Lost Cities

After Schotten Totten, we got to play Lost Cities.

That’s a fun, short game (about 20 minutes), perfect for nights when you don’t have too much free time. It’s also really easy to understand the concept and get playing.

In Lost Cities, you’re an adventurer, planning trips to 5 different lands. When you put down cards on a specific land, you effectively start your trip, and earn points equivalent to the number on the card.

Careful though: when you start a trip, you start by spending 20 points to fund it. You consequently have to choose your trips carefully ; only start a trip when you’re sure you will at least recoup your costs for funding that expedition.

Then comes hand management. You can draw new cards from the draw pile, or from the top of the discard pile on each land. To draw, you must first play one of the cards in your hand, or discard a card. Your opponent can then pick that card up if they want to.

It can be tough to decide whether to hold onto cards so your opponent doesn’t get them, or discard them to make room for new cards for your own trips.

Suddenly the game got a lot more competitive, didn’t it?

To add to that, halfway through your first game you will realize that the end of the game (when the draw pile is empty) is coming much faster than you thought. You will end up struggling to complete your trips before there are no more cards to pick. I must admit it took us a few games before it all clicked.

It was a fun game, one that I would recommend. It’s simple to understand, quick to set up and play, yet involves some strategy and competition.

Give it a try if it’s available in your local gameshop, and let me know what you thought about it!