Lost Cities: The Board Game
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Number of Players
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2 - 4
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Play Time
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30 Minutes (Short Game);
75 Minutes (Long Game)
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Ages
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8 Years and up
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For those that are looking for a game that has the theme of
an Indiana Jones movie, I submit the game Lost Cities:
The Board Game.
In Lost Cities: The
Board Game the players are trying to complete archeological expeditions. The players are given 5 explorers at the
beginning of the game, one large and four small ones. The farther along on an expedition track their
explorer gets, the more points they score.
They must be careful when starting an expedition because if they do not
move their explorer at least four spaces up that track they will lose
points. The large explorer is awarded
double the points for their position on the expedition they are trying to
complete.
The players move their explorer along the track by playing
out cards in the color of the expedition in front of them in ascending
order. The deck of cards has cards in
sets of five different colors. Each set of
cards has two cards for each number ranging from 0 to 10. When a player plays a card in front of them
it must be a number that is equal to or greater than the last card they played
in that set. Each time the player places
a card in front of them they move their explorer up the expedition track. As an alternative they players may discard a
card in the player area on the board of that color. These cards can be picked up later by other
players instead of drawing from the deck.
The round ends when 5 explorers are moved 7 or more spaces
up the expedition track or when the deck of cards is depleted.
On each expedition track there are bonus tokens available
that give out extra points, allow the player to move an extra space up the
track, or give the player a monument.
The monuments are worth additional points at the end of the game. If you do not collect enough of them during
the game you will lose points.
There is a variant rule where the player may choose to play
the cards out in either ascending or descending order. The order must be determined when the card
is placed.
I find Lost Cities: The
Board game to be a fun game. It is quick
to teach and can be played in a 30 minutes if the short game is played, which
consists of only one round. The full
game lasts for 3 rounds.
The problem I have with it is the randomness of the
game. If you do not start the game with
a set of cards that have low numbers on them you are almost guaranteed to lose
the round. The variant rule on starting sets
with high cards does help remove the randomness of the cards a player gets so I
insist that it is played when I am playing the game.
Lost Cities: The Board Game is one of those games that can
be used to introduce new players to Euro games.
It has a competitive element to it with the races up the expedition
tracks to get to capture the bonus chips, which many people that are familiar
with mainstream games like Candyland and Monopoly understand. Because of this it may be more suited as an
introductory game than Ticket to Ride, which is a much better game for players
that are familiar with card games.
I recommend this game for people that want to show
off what modern board games are like but know their friends will not like
Ticket to Ride. I do not consider it a
replacement of the Lost Cities. The
games do share a number of concepts such as theme and starting giving negative
points unless a certain level is reached, but other than that they are entirely
different games and should be treated as such.
