Customer Reviews

Citadels

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Citadels has become a great addition to my group's gaming headliners among Settler's of Catan and Puerto Rico. Depending on who you play with, this can be a very strategic and tense game as you vie for the best roles and the largest stash of gold.

If you've played Puerto Rico, then you might be familiar with the role-based mechanic of the game. There are a total of 8 roles in the base game and 10 more in the expansion that comes included (Dark City). Your choice of role provides you with different options to backstab others, build up your own city, or gather the necessary resources. It also determines the turn order. For instance, the Assassin goes first and can choose anyone to assassinate (who ever took that role skips their turn). The Thief goes next and can steal gold from a role.

Roles are taken secretly, with some put aside at the start of the turn to make sure no one can easily figure out who is who. You must balance between getting the role you need and the role which no one will suspect you of because the Assassin or Thief can shut you down in a pinch. Once roles are obtained, they are called out one by one in order - if that's your role and you haven't been Assassinated, you go.

The eight roles are:
Assassin, Thief, Magician, King, Bishop, Merchant, Architech, and Warlord

The expansion adds 14 interesting Special locations. It also adds the following eight roles correspond to and replace ones from the base game (they're similar in spirit but do drastically different things):
Witch, Tax Collector, Wizard, Emperor, Abbot, Alchemist, Navigator, Diplomat

The expansion, which is included, as features roles that take up position 9:
The Queen, and the Artist


The artwork on the card are all very interesting and roles themselves take on a life of their own with caricature-like depictions. You'll quickly gain a connection with the style and capabilities of each role ("Damn Warlord!"). We all really get into it.

Expansion cards are marked with stars for easy separation.

2-7 players, 30-60 minutes (depends on who you play with), and ages 10+ (though one or two locations depict naked people in the background, hard to really pick up on at first but when waiting for the roles to be passed around you might notice)

All-in-all, one of my favorite games for casual or intense play. It has plenty of character, quick to pick up, and is deceptively simple - making for great game play on the fly.

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TIPS: For your enjoyment and the preservation of the product, I offer some tips:

-Put the role cards into plastic card protectors; this will prolong the life of them as they will be shuffled and battered by the players throughout the game

-Get more gold counters; this isn't an issue most of the time, but with more players and with certain roles a player can stock up quite a bit of gold at times (this is important when using the expansion characters); quality of the gold counters depends on the version, from cardboard to plastic pieces

-Print or write up a card with the numbers of each role; at times, people will forget who goes next and a card like this is not provided

This strategy card game is fun, quick to set up and doesn't have a lot of pieces or rules to keep track of. I've played with 2 players and with 5, and it was just as fun either way, which is unusual for this genre. It takes about 10-15 minutes per number of players.
The objective is to build 8 buildings and gain the most points, which are printed on the building cards. Each turn players act as one of the characters and use the abilities: collect money for certain districts, steal from or assassinate another character, trade or draw extra cards, be the first to choose a character, destroy a character's building, etc.
Characters are drawn secretly, and at least one is randomly excluded. Each character goes in a predestined order, and collects money or cards, may build, and can use their ability during their turn. Whoever gets the king chooses a character first for the next round, giving them an advantage. The strategies change as the game goes on, and you're always wondering what another player is going to do, if they can sabotage you, if you can foil them, and eventually who is going to call the game by building their eighth building.

The game is awesome; all great reviews are spot on. Just wanted to add that this game comes with the "Dark City" expansion, so that you don't need to buy it separately. It says this on the box, but it's too small to see from the product photo.

This is a great strategy game. There are not many items in the contents, and the instructions are only 4 pages long, but the fun comes when the game is played. It takes a little while to learn the game, but once you get the hang of it, the fun comes. I enjoy this game because of the strategy that must be employed while playing, and this strategy changes depending on what cards are left for you each round. At the same time, you would be trying to think how others are playing their strategy, and what to do to steal their gold, kill the person for that round, or destroy their property. Though the game can be played with 2 players, I find that having about 7 players is most fun. When the group grows beyond 7 players, the game may get very long to complete, but nevertheless, this is great fun!

Didn't realize when I ordered this that it was entirely a card game, so when the smallish box arrived I was somewhat concerned. Have played several times and must admit to being extremely happy with this! The game is so simple to learn, but so deep in its play that I foresee this hitting the game table many times. Every gamer should own this gem.

Citadels is a very fun group game with lots of interesting dynamics. I find it best to play with a group of 4-8 people. With this many people the game's randomness is minimized and each turn's choices are significant. Most players are in competition till the end, and surprises can and do happen. Very good game.

I bought Citadels years and years ago on a whim. (I later got off the whim, but that's beside the point.) It's the single best board game purchase I've ever made.

The game is easy - 2 to 7 players (although the game works best with 2, 3, 6, or 7) each choose a different character from a list. The characters have special powers - the assassin can kill another player, the thief can steal someone's money, the architect can build more than one thing, etc. Once all your characters are chosen, you play out the round, putting down buildings from your hand (paying for them with gold pieces which look a lot like butterscotch candies). The goal is simply to put down as many buildings as possible.

The reason people love this game is the bluffing aspect. With 2 or 3 players, each player takes two character roles per turn and you get an amazing "guess who has what role so I can get THEM" aspect to it. When you guess wrong, it's funny, as your action is either wasted or hits the wrong person! With 6 or 7 players, it becomes a huge group "I'm not that character! He must be!" aspect to it. Not *quite* a party game, but still really fun.

I definitely recommend Citadels. It's no longer my most loved game (I own Dominion now!), but it's definitely in the top three.

This game is somewhat similar to Dominion and Settlers; you build a "city" out of "provinces" to win. Unlike Settlers, there are no dice, just a central deck that everyone draws from. And unlike Dominion, you never have to shuffle, and the game scales extremely well between 2 and 7 players.

The cool, defining "game dynamic" used by this game is that at the beginning of each round, each player chooses one of the "role" cards which gives him or her special abilities on the next turn. The great scaling for different numbers of players stems from the creative ways that roles are chosen. For example, with 4 players, you put 1 role card face down and 3 face up, and then pass the remaining cards around starting with last round's "king." The last person chooses then puts the 1 remaining card face down as well. So all of the players have some idea about what roles the others chose, but there's no certainty, so it becomes a mind game where you try to anticipate each other's moves.

For people who like social strategy games, this is a definite must-have.

This is a game that I often get out when couples are over. It's easy to play and understand, but tough to master the strategy. It's a card game. You draw roles, and play according to the role you randomly pick. The strategy is to know how to use your card's strength. Very fun, and fast game, that I would highly recommend.

My girlfriend and I were looking for a good game for two people (though it is also just as fun with 3+ players) and with Citadels we found one. You don't have to have any experience with strategy games (or any games at all) to learn and enjoy this one. The more you play and the better you get at it, the more fun it becomes because you are learning to implement strategy along the way. I can see how it might be frustrating for someone who is just learning if they are playing someone who already know how to play. But in my opinion any game that a novice can play and have an equal chance at winning against someone who has been playing is not a game worth playing at all, much less spending money on. The instructions are a bit unclear at first (at least until you know how to play and then you scratch your head as to why you were confused in the first place). My advice is to play a few rounds with your cards up to learn the ropes before actually PLAYING the game competitively. Each game takes between 20 and 40 minutes, but keep in mind that you'll probably not be able to stop after just one. Sometimes we play five or six games before we know it. I'd also advice mastering the regular deck before experimenting with the expansion cards, but that might just be me. Great game.