Lost Cities

Designer: Reiner Knizia
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Year: 1999
Players: 2
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 20 - 30 minutes

The Idea
Lost Cities is a two player card game in which both players represent archaeologists launching various expeditions to uncover hidden artefacts. However, players need to choose their expeditions carefully as mounting an expedition isn’t cheap and if they don’t find enough the trip may cost you in the end.

In the Box
Lost Cities is made up of a small playing board, 60 cards and a four page rulebook in a fairly compact box. The components all fit into the box perfectly.

The playing board is a three fold board of excellent card stock. The artwork is nice and depicts an archaeologist’s desk with five tattered maps laid out on it. It fits the theme quite nicely. The board itself isn’t actually necessary to play the game but does give you somewhere to discard cards. If you wanted to reduce your luggage when travelling it would be very easy to only take the cards and leave the board and box at home.

The sixty cards are oversized cards of fairly good quality which will stand up to a lot of play. The cards are broken up into five different coloured sets. Within each set there are “Expedition” cards numbered from 2 to 10 and three “Investment” cards which have a handshake symbol instead of a number. The artwork for each set shows a different part of a mural and represents your progress in the expedition. The artwork is nice and again supports the theme nicely.

Finally, the rules are for the most part well written and basically fit onto the two interior pages. The only part that isn’t completely clear is the scoring section but an example on the back page clears up any confusion well enough.

Basic Game Play Summary
On your turn you’ll perform two actions, each in one of two ways. The first action is to play a card from your hand of 8 cards to either one of your expeditions or to the discard pile that matches the colour of the card. After that you will draw a card either from the draw pile or from the top of a discard pile. Play will continue like this until the final card of the draw pile has been drawn.

The rules for playing cards to an expedition are quite simple. You must always play a higher number onto any previous cards so if you skip a low numbered card then you can’t go back if you later get that card. The basic idea is to play as many of the cards numbered 2 to 10 onto your expedition.

The investment cards (with the handshake symbol) act as multipliers for your score. One investment will double the value of your expedition while two and three agreements will triple and quadruple the score respectively. The catch is that investments must be played at the very start of the expedition before you play any other number cards.

Discarding a card instead of adding a card to an expedition can be a good way of stalling for time until you get better cards but you do need to be wary of what cards you are potentially giving to your opponent.

The scoring is the most complicated part of the game but it isn’t too hard if you can handle some basic maths. Basically, for each expedition you’ll follow the following steps:

1. Add up all the numbered cards you played.
2. Subtract 20 from that total which represents the cost of launching the expedition.
3. If you played any investment cards you then multiply your score by the appropriate number.
4. As an extra bonus if you have eight or more cards in an expedition you can add on a bonus 20 points.

Finally you add up the scores from each of your expeditions and that is your score for the round. You play as many rounds as desired (but usually 3) and total up all the scores. The player with the highest score wins!

Who Would Like It
Lost Cities really is a very simple card game with a classical card game feel to it. As such it’s likely to appeal to most people who enjoy playing cards. If you enjoy traditional card games like Solitaire or Patience then you’ll probably enjoy Lost Cities.

Lost Cities is also a particularly popular couple’s game as it plays fairly quickly and while there is conflict and interaction between the players it isn’t overly direct or obvious. This means couples won’t feel angry or agitated towards each other at the end of the game.

The basic maths involved can also make this a good game for primary aged children who are learning addition, subtraction and multiplication. Unfortunately, the fact that it is only a two player game will make a larger classroom adaptation a bit difficult. However it is still an excellent addition to a school library’s collection.

Finally it should be noted that as with any card game there is a healthy dose of luck and chance involved. If you don’t usually enjoy too much luck in your games, then you may want to try before you buy. But rest assured that while there is some luck involved in the game it isn’t a chaotic game. And playing over several rounds will help to mitigate the luck factor on the scores.

Where to From Here?
If you enjoyed Lost Cities then you could try out Keltis (also known as Lost Cities The Board Game). It plays very similarly to Lost Cities but allows for four players. Another very popular 2 player card game by Reiner Knizia which provides a nice step up in complexity is Battle Line (published by GMT Games).

If you enjoyed the mathematical nature of Lost Cities, then you’ll likely enjoy other games by Reiner Knizia. Dr. Knizia has designed many, many games. Some of his most famous and popular games include: Through the Desert, Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition, Kingdoms (all from Fantasy Flight Games), Ra (from Rio Grande Games) and Modern Art (from Mayfair Games) plus many more! For a particularly challenging Knizia game you could try Tigris & Euphrates (published by Mayfair Games).

Lost Cities is part of a series of 2 player games put out by German game publisher Kosmos. Other games in the Kosmos 2 Player series include: Balloon Cup, Caesar & Cleopatra, Hera and Zeus and Odin's Ravens (all published in English by Rio Grande Games).

And finally while the archaeology theme of Lost Cities isn’t really a big part of the actual game there are other games which incorporate the theme better. One of the best from recent years is Thebes (published by Queen) and is well worth a look.