Holy Bovine
First Post
I thought I'd talk a little bit about an older card game called Citadels. In it people take on different roles, each with their own special ability, collect gold and try to be the first to build up their city with improvement cards. I have to say it is an amazingly fun and addictive game best played with 5-8 people. My group of friends have played it dozens of times and no one ever seems to get tired of it. It is just one of those simple, unassuming games that everyone I have introduced it to, so far, has loved it.
The play breakdown goes like this; the oldest player gets the chance to choose a role from 9 different choice (there are actually 2 sets of 9 roles each, we often mix and match them but you have to have 9) after one or more of the roles (depending on the number of players) has been placed facedown on the table (revealed only at the end of the round when roles are selected again). 3 cards are dealt to each player from the deck of city improvement cards. These can have very different effects upon your city from nothing (a Tavern) to gaining immunity to other roles special ability (the Keep cannot be destroyed by the Warlord for example). The roles in the 'basic' set are Assassin, Thief, Magician, King, Bishop, Merchant, Architect, Warlord and Queen. Play always starts with the Assassin and goes through the roles until the last one (Queen) is reached. The player who has the Crown (the last person who was King) calls the roles in order. Each role has a different ability i.e. the Assassin can 'kill' any other role, the player of the that role loses his turn! If no one selected the role the Assassin has wasted his ability! During each turn a player may choose to draw 2 cards from the deck of city cards (improvements to your city, everything from Taverns to Graveyards to Keeps and so on) keeping 1 of them and returning the other to the bottom of the deck or taking 2 gold from the bank (taxes). The player may then build any cards from his hand by paying the cost of the card. Each card also has a colour and extra points can be scored in the end game if you have cards of each colour in your city. A city is finished once it has 8 improvements and cannot have any single improvement twice. Once a single player has gotten 8 cards built into his city the current round finishes out like normal then points are scored. While you do get a bonus for finishing first we have found numerous strategies to victory not all of which involve finishing the fastest.
We have found that this is a remarkably robust yet simple game that has held up to countless replays. If you have a chance I strongly recommend checking it out.
The play breakdown goes like this; the oldest player gets the chance to choose a role from 9 different choice (there are actually 2 sets of 9 roles each, we often mix and match them but you have to have 9) after one or more of the roles (depending on the number of players) has been placed facedown on the table (revealed only at the end of the round when roles are selected again). 3 cards are dealt to each player from the deck of city improvement cards. These can have very different effects upon your city from nothing (a Tavern) to gaining immunity to other roles special ability (the Keep cannot be destroyed by the Warlord for example). The roles in the 'basic' set are Assassin, Thief, Magician, King, Bishop, Merchant, Architect, Warlord and Queen. Play always starts with the Assassin and goes through the roles until the last one (Queen) is reached. The player who has the Crown (the last person who was King) calls the roles in order. Each role has a different ability i.e. the Assassin can 'kill' any other role, the player of the that role loses his turn! If no one selected the role the Assassin has wasted his ability! During each turn a player may choose to draw 2 cards from the deck of city cards (improvements to your city, everything from Taverns to Graveyards to Keeps and so on) keeping 1 of them and returning the other to the bottom of the deck or taking 2 gold from the bank (taxes). The player may then build any cards from his hand by paying the cost of the card. Each card also has a colour and extra points can be scored in the end game if you have cards of each colour in your city. A city is finished once it has 8 improvements and cannot have any single improvement twice. Once a single player has gotten 8 cards built into his city the current round finishes out like normal then points are scored. While you do get a bonus for finishing first we have found numerous strategies to victory not all of which involve finishing the fastest.
We have found that this is a remarkably robust yet simple game that has held up to countless replays. If you have a chance I strongly recommend checking it out.
