Lost Cities

On Boardgamegeek, I rate Lost Cities 9 out of 10, and it averages 7.22 out of 10. Lost Cities has a great reputation as a two player game that couples really enjoy playing. It used to be hard to find good two player games that are not abstracts, like Chess or Draughts. Lost Cities has a bright, colourful theme of exploration and was one of the first of a great line of games from the German publisher Kosmos. Now you can find lots of smart little games like this to play with your partner or friend.

Lost Cities is a card game with a small board that you lay between the players. You play your cards on your side of the board, or discard them onto the spaces on the board. You are going on five different expeditions, through the desert (yellow), through jungle (green), in high mountains (white), underwater (blue) and to a volcano rim (red). The deck is made of large cards numbered 2 to 10 in the five colours, with three special handshake cards for each as well. You shuffle the deck and get 8 each. On your turn, you play one and take another. When the draw deck is exhausted, you total up your scores for each colour expedition you've been on.

When you play cards on your side, you can skip numbers, but you can only go up. So if you play the green 2,3 and 6, you cannot play the green 4 or 5 now. So if you have the green 6, do you play it now or wait and see if you draw the 4 or 5. Maybe I've got them in my hand and I'm waiting to get a higher green card myself.

And here's the big trick; for each colour expedition you start, even with a single card, you are deducted 20 points. That's the cost of starting out. So if you play the green 2, 3 and 6, you are on -9 points. You need to get some high cards down to get in the black.

The handshake cards will increase your score, but you have to play them before any numbered cards. One handshake doubles your score; two triple and three handshakes quadruple the score. But playing just one handshake is starting an expedition, minus 20 points, doubled to minus 40 points! So they are a gamble for you. If you already have high cards in one colour, it's worth playing handshakes. But if you have a run of low cards, will you get over the 20 points margin?

If you don't have a good card to play, then discard one to the middle board. If you,ve watched me play a blue 3,4,5 then it's safe for you to discard blue handshakes or the blue 2. And after playing a card somewhere, you draw one, either from the deck or from the top of a discard pile.

So it sounds like a simple variation of Patience. It is not! It's really quite tricky to play. Sometimes you have an obvious run of cards to play, and sometimes you draw the right card at the right time. But often you have really difficult choices. If you play high cards in a colour early on, you could miss out on a good score. If you discard a card I need, I can take it and set off on a good scoring line. If you start with some low crads, will you draw the high values you need? Will you get time to play down the cards you have to?

The really hard part is that you must play a card first, before taking one. You might see just the card you need on the discard, but you have to play one first. If time is running out, you take discards instead of draw cards, but if you wait too long, you'll end with 9s and 10s in your hand. Very frustrating!

Lost Cities is a simple but clever, fun game for two. You can play a round very quickly, shuffle up and try again. Play four or five rounds and see hwo gets the best total. And you have to think about what your opponent is doing. Are they collecting yellow discards? Then stop discarding yellow cards! Are they holding the card you want? Is it worth waiting for more draw cards? Lots of choices, lots of decisions, but all very easy and fun.

The game designer is Reiner Knizia, one of the most prolific game designers out there, with 100s of great games in print now. Lost Cities was a big boost to modern Eurogames. It showed publishers that there is a real demand for themed 2-player games. There's a big string of them; just as examples try looking at: Jambo Jambo, Hera & Zeus Hera and Zeus, Dracula, Balloon Cup Balloon Cup, Caesar & Cleopatra, Medici vs Strozzi, Summer Time , Rosenkonig, Los Banditos Schmidt - Los Banditos - Easy play French version, Rat Hot Rat Hot, Aton Aton [Toy], Roma, Mr Jack Mr. Jack, Mole Hill, Ka-Ching, Richelieu, Shanghaien. If you are new to modern Eurogames, then Lost Cities is a great introduction. A very high quality product, excellent graphic design, lots of replay value, kids can play against adults, a game you can take to the pub. If you are only used to old games like Monopoly or Trivial Pursuits, getting into these modern games will be a real eye-opener for you.

You may think that paying around £13.00 to £14.00 for waht really amounts to a deck of cards is a little expensive. However this is a great game for two players and is easy to teach. Once the initial concept has been grasped then your straight into the game. There is quite a bit of strategy and decision making here and knowing how to play the cards and when to hold the opponents cards is the key. Also you can control the speed of the game as you continue playing until the last card is drawn. My experience is that this game really appeals to those who do not normally play games i.e. your significant other. In my opinion this game is well worth the money.

This is a remarkably well designed 2 player card game whose rules can be learnt in 5 mins. In our first evening with this game, my wife and I played 5-6 rounds in a row. Although the rules are simple, there is a surprising and satisfying level of depth and strategy to the gameplay. When played well it involves skill, luck, forward thinking, bluffing, and attempts to hinder your rival's plans.

This game has a reputation as one of the best 2-player games out there. When first reading the rules I was surprised that such a simple game could live up to the hype, but I've been very pleasantly surprised by the depth of the gameplay so far. Most importantly it was great fun to play and left you wanting to play again when the round was up. A round can be completed in 15-20 mins although you'll probably want to play a few in a row.

Although the pricing is quite expensive for what you get in terms of components, it's a brilliantly designed game and I'd recommend it for partners up for a quick and fun bout of competition and mental challenge!