Game

The base game of Catan rewards efficient expansion: grab good numbers, build settlements, race to 10 points. Cities & Knights keeps that engine but bolts a second one on top. Now the barbarians are coming for your cities, three new commodities drive powerful upgrades, and the finish line moves to 13 victory points. Players who treat it like "base Catan with extra steps" get run over. This guide breaks down how the pieces fit together and how to build a winning plan.

Want to try everything below in a live game? You can play Cities & Knights free on Settlr in your browser — no download required.

The Commodity Economy

In Cities & Knights, cities no longer just double your resource output. Each city sitting on a hill, mountain, or forest also produces a commodity:

Commodities do only one thing, but it is a big thing: they buy city improvements. That means the value of a city is no longer just "two resources" — it is "one resource plus one commodity toward an upgrade track." A city on ore is now doubly valuable, because ore is scarce and coins unlock the strongest track in the game.

City Improvements: Trade, Politics, Science

There are three improvement tracks, each fed by one commodity:

• Trade (Cloth) — better trading and economy. Unlocks the Trading House (2:1 on any resource) and eventually the Merchant Fleet.
• Politics (Coin) — military and disruption. Unlocks stronger knights and defensive progress cards.
• Science (Paper) — building and tempo. Unlocks the Aqueduct (never miss a resource) and the Crane (cheaper improvements).

Each track has five levels. Reaching level 3 lets you draw progress cards from that deck when the event die shows the matching symbol. Reaching level 4 builds a Metropolis.

Metropolises Are Worth Chasing

A Metropolis is worth 2 victory points and turns one of your cities into a fortified capital that can never be reduced by barbarians. Only one Metropolis per track exists on the board at a time — if an opponent reaches level 5 in a track where you hold the level-4 Metropolis, they steal it from you. That tension is the heart of the expansion: commit to a track early enough to claim its Metropolis, but watch for rivals sprinting past you.

A common winning line is two Metropolises (4 VP) plus a healthy city count. Science and Politics are the most popular pairing, because Science accelerates your whole board while Politics keeps your knights strong.

Knights: Your Standing Army

Knights are the second engine. You hire a knight for one ore and one wool, then activate it with one grain before it can do anything. Activated knights let you:

1. Defend Catan from barbarian attacks.
2. Chase the robber away without rolling a 7.
3. Displace an opponent knight to disrupt their roads and board position.

Knights come in three strengths — Basic, Strong, and Mighty — and you promote them with ore and wool. A Mighty Knight is expensive but contributes 3 strength to the defense and can shove weaker knights around the map.

The trap new players fall into: hiring knights and never activating them. An inactive knight is a lawn ornament. It does not defend, cannot move, and counts for nothing when the barbarians land.

The Barbarian Attack

Every roll includes a black event die. When the ship shows, the barbarian ship advances one step; on the seventh ship, the barbarians attack. At that moment the game compares the total strength of all activated knights against the number of cities on the board.

• If the knights win, the player who contributed the most strength earns the Defender of Catan progress card, and repeat winners collect a Victory Point for it.
• If the barbarians win, the player with the fewest contributed knights loses a city — it is downgraded back to a settlement.

This changes your incentives completely. You cannot ignore defense to turtle on economy, because the barbarians target the least-prepared player, and losing a city costs you a point, a commodity source, and tempo all at once. Conversely, always being the top defender is a legitimate path to extra points.

Progress Cards

Progress cards replace development cards. You draw them by reaching level 3+ in a track and rolling the matching event-die symbol. They range from resource swaps and free roads to powerful plays like the Bishop (move the robber and steal from everyone next to it) and the Constitution/Printer cards, which are permanent points. Hold disruptive cards for the right moment — a well-timed Diplomat or Saboteur can swing the game.

Putting It Together: A Game Plan

1. Open toward commodities. In setup you place a city first, so prioritize ore and a commodity-producing hex. Ore-heavy starts are strong because coins fuel Politics and ore promotes knights.
2. Get one improvement track to level 3 quickly to start drawing progress cards. Science is the safest first investment thanks to the Aqueduct.
3. Keep at least one active knight up at all times once the barbarian ship is halfway across. Being caught with zero active knights on an attack is how you lose your first city.
4. Commit to two Metropolis tracks by mid-game. Four points from Metropolises plus consistent defending gets you most of the way to 13.
5. Use knights offensively when you are ahead on defense — displacing an opponent knight to break their longest road is often worth more than one more point of your own.

Common Mistakes

• Hoarding inactive knights. Activate before an attack, not after.
• Spreading across all three tracks. You rarely have the commodities to win three races. Pick two.
• Ignoring the event die. Track the barbarian ship every turn so an attack never surprises you.
• Forgetting the robber moved. In C&K a strong knight can chase the robber for free — use it.

Ready to Command Your Knights?

Cities & Knights rewards planning three moves ahead, and the only way to internalize it is to play. Start a free Cities & Knights game on Settlr against friends or bots and put this plan to work. For more fundamentals, read our guide to placing your first two settlements and the numbers every player should know.