Citadels (includes dark city)

This is fast becomming our groups favorite game. The tactics and strategy that have evolved from the game make it a tortured hour of game play.

The different roles that can be chosen each have there own benefits and all hope that the Assasin or Thief ignore them.

The cards are well designed and the graphics are good. I bought some deck protectors as they do get used. In particular the character cards are always being shuffled.

The Dark City expansion adds more characters and locations, and for £14 you would be a fool not to have a copy of this on your shelf.

Citadels comes in a small handy box, approximately the size of a video cassette. Included are character cards, district cards, reference cards, a bunch of gold counters, and a yellow king marker.

In Citadels, every player collects gold and builds different districts, in order to gain victory points. Every round, players choose a character that gives them some special ability that, hopefully, advantages them and/or disadvantages others.

The game plays very well with two players, and games with 4-5 players seem to work even better with this game mechanism (max 7 players). With the Dark City expansion, the game can be adapted more to the players' preferences and to the number of players in the game. Certain characters, for example, are more powerful in a 2-player game, than in a play with 4. A wide range of character cards offers possibilities to balance this. In general, Dark City offers more variety in the game.

Tactics, bluff, luck... it's all in the game. Citadels takes about 20-60 minutes to play, and can definitely be played multiple times in a row. Fun with two, great with more.

I can warmly recommend this game.

Since recently purchasing Citadels I have played several times, with two, three, four and five players, and on each occasion found the tactics required to prosper to be slightly different. This is one of those games that while not having a great number of rules nevertheless contains a good amount of strategic depth, particularly when four or more people are involved.

I do think it's worth pointing out the degree to which players can affect each other's plans in this game, some may feel victimised if they are assassinated or thieved from every turn. However, those who enjoy interaction above all else will get a lot of enjoyment out of this one, so to those gamers Citadels comes highly recommended.

This is a fantastic game for all sizes of groups. We play it most often with 2 players and it is a fun game of second guessing and strategy. A game for 2 takes around 30 mins. The box is really portable and no set up time at all.

Its also really easy to explain and an enjoyable social game for larger groups. However, it does take a longer with groups with more downtime between turn selections, particularly with new players taking time over role selection.

We havent played with any of the expansion cards that come with this version as is plenty of variety and strategy in the original roles.

This game is fast and fun. The rules are simple (and they are summarised for you on reference cards) and very easily understood, but the strategy involved can be deep and often devious.

Each round you secretly choose a character, in turn, from a pool, each character gives you special rules. Use your special rule to cause another player to miss their turn, steal all their gold, or generate more gold from your own city. Each turn you can add a district to your city, once one city has eight districts the game is over and the person with the most valuable and varied city wins.

The components are very nice, the cards have a linen finish and the gold coins are durable, swirly plastic that looks really nice on the table. The game also includes a 24 card expansion that increases the character options and the purple districts (which give you special rules in the game).

If a game were to be judged on components alone, you might feel short changed at £20 for what is essentially a deck of cards, but the game you can play with those (beautifully illustrated) cards is great. This is a game for both gamers and casual gamers, playable with 2 to 8 people this game should easily find a place in most collections. It’s a great filler game but with plenty of strategy thrown in. I heartily recommend you get Citadels now...