City walls

Cities & Knights (Kosmos Edition) City Wall on a Metropolis

City Walls defend the people of Catan in the cities from the production card limit of the Robber. The City Wall is both a component in Catan: Cities & Knights and a stand-alone variant from Atlantis.

Story

Fair People of Catan, you and your cities are prospering, yet the Robber continues to cause problems again and again. Therefore, protect your cities (and your resources) by building City Walls!

Cities & Knights rules

Cities & Knights
(Mayfair Edition) City Wall

City Walls reduce your vulnerability to card losses when a "7" is rolled. They have no other effect. To build a City Wall, you must pay two brick resources. The City Wall is placed under any city you own on the board. There are three restrictions on the placement of City Walls:

• You may only build City Walls under cities and metropolises, never settlements.
• You may only build one City Wall under each city or metropolis.
• You may never have more than three City Walls at a time.

Each City Wall that you control increases the maximum number of cards you may keep in your hand if a "7" is rolled on the Production Dice. Each wall adds 2 cards to this limit.

Example: If you have two cities, each with a City Wall, you may safely hold up to 11 production cards in your hand without having to discard half of them when a "7" is rolled.

If the your city is pillaged in a Barbarian Invasion (i.e., reduce it to a settlement), then the City Wall is also destroyed. You must remove the City Wall from the board (but not the game).

Barbarian Defenders variant

A common variant on the standard Cities & Knights City Walls rules gives City Walls a second function. In addition to defending against a roll of "7", the City Wall may act as the only loss if a city is pillaged during a Barbarian Invasion. If a city with a City Wall is pillaged, simply remove the City Wall from the board (but not the game). The city remains standing.

This variant is meant more for beginners to Cities & Knights rather than advanced players since the cities are pillaged much less often than when following the normal rules.

"The City Walls" variant rules

Atlantis City Wall

Setup the game as usual (regardless of the scenario). Place the 7 city walls (non-colored) to the side of the board.

The game is played using the standard rules with the following additions:

City Walls – Normally, when a player rolls a "7" and a player has more than seven production cards in their hand, they must forfeit half (rounding up) of the production cards to the bank. A City Wall protects players by raising the amount of cards they can hold by 2 (per wall).

• A City Wall costs 2 Brick resource cards.
• Only one City Wall may be built per turn.
• A City Wall must be built beneath a city. After purchasing a City Wall, place the City Wall disk under the city piece.
• Each City Wall cumulatively raises the hand limit of the player by 2 production cards. Therefore, with one City Wall, a player may hold 9 production cards; two City Walls, 11 production cards; etc.
• City Walls may be built as long as they are available in the supply.
• If a player loses a city, they also lose the City Wall (if this variant is played with another variant or scenario, such as in The Volcano).

The first player to reach 11 or more Victory Points wins the game.