Lost Cities- A High Tension Adventure Game

As mentioned in my previous post, I'll take up a game and share some details that might give you an overview of what that particular game is and might help you to buy/play it.

I'm starting with a segment of games called as 'filler' games. Filler games are essentially small games that get over under an hour and you generally play them while you are awaiting more friends to join you for a larger game or you want a quick break from something that you are doing.

The next few posts talk about such filler games- specially 2 player card games.


The 1st one is "Lost Cities" by Reiner Knizia.



1st a little about Knizia- Perhaps the most prolific game designer in the last 12 yrs or so, Knizia has designed more than 500 games. He is a PHd in Mathematics and was teaching for a while before he took up game designing as a full time profession (since 1997). Most of Knizia' games are abstract games, though there is a theme behind every game. Some of the most popular games from Knizia are: Tigris & Euphrates, Through the Desert, Modern Art, Lost Cities, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation and many more.

Today you'll get to know about Lost Cities. A 2 player light game, with little depth but high tactics- very high tension!

Lost Cities is one that I use to get a lot of people introduced board gaming. In fact it is not a boardgame in the truest sense. It is just a card game. A game where you build your deck (set). There is a theme for the game in that it is an exploration game where the players set out to explore ancient cities by building a card deck.

What you get in the box: You get a set of 60 cards, a game board ( well more a discard board than anything else), a rule book
How does it play?

Very simple rules- players have 8 cards each and on their turn play a card (either on their side to build the route or discard) and pick up a card (either from the discard pile of the supply deck). On every turn players do this until the supply deck is exhausted, when the game ends. Pretty simple and basic hmmm....

But the catch here is when you extend the route each card placed by you has to be ascending the previous number (see the illustration). This makes the game really interesting, as you keep asking yourself, should I go ahead and place this card or should I wait for it to come from the supply pile or my opponents hand. It is a constantly changing game where each player tries to outsmart others when it comes to discarding the cards.

The other aspect that makes Lost Cities enjoyable is the hand cards or the betting value. remember you are exploring- in case you are more confident of exploring the route you take greater risk to gain reward. This is what makes the game really interesting. You start your route by plaing a bet on that- a multiplication factor of 2, 3 or 4 times the score you make after the game. But what makes it interesting is not about placing the bet right at the beginning with so much uncertainity but the scoring pattern.

When you go out exploring you do spend resourses and hence you need to subtract 20 points (add up the numbers on the deck you've built) from your total as your expense and then score points. So if you have placed 3 hand cards which will give you a multiplication factor of 4 (hand card+1= multiplication factor) and end up scoring 40 points. You subtract 40-20=20*4= 80, but if you end up at say 12 points. you get 12-20=-8*4=-32. This element makes it really fun. This is where you use all your tactics to increase your points and decrease your opponents' score.

In case you need a more details review on the game mechanics, please visit http://www.boardgamegeek.com/forum/63/thing/50

How long does this play?
I would say this takes about 12-15 min/round and you play it for 3 rounds usually (you can play just 1 round as well. You are looking at around 35-45 min for the whole game and trust me, you usually don;t stop at one!

Who might like this game?
I would recommend this one to anyone and everyone. Very simple to learn and lots of fun to play. Even kids can play it and you can compete with them with the smae level of intensity as you would with anyone else!

Of course I would reccommend this to anyone with a spouse as it is extrememly competitive and emotions tend to flair up (personal experience here :-))

Any down sides?
The cards are odd sized and some may find handling them a little hard (in fact this isn't a negative, but anyways). The theme is weak. I didn't like the artwork that much as compared to the others that I have. It is essentially the numbers that matter and there is no element of exploration, but hey, don't worry about the fun bit. You'll thoroughly enjoy it. Element of luck and randomness quite high, that makes it unpredictable (can be both +ve or -ve)

Final Thoughts
For people looking at a deep game, this in not a deep game. It is a very fast moving 2 player, light game (award winning game- 6 awards) with couple of interesting tactics. Gives you an adrenalin rush as you approach the end of the game. A big thumbs up to Lost Cities and Knizia!