Special Scenarios - General Discussion, Strategy, Glitch thread

[Akira]

Planting this now to get a few strategic ideas down, plus report some bugs I've noticed after a handful of games.

The Enchanted Land - in my opinion the dragons are the surest path to victory. Get ships plus Level 3 politics, then chew up 6 dragons for an easy W. 21 points to me is a little ridiculous for a 3 player win - if I'm scoring 21 points I'm usually squashing the other players anyways with all 3 metropoli, etc. Don't forget to body-block your opponent's knight with your knight if you beat them to the island - knights on the island can only move 3 intersections at a time. One thing the rules don't mention is Dragon Points apparently give you VP as well. More on that later.

The Grand Canal - building 3rd settle bordering a grain hex is a good strat for getting that first active knight up and rolling, plus it works with Irrigation at all times. The gold hexes are relatively easy to expand to (all you have to do is get a knight on them....) and are much more viable from a card advantage perspective than pounding it out with the 3:1 ports or hoping a lucky Merchant or Merchant Fleet comes your way. I haven't had a game with a good 2:1 resource port yet but will update when I do.

Otherwise, building roads between two canal hexes and planting knights on them is a potent source of VP. Consider placing your city on a good brick hex and trade the brick in for grain and so forth.


--Glitches--

Saboteur - in an Enchanted Land game, I managed to play a Saboteur with 16VP on a player with 12VP. The 4VP difference was made up with Dragon Points (I had killed 4 Dragons at this point) but they were displayed as VP on my display. Further, I won with 21VP via 5 Dragon kills. The rulebook doesn't mention that Dragon Points grant VP. Are Dragon Points worth VP or not? How does Saboteur interact with these VP?

Master Merchant - in a Grand Canal game, I had 6VP to my opponents' 7, and was unable to play a Master Merchant the entire game. I had 2 Canal Points to their 3; if MM ignores Canal Points that may account for this bug. But on paper this is a nonsense situation.

[Narkulus]

Are these scenarios worth a purchase? Do they add a good layer to the base game or do they throw it out of balance?

[Akira]

Good question!

I enjoy these scenarios, but they are not for newer players.

These are combinations of Cities and Knights and Seafarers scenarios. I would recommend getting proficient in both of them before purchasing these special scenarios - they are pretty advanced. The fastest way to learn would be to play 5-10 games or so of Treasure Islands in Seafarers - you get a feel for working with ships instead of roads, and calculated risk - plus 5-10 games of Cities and Knights in either The First Island, Oceania, or Treasure Islands.

Practicing against the bots is good for getting quicker, and especially for practicing settlement placement. This is one of the hardest things to grasp in C&K, and if you screw up against the bots, no biggie. Start over. That feature I really enjoy and found quite helpful.

[Akira]

On the glitched progress cards: the game appears to ignore special victory points from canals or dragons for purposes of calculating total VP for Saboteur, Wedding, Master Merchant and the like. Will explore further.

[Akira]

Wedding doesn't care about Dragon Points (or Canal Points) confirmed. If anything this makes the dragon first strategy even stronger.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/781851765947450069/D18F0FA43CC1EEDB114A5AC0234AB2174E4A9991/

[Akira]

Rules for The Grand Canal don't specifically forbid building ships on the lakes but in practice it is not allowed. This doesn't make logical sense to me, but be aware that ships are not allowed on the lakes.

[POWERqILion(PQL)]

Another glitch.

In Enchanted Land if your knight on the dragon island is on the edge and surrounded by opposing settlements you cannot move. You cannot even move back to your island. I assume this is a bug.

[POWERqILion(PQL)]

Massive bug, win the game by slaying 6 dragons and be behind on victory points and you actually can LOSE ELO. The ELO only takes into account your victory points

[Pawel Malecki]

I have the scenarios on old Android version, I redeemed all the expansions so far but I cannot redeem this. Is it a bug on my side?

[f8ofwow]

I am stuck in a world of "KNF:You_are_offline" when clearly i am online. What is the fix? Do I uninstall the game and re-install it?
I am also currently stuck in the Searching for shores Scenerio. A I player says waiting for player actions. Assuming that the two are linked.