Citadels Review
Citadels Review
Who said city planning is boring?
All your competitors want their place to be bigger and better than yours! Will you just sit back and let them?
NO!
In the Citadels, every player is the governor of the city ... in the land of rival cities. Players will have to build the most impressive city by bribing local aristocrats, by building impressive structures, and perhaps even by some good old-fashioned sabotage.
Welcome to the Citadels. See the full overview of Citadels board games below.
- BUILD A MEDIEVAL CITY SUITABLE FOR A KING: The kingdom needs ...
- STRATEGIC CARD GAME: To build a city you will need a coin and ...
- NEW UPDATED CONTENT: This edition includes all content from ...
A brief overview of the Citadels
A game of medieval cities, nobles and intrigues!
Citadels is a simple card builder card game in which players select roles from a list of character cards to perform actions.
Each turn, players choose a character card that allows them to perform special abilities during their turn. And it can get pretty ugly.
It’s a classic game that can be easily set up and played in about half an hour, making it the perfect game to scratch you after a board game when it hits you.
Variations and extensions
Citadels Classic (2000)
This is an ideal place to start if you are still on the fence regarding the Citadels. For about $ 10, you’ll find a quick, fun, and easy-to-learn card game that will be a great addition to your shelf. It 's a cheap game you can pick up without feeling guilty.
- BUILD A CITY SUITABLE FOR A KING: You are a candidate for ...
- STRATEGIC CARD GAME: Two to eight players in the Citadels ...
- NEW UPDATED CONTENT: Published in 25 different languages and ...
Citadels Deluxe (2016)
This is the final version of the game. Includes basic gameplay, hard to find Dark City Expansion and several new cards just for the updated version. All components have been upgraded and include brand new artwork that works very well with the game.
- BUILD A MEDIEVAL CITY SUITABLE FOR A KING: The kingdom needs ...
- STRATEGIC CARD GAME: To build a city you will need a coin and ...
- NEW UPDATED CONTENT: This edition includes all content from ...
Unpacking the Citadels
Unpacking will depend on which version you get.
Citadels Classic (original version) is in a nicely decorated package, and Citadels Deluxe (newer version from 2016) is in a large box with lots of cardboard and air.
The newer version has some nice component upgrades and I like the artwork more. The player’s first token was replaced by a decently sized crown, which is much easier to see than the original wooden token.
Slightly irritating if most of the box contains air. It doesn’t even need a bigger box ... it’s mostly a marketing thing.
I can’t blame them too much because the Citadels Deluxe version is actually really enjoyable. They just put it in a bigger box that is not needed. It also includes many additional goodies.
The Citadels Classic had only 9 maps. All original cards, cards from The Dark City extension and 9 brand new ones are available in the Deluxe edition. If you don’t already own the Citadels, it’s probably the best version of the newer version.
The original contains everything you need to play, and is still a good game, but you miss a lot of extra cards. However, it’s only around $ 10, so if you have a budget and just want to play something fast, it might not be a bad way.
Deluxe Citadel Components:
- Rules
- 27 Character cards
- 84 District maps
- 6 Reference cards
- 30 gold pieces of plastic
- 32 tokens
- 1 Plastic crown
How to play Citadels
Citadels is a very fast game to learn and play. Whatever the reason, the first time I tried to learn the rules, it took me forever, so maybe I’m just a special case. But here we will break it down for you to make sense.
In Citadels, players take turns choosing a character card, picking up gold, and building districts in their personal cities.
Character maps
Character maps are where the magic happens. They include special skills that players receive in each round, and all the bluffing elements of the game.
At the beginning of each round, the game is started by the one who chose the king character from the previous round. This player will look at the available cards and select them, then pass the playing deck to the player on the left. This continues until everyone chooses a character and the end player sets the rest aside.
This is a key strategic moment of the game because certain characters will shine through the game in different stages. There are also some devastating attacks that can bring players back almost indefinitely if your gaming friends are jerks.
The starting player gets the advantage when he gets the first choice of characters and abilities, but will have very limited knowledge of the cards that other players have. Final players will have fewer options to choose from, but they may have a better idea of which cards are taken and may oppose rival moves.
The signs also determine the order of turning in a circle.
The player who chose the King character basically leads the circle and calls the numbers 1-8. Each number corresponds to a different character. Once their number is called, they can reveal themselves and carry out their turn. This is a pretty cool system that is constantly changing the order of turning the game.
Characters from the classic version
There are 8 original character cards.
Each card is numbered 1-8. The number on the character card determines the order of turns in each round, so if you want to go first, you’ll want to capture
1. Assassin: Assassin is probably the most brutal card in the game. Assassin goes first if selected, and their ability allows them to summon another card with signs. If you took that card, then boom! - You're dead. You are forced to skip the entire turn and there is nothing you can do about this lap. This is a pretty ugly card.
Thief 2: This is also particularly ugly. Theif announces the character and then steals all their gold. The thief cannot pick the same target as the killer, so players will not be hit with a double hit.
3. Wizard: The wizard has a really useful usability. Players can swap hands with another player, even if they do not have cards in hand. Theoretically, you can take all the player’s cards and not hand them anything if you don’t have any.
They can also discard any number of cards at the bottom of the county deck and redraw as many cards. This makes the wizard a very useful usable sign. It may not be as dazzling as some others, but it is very useful.
4. King: King is another great useful card. He gives players one gold for each yellow quarter built in the city, and then picks up the crown. This indicates who can select the characters first in the next round. Choice and options are key to winning the Citadels.
5. Bishop: The bishop will give you a coin for each blue district you have built and protect all your districts. While you are a bishop, no one can destroy any of your buildings.
6. Merchant: Merchants receive one gold coin per built green district and after the campaign you receive an additional gold coin. This is really good for stacking money.
7. Architect: An architect is great for filling hands with county maps. Each time you work with the Architect, you pull two cards out of the county deck and keep both cards. You can also build up to 2 districts in a row. This is a great way to quickly build some buildings after you build up cash reserves.
8. Warlord: A warlord, as you can imagine, is a destructive attacking character. The warlord receives a coin for every red district built in your city. In addition, Warlord can destroy another player's district by paying 1 less than the original cost. This can really ruin an opponent’s plan.
These are just basic maps. As you play more advanced versions of the game, you will want to swap newer cards to change the game. I won’t go into everything, but newer, replaceable cards dramatically change the game and add a lot of repeatability.
District cards
There are 5 different colored district maps in the game. Each district has a different color to suit the different abilities of the characters.
- yellow: Noble district
- Blue: Religious District
- Green: Shopping District
- Red: Military District
- Purple: Special districts that have special rules
It's your turn!
When you are called, you have to do two things.
- Take action.
- Play the county map.
The measures consist of 2 possible options and one must be carried out each step. You can take 2 gold coins from the bank or draw another district card. When drawing another county map, you will need to draw 2, select one, and then place the other at the bottom of the county deck.
The next part of your plant is building a district in your city. To actually build a district, you need to have the required amount of money on the card. If you can’t pay for it, you can’t do anything.
What about character cards?
Character cards are not just a stupid way of choosing order. Each character has special abilities. Some approve funds, some will help you build, and others will get confused with opponents. Each card has a special ability written on the character that describes in detail when you can use it and how. You can only use each ability once per plant.
End of game and scoring
The game ends when the player builds the 8th district in his city. The game will continue until this round is over, and then the players continue to score.
Each player will receive points equal to gold in all counties in their city. If building a county costs 3 gold, it’s worth 3 points.
If you put together a complete set of all 5 colors, you get an additional bonus of 3 points.
The first player to build 8 districts in the city earns 4 extra bonus points, and any other player who manages to build 8 districts in the last round receives a bonus of 2 points.
Add up all the points and you will get a winner!
If there is a tie, then the value of the completed districts is considered a draw.
Each player can build more than 8 districts if he is capable. There are no limits, but it’s hard to do without careful planning.
Your first Citadel game
For your first game of Citadels, you will want to remove 14 purple district cards with a white star. These cards are cards with special abilities that you can add later, but for the first game it is best to play without them to learn the rules better.
It will be a bit complicated at first to notice some counters and attacks when they come, but after about one whole game you will have it all down.
Watch out for the warlord and the thief. These are the two main offensive cards in the game. They can be especially painful if you’ve been gathering resources, only you can steal them before you can use them. Or you may have built a beautiful district, only to be wiped out by these bastards in the next turn.
Advantages disadvantages
Advantages:
- Fast and dirty
- Lots of repeatability
- Portable (somehow)
- Great Strategy
Citadels is a great fast game that can be played very fast. This means that it is also very portable.
When he plays he can travel with me he always gets cookies in my book. The original box is much more portable, but the newer version is much harder to carry.
Either way, a great game to rest for lunch. It may be a little harder to start doing this in a pub, simply because there are a lot of cards and chips around the table that are easily destroyed by a spill.
Weaknesses:
- He didn't age very well
Citadels is a classic game, but I don’t play it more than before. There are many games and each is fighting for that desired spot on the table. There’s a lot going on in this game, but I think overall some other games only work a little better.
For example, if I want to bluff, I don’t have to be the default for Citadels. When I'm looking for a city builder or a map-making game, Citadels doesn't come to mind again. It’s a great game if we take it as a whole, but if you break down a certain mechanic, there are other games that make it better. This is not to say that Citadels is a bad game anyway, but again, there are so many games on the shelf and only one can be played at a time.
There comes the jack-of-all-trades argument. It does everything little by little, but does not contain the features of any game. I leave it to you whether this is a selling point or an obstacle or not.
TL; DR
Citadels is a very fast-paced card game that includes elements of preparing cards, collecting sets, and bluffing.
Players use character cards to gain new skills and determine the order of turns at each step.
When players build their cities, they will score endpoints based on the value of the districts built in their cities, the full set of cities, and the one capable of building a full city with 8 districts.
It’s a slightly older game and other newer games have recreated similar aspects of the Citadels. The newer version of Deluxe, however, has been improved and is generally a better offer. It is available with original, extension and several new cards.
conclusion
There is a reason that certain games find themselves on tons of different lists to play and stick to becoming households. Citadels is a great game. It has many different mechanics, all of which match well.
I like that it’s easy to learn and set up. At first I had trouble learning this game. It’s not true that it’s hard, but every once in a while you’ll come across a game that just throws you into a noose when reading the rules. For whatever reason, it was a game of Citadels. It probably took me less time to learn Arkham horror than it was for me to grasp the Citadel.
Looking back, I realize I was the perfect tool. It’s not hard to learn and I’ve taught it to a lot of players (much easier than Arkham). I love the game, but I think I’ve always had a little chip on my shoulder about Citadels, because of how much trouble it taught me.
- BUILD A MEDIEVAL CITY SUITABLE FOR A KING: The kingdom needs ...
- STRATEGIC CARD GAME: To build a city you will need a coin and ...
- NEW UPDATED CONTENT: This edition includes all content from ...
If I miss something in the rules, I’d love to hear it. Are any games extremely difficult to learn, which should be very easy?
Leave a comment below.
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