Lost Cities

Lost Cities

Lost Cities is a card game from the Kosmos two-player series. The object is to mount profitable expeditions to one or more of the five different lost cities. Card play is quite straightforward, with a few agonizing moments sprinkled through what is mostly a fast-moving game. If you start a given expedition, you'd better make some progress in it, or it'll score you negative points. If you can make a lot of progress, you'll score quite well. After three rounds, the highest total score takes the day.

Rules are included for a four-player team game that requires two copies to play.

BoardGameGeek Info

Publisher
Rio Grande Games
Published in
1999
My Rating
6.0
BGG Rating
7.14
BGG Rank
330
Players
2
Ages
10+
Duration
0:30
Complexity
1.4777 / 5
Acquired
July 2006
Eager to Play
No
Plays
5
Last Played
January 18, 2010
Time Spent
2:30

This is a mathematics/numbers game. There are 5 expeditions, each with 3 investment cards and 1 copy of each number between (and including) 2 and 10. Each turn you play a card either into one of your expeditions or onto the discard pile for that expedition. Then you draw a card, either from the draw pile or from one of the discard piles. When you play a card on your expedition the card you play must be of greater value than the one previously played. At the end of the game, as soon as the draw pile is empty, each player totals their expeditions, subtracting 20 points from each expedition they contributed to.

The tension in the game comes from deciding when to start an expedition and which ones to abandon, as trying to play all of them will result in negative points for at least one. Players are making decisions based on the totals they can make, as well as deciding to give up a card their opponent might take in order to stall and hope for a better draw.

It plays fast, but is rather light on strategy. It makes for a great filler or casual game.

Five plays

  • January 18, 2010
  • January 17, 2010
  • August 16, 2008
  • July 31, 2006
  • July 30, 2006