Introduction

I play games with a lot of different groups of people. In almost all groups, I'm the one responsible for supplying and explaining the games. Because of this I have to think carefully which games I bring to which groups. These considerations for, in this case, Lost Cities will be the heart of this review. Hopefully this will give you some insight in whether Lost Cities is suitable for your specific group.

Information


Images courtesy of their respective BGG owners.

Lost Cities (LC) is a two-player card game by well known designer Knizia. The game consists of cards ranked from 2-10 in 5 different colours. Player's take turns in playing a card and drawing a card. When the draw pile is empty the game is scored, and that's where the fun and magic's at.

The rules are no more than playing and drawing cards. Why is this fun, one might ask? Well, the scoring system adds a nice twist to the game. For every colour played, players add up the total (times the optional multipliers played), and subtract 20. If there are 8 cards or more of a single colour, the player gets a bonus as well. The subtraction prevents player's playing cards blindly on the table. You have to consider carefully whether to go for a certain colour, because played cards can't be removed and can be played only in ascending order.

The components are nothing special. The theme is clearly pasted on and has absolutely nothing to do with the game. It could as easily have been about gardens and flowers. The central gameboard's only function is to depict the different colours available, so is in effect quite unnecessary. That, and the average playing time of 30 minutes, makes the game ideal for travel.

What will "they" think of Lost Cities?
Note that the stars indicate preference/attitude and not quantity, i.e. 1 star for playing time for a eurogamer means a dislike for duration for this game (i.e. too long). More stars equals more positive on a given subject. Of course caveat emptor and YMMV, because this classification is highly subjective. This means that these ratings are based on my opinion and experiences and may not correspond with others. Please leave some constructive feedback and I'll adjust the ratings accordingly.

1) Euro-gamers
overall
learning curve
playing time
strategy & tactics
luck
participation & downtime
fun-factor
look & feel
chance to hit the table

2) War-gamers
overall
learning curve
playing time
strategy & tactics
luck
participation & downtime
fun-factor
look & feel
chance to hit the table

3) Ameritrashers
overall
learning curve
playing time
strategy & tactics
luck
participation & downtime
fun-factor
look & feel
chance to hit the table

4) Non-gamers
overall
learning curve
playing time
strategy & tactics
luck
participation & downtime
fun-factor
look & feel
chance to hit the table

My $0.02 on Lost Cities

LC is my second-most played short two-player game after Hive. The rules are few that playing and teaching the game is a breeze. The game is portable so easy to bring on travels, although the size of the cards is too big for sleeves.

The couple of gripes I have, is the pasted-on theme, and the amount of luck involved. Especially the latter may turn some people off, although this downside is somewhat mitigated by the short playing time. Bad luck? Play best of 3! More bad luck?! Play best of 5!! Repeat ad nauseum.

The utter simplicity of the game combined with the short playing time makes this game a heavyweight table-hitter. Some may like it more than others, but (almost) everybody is willing to play a (couple of) game(s).