The Battle Progress Card deck is a fourth type of progress card deck, introduced in Legend of the Conquerors. It is used alongside the three introduced in the base Cities & Knights expansion.
Appearance
As with all card decks, English and international cards are different in size, with English size using the bespoke “Catan size” (54mm x 80mm) cards and international sets using the mini European size cards (43mm x 67mm). The card backs are also different between English and international sets, with international sets using a red-tinted version of the standard progress card back, while English sets using a back that shares the same art used in “Free All of Catan!”. Because of its appearance in international sets, battle progress cards are sometimes known by their color as the red progress cards.
Gameplay
Unlike the other progress card decks, battle progress cards are unrelated to the development of city improvements. Instead, they are purchased, like development cards in the base game, whenever a “Wyler’s Help” event is resolved. Once purchased, they are treated no differently from any other Progress Card in a player’s possession.
Aegis the Naval Heroine: This card can only be played once the barbarian ship is rolled on the event die. The barbarian ship does not move, and the player to move takes a Defender of Catan card, while all other players take either 1 Amber token or 1 Wine token from the supply.
The rules do not specify what happens if both the amber and wine tokens in the supply are exhausted.
Archers: In “Stop the Conquerors!”, this card is used to negate the movement of any single Conqueror whenever the “The Conquerors Advance” event resolves. In “Free All of Catan!”, this card is used to the removal of knights adjacent to any one Fort whenever the “Charge of the Conquerors” event resolves.
This card may be played on any player’s turn, not just a player’s own turn.
Cavalry Leader Dagur: This card allows a single knight to temporarily gain 1 strength rating for the purposes of removing a single Conqueror or Fort from the board.
Once the Conqueror or Fort is removed from the board, the temporary strength boost expires.
Note that this card can be played on a knight either already in position, or on a knight that will subsequently move into position.
Crossbows: In “Stop the Conquerors!”, this card is used to resolve any one standoff between knights and Conquerors in favor of the knights, removing the Conqueror from the board by battle. In “Free All of Catan!”, this card can be played to allow knights to capture Forts with equal strength, instead of greater strength normally required.
Quartermaster Odo: This card can be used to activate all of a player’s knights, and, if a player’s knight has not already expended its knight action, perform a knight action with it.
Remember that normally, a knight that has been activated cannot normally perform a knight action later the same turn, and that a knight may perform one knight action per turn. As such, this card allows a player to perform a knight action using a knight that started the turn deactivated; this knight will also end the turn deactivated as a result of performing said action.
Thora: This card can only be played after production, and only if no other player has a face-up Thora on the board. While this card is face-up, all knights belonging to the player has 1 additional strength rating (meaning that basic knights under the effect of Thora have the same strength rating as that of a strong knight). Thora is then returned to the Battle Progress Card deck before production is resolved on the player’s next turn.
A face-up Thora does not contribute to the progress card limit for a player.
Manifest
1 deck of 20 Battle Progress Cards are included with Legend of the Conquerors. The cards in this deck are laid out as follows: