Lost Cities: The Card Game is from the Kosmos two player line. The game is very similar to Lost Cities: The Board Game, but is specifically designed for two players. During that first game, my wife caught with my trousers down as the game ended abruptly, leaving me with my top scoring cards in my hand. I’d realised too late that there would only be 1 more turn. But all is not lost, you can buy yourself a little more time during the game by drawing a previously discarded card and hope your opponent does the same. There are cards with 5 different colors/symbols, each corresponding to one path; in addition, each card shows a number (0-10, twice each). If you love beautiful artwork then buy this game. Do you like going head to head with others? Then buy this game. If you love the theme of adventure then buy this game. Do you enjoy showing others how good your mental arithmetic is? Then most definitely buy this game. If you already love and own this game then keep exploring with Reiner Knizia’s The Quest for El Dorado .

If you were to lay down 3 wager and 5 points worth of cards, the score for that expedition would be -60. This is because you will have paid 20 points to begin the expedition, that leaves you with -15 points which is then multiplied by the number of wager cards + 1. There is a very fine balance in terms of which cards to play. If you play a zero is it crazy to follow it with a seven, even if you have the eight, nine and 10 to follow. Only you can decide. The game is over when all the cards are used or when five people have travelled over the bridge (about three quarters of the way along the path). Before beginning the game you should decide how many rounds you intend to play. The winner is the person with the most combined points by the end of those rounds. The manual recommends 3 rounds, whilst that’s usually a good amount, you may wish to have a practice round with new players first. Discard a cardWhilst I do enjoy other hand management games such as 6 nimmt! and find them great fun to play; Lost Cities has the added benefit of being something that you want to show off. It’s something you want to get out of the box just to look at it. At the end of the game the person with the most points – converted into coins – wins. To play a three round game takes about 45 minutes. This sounds very simple but there are complications. You don’t have to go to all the areas. If you don’t have the right cards then sometimes you are better off not starting on the path at all. At the paths start off with minus points – you start on -20 and move up through -15, -10 and finally +5. You also have one big person, with them you win (or lose) double points – you decide which path to put them on.

Lost Cities does give a high level of engagement and you can chose many different strategies. Our daughter likes to swap lots of cards in and out to create good paths. I like to collect lots of artefacts, whilst my partner has a very good eye for the balance between using cards and swapping cards. Final Thoughts on Lost Cities In each color, each player can play his cards either ascending or descending. Like Lost Cities, it's better to concentrate on a few paths, since the last spaces grants high points, but ending early gives negative ones. This is not just a rule difference, as the scoring is different for the monuments/stones based on the number collected. Time to travel once again to distant locations, but in Lost Cities: Rivals you might find yourself running short of cash to take the trips you want!To get a better understanding of why you would want to discard a card you need to look at how points get calculated. Scoring the game If you don’t want to use a dice on a turn, you can pass. But beware! Use it too many times and you’ll take a huge hit when it comes to end game scoring. Although it is also worth noting that if you don’t use it at all, you’ll also take a hit at VP time! Sneaky! Whilst we will do everything we can to meet the delivery times above, there may be factors outside of our control and we cannot guarantee delivery within this time frame. Like most card games, the box is fairly small, making it ideal for when you go away on your own adventures. One downside is that the discard board is tri-folded and doesn’t always sit completely flat. Final Thoughts