Lost Cities

Reiner Knizia is one of the most prolific game designers ever. On his website, you will find a link to a pdf file that is 15 pages long listing his game releases since the mid-1980's! Amazing.

I own three of his games, including one of my few "10-ranked" games, Tigris and Euphrates. Also, Merchants of Amsterdam which I like but have yet to play.

I grabbed a copy of Lost Cities, one of his card games at the Unknown the other day. What a cool game! It's ranked 86 currently on the 'Geek, and although it is somewhat simple to play, I have really enjoyed it. Grayson and I have managed about a dozen games, and he's picked up the strategies nicely. I played a few games on BrettSpeilWelt, and actually won a couple of rounds.

The basic idea of this two-player game is this: there are 5 suites of 12 cards, each player is dealt 8 and must draw from a discard area or the deck after playing a card to his side of the table. Cards are played to the table in numerical sequence by suit. Double, triple or quadruple bonuses are paid for playing up to three starter cards before beginning the sequence of 2 through 10. After the draw deck is exhausted, the total face value of cards in each of up to 5 runs is multiplied by any starters, then twenty points is subtracted. Negative values are often obtained, and a score for each round can vary between -60 and +156.

The game has a large "blink" factor, in that you may discard cards to the center in 5 different stacks, as you will likely not be able to get to twenty points in all 5 suits. You and your opponent play a game of chicken as to which runs you will start, and which you with ditch to the center. You are hoping your opponent will be forced to toss you a needed card before you have to start building on a run. Also, you have to make gutsy calls about whether to start with the bonus multipliers, even though you may not have cards to follow through. Negative scores are multiplied as well as positives, so you have many desperate moments trying to get your totals above 20 and avoid a large loss.

There is an "Indiana Jones" exploration and discovery theme pasted on the the oversized cards, which drew me to the box, and keeps my son interested. He excited hunts for 9's and 10's to add to his piles, and has favorite mission colors (suits) he likes to try to build. Meanwhile, Dad trys to calculate the odds of each play, and make good decisions about what to draw and discard.

The game can be learned in about 5 minutes, and it tickles a certain part of my brain that will make me pull this out frequently. I am considering adding this to the opening of one of our gatherings someday soon, perhaps using the winners to separate teams.