Lost Cities

by Rio Grande Games

• For 2 players
• Great strategy game
• Tons of replay value

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 7.9 x 1.2 inches ; 15.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Origin: Germany
• ASIN: B00005UNAV
• Item model number: 124
• Manufacturer recommended age: 10 - 15 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,514 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
  • #64 in Toys & Games > Games > Card Games
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (133 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

For the daring and adventurous, there are many lost cities to explore in the Lost Cities Card Game from Rio Grande Games. Send expeditions to the Himalayas, the ever-shifting sands of the desert, the Brazilian rain forest, ancient volcanoes and even deep into Neptunes realm. With limited resources, players must choose which expeditions to begin. Those with high confidence may want to up the stakes: increasing the rewards for success, but risking more should the expedition fail. The player who finds the right balance will find victory! Lose yourself in the excitement of this engaging strategy game!

Product Description

For the daring and adventurous, there are many lost cities to explore in the Lost Cities Card Game from Rio Grande Games. Send expeditions to the Himalayas, the ever-shifting sands of the desert, the Brazilian rain forest, ancient volcanoes and even deep into Neptunes realm. With limited resources, players must choose which expeditions to begin. Those with high confidence may want to up the stakes: increasing the rewards for success, but risking more should the expedition fail. The player who finds the right balance will find victory! Lose yourself in the excitement of this engaging strategy game!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 100 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Addictive Fun July 29, 2005

By Wisconsin Dad

Format:Toy

Durability: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

My wife and I purchased this game 1 month ago and can't stop playing it. Lost Cities is a great mix of strategy, ease of game play, and just random luck. The game takes less than 10 minutes to learn, and after a few games about 15 minutes to play. You will find yourself constantly saying, "Let's play just one more time." Ultimately, that is the best statement one can make about any game.

Gameplay consists of playing from a hand of 8 cards, and trying to accumulate more points than your opponent. While there is strategy involved, generally you are playing as much against yourself as you are your opponent. If you get to aggresive in trying to build up only one of the 5 available locations, you might just get greedy for points and run out of time. We do this all the time, and love it! Generally, when my wife and I lose a game, it can be said that it's just as much our fault as it is our opponents ability to score points and beat us.

Try it, you won't regret it. (...)you won't find a more addictively fun game. "Let's play again!" For 1 to 2 players, or if you buy 2 sets of the game, 4 can play.

62 of 63 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to pick up and hard to put down January 7, 2007

By Atomicwasteland VINE™ VOICE

Format:Toy|Amazon Verified Purchase

This game is a great way to pass twenty to thirty minutes. It is very easy to learn and does not have any pieces to lose, or money to count. The strategies, however, are numerous, and there is an equal amount of luck as skill involved in good gameplay.

I really liked how the game could ONLY be played with two people, as I was tired of games that COULD be played with two, but which were really meant to be enjoyed by three or more...

Game Contents: 1 deck of game cards, and one small board. Note: If you want to make this game really portable you don't even need to bring the board. It is just a place to put discarded cards and a way to help organize your cards. As long as you have a pencil and paper for scoring at the end of the game, you can play it everywhere that you have a table. (I figure you need as much space to lay down your cards as the size of a typical Monopoly board).

Playing Note: One thing that was initially a little confusing to us when we were reading the instructions, was that the instructions do not explain that you are to place your cards on the opposite side of the board as your opponent. You can each play all 5 expeditions, in a head to head manner. We were sitting on a couch at a coffee table, and we had turned the board horizontally to face us (instead of vertically) and the instructions were confusing until we moved the board 90 degrees. The game designers assumed that you would play the game as one would play a game of checkers, sitting across from one another, but you don't actually have to play this way, even though you DO need to turn your board for the same effect.

This game is really fun and I would highly recommend other games from the same manufacturer (Rio Grande Games).... They really have a knack for publishing great strategy games. They even release expansion sets to their popular games, and they credit the players who gave them the ideas for the expansion cards. Pretty neat! Read more ›

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Husband - Wife Game February 24, 2007

By J. Nipar

Format:Toy

Everyone who plays this game says the same thing: It is a masterpiece, it is intriguing, and it is fun. There's a palatable depth to the game, too, that opens up after a few sittings. And it's quick and simple to setup - you can turn off the TV and play a round before bed.

If you were to be critical of the game, two things stand out. The playing cards are not laminated, which could be taken as a lack of quality in construction. And the exploration theme of the game is mostly irrelevant. Players could just as well be building skyscrapers. Neither my wife nor I found these (2) items to be an issue.

If you're looking for a unique and challenging game to play with your husband or wife, then Lost Cities is worth your money.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, but not addictive, 2-player card game January 29, 2008

By Alan Holyoak TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Toy

Durability: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 2.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 3.0 out of 5 stars   

There are some games out there that once I play them I can't wait to play again (e.g., "Settlers of Catan," "Ticket to Ride," etc.), but this didn't fall into that category (at least at our house). We ordered a copy of this game for Christmas 2006, played it during the holidays, and it has, with a few sporadic exceptions, rested comfortably on our shelf ever since. That doesn't mean this is a bad game...far from it! This is a good, though perhaps not great, 2-player game.

If your copy of this game is like mine, you may be intruiged to find that the rules booklet that comes with it is printed in just about every Northern European language (Finnish, etc.), but not in English. There was a single photocopied page of rules in English inserted in with the game - no big deal, just different.

The game pits two players against each other as rival explorers. They must choose a strategy that will allow them to explore as many lost cities as possible, but do so in such a way that they acumulate enough points to cover the initial debt incurred for each expedition. There is a mechanism in the game by which players determine the amount of risk for each expedition they undertake. That allows them to double, triple, etc., the possible pay-off they receive or debt they incur.

You explore cities (indicated by different colors) by collecting and playing cards in increasing numerical order. If you do not collect enough card points to exceed the initial debt for a particular expedition you lose points, thus increasing your opponent's chances of winning.

When I first played "Lost Cities" I had a tendency to embark on as many expeditions as possible.... That, however, was NOT the best strategy, because once all of the cards are drawn the game is over, and having too many expeditions running at once almost always means that you will lose points on one or more of them. I learned that a good strategy is to invest heavily in two or three expeditions at a time, thus increasing my chances of accumulating enough points to cover my debts.

Game play varies from round to round depending in how the cards turn up and how you choose to use them. There is, therefore, an element of chance and an element of strategy involved in the game.

This is a good 2-player game, at least comparable if not better than the 2-player "Catan Card Game."

3 stars for a good game, interesting, but not a chronic favorite, at least as our place. Read more ›