Lost Cities is one of the
Kosmos two player games published by
Rio Grande games in 1999. The game itself is wonderfully simple and
can be played with a normal
deck of cards, even though it would be
missing a
suit and the wonderful artwork.
The deck consists of 5 suits of cards each with a different color theme and
artwork (backs are all the same).
Each suit consists of the cards numbered 1 through 10 and
three 'investment' cards. The artwork on the cards shows the progress
of an expedition to a lost city, the artwork overlapping slightly on
each card to provide a scene.
The story (which is not essential to the game play) is that each of
the two players is an overseer for some expeditions and a race to
collect as much value from the expeditions as possible.
The game begins with each player receiving 7 cards and the board (which
serves as a place holder for discards) placed between them. On
a turn a player must draw a card either from the deck or the discard piles
and then play a card, either in his or her own stacks or as a discard.
Cards may only be played in one's own stacks on top of a card of less
value and the same suit, or the empty spot corresponding to that suit.
Thus the green 5 can't be played on top of the green 7. The investment
cards may only be played on other investment cards or a blank spot.
Instead of playing on your own cards, it is also possible to discard
a card to the middle. You cannot discard the card the same card
picked up from the discard pile. There is a separate discard pile for
each suit, and only the top card may be picked up.
The game ends immediately upon the last card being drawn from the
draw deck. This makes it advantageous to draw from the discard
piles late in the game to prolong the time you can play out your
hand.
Each expedition started (even invested in) scores an initial -20 points.
This means it is a very bad idea to play one only or two cards in the
expedition. If the expedition contains only the cards '3 4 6 7',
that stack scores 0 points ( 3 + 4 + 6 + 7 - 20 = 0). The investment
cards place multipliers upon the final score. The first investment
card makes it x2, the second becomes x3, and the last makes the score
for that expedition x4. If only the three investment cards are played
on an expedition, and no other cards, the score is -80. There is a
+35 point bonus applied after the multiplier kicks in if there are
seven or more cards in an expedition. Expeditions with no cards score
0 points.
Extending these rules to a normal deck of 52 cards is not difficult,
though you loose one suit. Face cards are to be regarded as investment
cards, while the rest of the suit is counting up. With a smaller deck
but the same size suits, having such a large hand ends the game
more more rapidly and thus a smaller hand might be considered.
While on the surface, the game looks very simple, there are many
subtle interactions that are missed on the casual glance.
- Opening
- With the initial deal and the first few draws, the decision for
which expeditions to develop has been made and committed to.
- Middle
- With the display of initial starts, avoid discarding cards that
would be useful to your opponent - wait until he plays a 5 on a 2
before discarding the 4. Watch carefully which cards are picked up
for signs of a quick expedition run.
- End
- The final cards played down must be watched carefully to make
certain that the maximum points are scored. If you happen to have
the cards 5-10 in your hand, but only 3 turns left in the game, the
play '5 6 7' is less effective than a '8 9 10'. While this is simple
to see, it gets complex across multiple suits.
- General
-
Watch for spikes. It
can be useful to score a low negative in your expedition if it means
stopping your opponent. Having a 9 and 10 of one of the opponent's
suits is worth playing down to get out of your hand, even at the 'cost'
of -1 points up front.
By avoiding the early play of expeditions that are intended this creates
difficult questions for the opponent as to which cards to discard.
Bluffing plays a factor in what to play and when, but it can be
dangerous to bluff too much and fail to develop your own expeditions.