Lost Cities

My brother and sister-in-law got Laura and me the game Lost Cities by Rio Grande Games. The two of them had been looking around for a good two-player game and this came highly recommended. It's a pretty good one.

There are about 60 different cards with 12 of each color. They number from 2-10, and then there are three different finance cards. Each person has eight cards in their hand. Every turn, you play one and draw one. The idea is to get the most points at the end of the game. Each person has their own field of play, so I can't play on my opponent's stacks of cards. You can play cards on any of the five colors as long as the color matches and the number is higher than the one already there (you can put anything down of that color to begin with). So if I have a red 3 down, I can put a 4-10 down. But I can't put down the 2 that I just got at the end of last turn.

Once the game is done, you count up the numbers in each of your stacks and subtract 20 from each one (that's the money you invested to go on the journey). So if I played a 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, I'd end up with 11 points (3+4+6+8+10-20=11). If I had a 2, 6, 10, I'd end up with -2 points. I do that for each stack and whoever has the most points wins.

Now the Finance cards throw another little twist in the game. You have to play them before any numbers are placed in the stack, and there are three for each color. What each one does is multiply your final total for that stack by an additional one. So if I have two finance cards down in the example I got 11 points for, I'd end up with 33 points. And if I have them for the example I have -2 points in, I'd get -6 points.

The game ends when the last card is drawn from the deck.

Pretty simple game. Each turn you put a card down on one of your stacks or discard a card to a mutual discard pile for each color, then you draw a card from the deck or from one of the mutual discard piles. As you see your opponent starting to play certain colors, you move to block them by holding the key cards they need. Once they've started playing cards, you can pitch the lower ones if you don't think you'll do well enough in an expedition on that color to make up your initial 20 point investment.

Overall, a very fast game, and pretty fun. Laura and I have been splitting the games pretty well, and my mother's a big fan of it too. I like that it's designed to be cleaned out in about 5-10 minutes, and the replay value is pretty high. Each game you don't know where the value will be and you're trying to decipher your opponent's strategy while keeping yours hidden for as long as possible. Play the color you want to get the most points from too early and your opponent will start hording those cards. Play it too late and you may not have enough time to finish it. If you're looking for a fun, relatively mindless two-player game, I'd put this one up on your list. Laura and I now have three we like to play: Lost Cities, Racko, and Bananagrams.