Board Game Arena

So by my read of the rules (and maybe it's just not covered well) when a city has a metropolis on it, it can't be destroyed (check, got it). So one tactic is to get a metro on a city (if you have only one), then de-activate your knights, forcing the other players to contend with the pirates and perhaps cost them a city build. When I've played the game in real life, if the pirates power exceeds the total knight power, then the player with the lowest number of active knights loses a city--even if that player has a metropolis...which then cancels out the cities' destruction. Meaning, if you have no active knights but have a city with metropolis, you don't lose a city and neither does anyone else, because they all had at least one active knight and you had none. You lose, but there is no action, because the city can't be destroyed. That's how I've played it live.

But, with the online version, here on Board Game Arena, it doesn't work that way. Here, if the pirates win the invasion and a player/or players has no knights, but does have a protected city, it will destroy the city of the next available player (if any), rather than destroy none at all. This happens even if another player has many active knights (to exceed their number of cities), but as a whole Catan was not defended. I think that's a misread of the rules, but someone please correct me if I'm missing it.

The implementation on BGA is correct. The (german) rule book is very clear and also gives an example:

2 players have 1 city and 1 active knight each. 1 player has a Metropolis and no active knight. 1 player has no cities and no active knights.

Thus the barbarian strength is 3 (cities+Metropolises) and Catan strength is 2 (aktive knights). The barbarians win.

Now only the players that have cities are considered. Players with only Metropolises or without cities are not considered at all. Thus there are only the two players that have cities and they both have the same (i.e., lowest) number of active knigths. Thus both these players lose a city (see German rule book, page 9, example in yellow box).

euklid314 wrote: ↑20 August 2024, 11:17 The implementation on BGA is correct. The (german) rule book is very clear and also gives an example:

2 players have 1 city and 1 active knight each. 1 player has a Metropolis and no active knight. 1 player has no cities and no active knights.

Thus the barbarian strength is 3 (cities+Metropolises) and Catan strength is 2 (aktive knights). The barbarians win.

Now only the players that have cities are considered. Players with only Metropolises or without cities are not considered at all. Thus there are only the two players that have cities and they both have the same (i.e., lowest) number of active knigths. Thus both these players lose a city (see German rule book, page 9, example in yellow box).

The english rules have the same example.

Thanks for the check, looks like I was playing wrong