Resist! is the opening chapter of the Legend of the Conquerors campaign. The campaign is set 670 years after the first settlers arrived on the island of Catan, as outlined in the novel The Settlers of Catan, and thus 600 years after the events of the Legend of the Sea Robbers campaign. Additionally, Legend of the Conquerors makes it such that the Cities & Knights expansion is set 100 years prior to the events of the campaign, when Catan is discovered by oceangoing caravels from the old world, and trade relations between Catan and the old world have been established.
In the 100 years since the establishment of relations with old world kingdoms, Catan has been able to repel the odd barbarian menace here and there, thanks to the efforts of its knights. However, the Catanians face their biggest threat yet, when the king of an old world kingdom lands a large army in the north of Catan, intent on conquest and assimilation. The story focuses on Thora, the commander of Catan’s armies and President of the Council of Catan, her husband Dagur, a cavalry commander in the Catanian army, and Thora’s younger sister Aegis, the commander of Catan’s fleets, as they prepare the Catanian forces to repel the old world army invading from the northwest.
Equipment Overview
Players should be familiar with the following equipment and game concepts before playing this scenario:
Players begin with three initial settlements. The first settlement and road must be placed in one of the locations specified by the settlement and road markers on the setup chart. Players must also place one basic knight (strong knight with the handicap setup) on the other end of the road. This knight starts the game deactivated.
After all three settlements are placed, players must replace any one of their settlements with a city, and attach city walls to that city. This is done in reverse player order, continuing with the snake-style initial placement.
The starting resources for each player is based on the location of the third settlement placed, not the location of the city.
If playing with the handicap setup, each player starts the game with one Politics Progress Card, and both the town hall (first level of Politics city improvement) and abbey (first level of the Science city improvement).
Players may not build past the third level of city improvements. As such, metropolises are absent from this scenario.
For players with the international 2nd and 3rd edition city improvement boards, the tiles for the fourth and fifth levels are removed from the frame as a reminder to that effect.
Skip-Rank Knight Deployment: Strong and mighty knights may be built directly from the supply, without the need to build a basic knight and promote them through the ranks. The cost to deploy a strong or mighty knight remains the same as if it were deployed as a basic knight and promoted.
Note that a fortress is still required to build mighty knights directly from the supply.
Note that although a knight cannot be placed where it will immediately be encircled or lost by battle, a knight may be placed where it would immediately win a battle. Similarly, a knight may be promoted in order to end a standoff.
Conquered Hexes: Any hex with a number disc occupied by a Conqueror is considered to be conquered. To mark this, the number disc for that hex, if any, is flipped face-down, and remains flipped face-down even if the Conqueror moves away from the hex.
If a Conqueror moves to a hex where it is immediately defeated by battle, the new hex is not considered conquered.
If a knight is ever adjacent to a conquered hex that does not have a Conqueror on it, the hex is considered liberated, and its number disc, if any, is flipped face up.
Players may not build roads on paths wehre both adjacent hexes are conquered.
Players may not build settlements on intersections adjacent to conquered hexes. Settlements adjacent to a conquered hex may not be upgraded to cities.
Game is to 13 points. The game may also end if any of the following occur:
There are 7 hexes with number discs occupied by Conquerors in a 3-player game, or 10 hexes with number discs occupied by Conquerors in a 4-player game. In this case, all players have considered to have been defeated.
Note that there is no limit to the number of conquered hexes; the defeat condition is based on physical occupation of Conquerors.
The barbarian ship reaches the last space on the track. If the defeat condition above has not been met after any relevent events have been resolved, the player with the most victory points is declared the winner. If two or more players are tied, the players among them who are furthest on the Hero Track are collectively declared the winners.
If the players were defeated: The players who have advanced the furthest on the Hero Track, provided they have advanced at least one space, recieve 2 Legend Points. The players who have advanced the next furthest on the Hero Track, provided they have advanced at least one space, receive 1 Legend Point.
If the players were victorious:
Victory Points: 6 Legend Points are awarded to the players with the most victory points, 3 to the players with the next most, 2 to the players with the most after that, and 1 to the players with the most after that.
Hero Track: 2 Legend Points for the players furthest along the Hero Track, provided they have advanced at least one space. 1 Legend Point for the players next furthest along the Hero Track, also provided they have advanced at least one space.
When playing the campaign, players who are defeated must re-attempt the scenario, either with the normal setup or with the handicap setup. Players who are victorious move on to play Stop the Conquerors!