Nice review. I really appreciate reviews like this, where an analysis is given of why a game is good or not so good. I hadn't been able to articulate before what it is that is enjoyable about Lost Cities and I think you've nailed it.

Not sure this quite meshes with your wargaming theme, but I also appreciate the fact that Lost Cities has an "intelligence" component, mostly in the early plays. (Not IQ, of course - assessing information about your opponent's capabilities and plans, and revealing your own as slowly as possible.)

When someone starts playing cards in a color, they're making a statement about their hand and plans for the future. And this results in a few interesting choices. Which color to open with as the second player? How long do you want to hold off before starting that second or third color? Balancing the advantages of waiting to reveal colors of strength (and waiting for investment cards) against possibly reducing one's score by skipping many cards in one's first color (just targeting ~20) against the risks of discarding a card that might be useful to the opponent or at least reveal a color of weakness (which the opponent can then expect to draw better in throughout the hand)...

I recall a recent game where I deliberately delayed opening a color in the middle game because my opponent already had, and they were clearly waiting on a few middle cards - some of which I held. By denying them knowledge (that I held Blue 6,7,8 with 3 and I in the draw pile) which would have allowed them to "safely" play that Blue 9 and/or 10 on their I,2,4,5, I forced (well, OK, encouraged) them to hold one or more cards in their hand longer, reducing their options and resulting in plays in other colors which gave me still more information. I was only able to do this for a few turns before running out of options in my own hand, but plays like that add up, I think. (And as it turned out, I drew the 10 and did end up playing the blue series.)

Even playing just the 3 at that point would have immediately revealed strength in blue, encouraging my opponent to risk closing blue in the pursuit of more cards and choices.

I wonder if anyone has explored a variation involving "marking" the colors played, or left unplayed and changing the risk-reward ratio for the last of the 3 hands. For example, place a marker (wooden cube, glass stone...) in front of each of the 5 colors on each side of the board, and during scoring take your marker in each color if you scored positive points in that color. In hand 3, colors with markers remaining score double (or just start "opened" at -20 and must be scored). This means you face a choice between trying to close out all 5 colors in hands 1 and 2 allowing for a safer hand 3, or deliberately risking an open color in order to score higher in the final hand...

(Hope that's not too off-topic. I know some board games include aspects of intel.)

Thats a great observation about the game and another reason why I like it. How much do you reveal can be a real issue.

Nice review...too nice. I think you just hit me in the pocketbook, as I've had my eye on this but your review has made this game my next purchase.

I agree whole-heartedly with your thrust. Wargames prepare one psychologically for those times one plays two investment cards in one's strongest color and never sees another of the same for the rest of the game to run up a -30 on the trip.

    I find it remarkable that more grogs don't also enjoy card games (true card games, not CDGs) because so much of the play in card games is risk assessment and resource management. Games in the Bridge and Rummy families are particularly driven by these two issues. I find the mindset quite similar, in spite of the actual play-out of the moves being worlds apart.

    Lost Cities is one of those neither-fish-nor-fowl games in that it is largely a game of cards with multiple discard piles, but has a boardgame look and feel to it.

    I look forward to your review of Pinochle.

             Sag.

With repeated playings, avoiding this becomes part of the risk management element, and can be minimized. But I like the humor of how you put it.

I'm impressed by anyone reviewing a Knizia card game from the perspective of what it might share with wargames. That's gutsy, and it actually kinda works, so definitely kudos are in order. I mean, the potential for getting whacked for it by fellow wargamers, alone, gets you a medal for courage in action.

I really enjoy Knizia games, but do grogs have it in for the guy or something?

Knizia is one of the few Euro designers who knows what he is doing.

Lost Cities is quite similar to a traditional Spanish game played with a regular card deck (here it means an Italian style deck); however, I feel that there is no link between them.