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Overview

Citadels is a card game aimed at the German game market, Settlers of Cataan being a classic example. German boardgames are known for their emphasis on strategy over luck, multi-player games, high production quality components, often abstract mechanics, and **usually** appropriate themes. The strategy aspect differentiates it from more random "beer and pretzels" gaming, while the "thinly pasted theme" of some German games (though not Citadels) may bother roleplayers (let's play a rummy card game originally themed as waiters in a cafe and call it Vampire!!!).

Thankfully for roleplayers, the theme of Citadels is strong enough. Each player plays a leader of a rival city, composed of districts. Each turn, each player plays a character, who represents the leader of the city. Yes, it does seem odd that you're a Warlord one round, and the Magician the next, so if you think of each player as a "power behind the throne" and the character as a pawn, for the moment, under your control, it works just fine. The distinguishing mechanic of the game is that the characters are chosen secretly, but you can **try** to deduce what character an opponent is playing. It's also a resource game, as you balance building districts with your cash flow, and a social game, as players to interact with each other.

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Components

Citadels features a character deck and a district deck, with a flat finish. The color art on the face of these cards is gorgeous. The game also has the familiar FFG punched-out gold and scoring chits. The character cards are the most handled during the game, so you will want to sleeve them before playing.

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Mechanics

The mechanics are quite simple. Each round has four steps. In the first two steps, the characters are secretly distributed. In step one, one character card is drawn face-down and two face up; none of these will be used during the round. In step two, the player who has the Crown token (typically the last player to play the King character) picks the character he wishes to play from the remaining characters.

Step three are the player turns. The turns are taken in order of the character rank number Assassin (1), Thief (2), Magician (3), King (4), etc., but a player reveals his character only at the beginning of his turn. During your turn, you may either draw a district card (draw two, choose one), or gain two gold. You may then play a district -- and only one district. To play a district, you must pay gold equal to the district's cost. Cost ranges from one to six gold. District cards are played face-up; only the face-up district cards and number of cards players' hands are "public" information. Step four is the end of the round, at which players return their characters to the new King, who starts the next round. When one player creates a city of eight districts, players finish the round and the game ends. The the winner is the player whose city has the highest total cost plus scoring bonuses, including first to create a city.

There is long-term strategic planning, as you balance playing the cheaper districts to complete your city (remember: unless you're the Architect, you can only build one district per round!), with the costlier districts which will score more points. It's definitely a "limited resource" game. There never seems to be enough gold, district cards, or actions one can have during a turn!

The fun of the game is how the characters interact and out-thinking your opponents. Players of Cosmic Encounter will feel a twinge of familiarity with this game. It's pretty easy to select the optimum character to play during your turn -- the problem is that your opponents may know as well:

* Player 1: You're low on gold, and Bernie has handed you the characters he hasn't chosen. One of them is the Merchant (6). After you take your action (of taking two gold), you will receive one extra gold. The Merchant also allows you to collect one extra gold for every trade (green) district in your city, and you have two such districts in play. Except Bernie has also handed you the Assassin (1) so you know someone will play him. And Louis also knows you don't have much gold and you have two trade districts...

* Player 2: It's almost the end of the game, and you have six districts. Only two more, and the game will be over. And, since you were the King (4) last turn, you get to go first. One of the characters you can select from is the Architect (7). You also have six gold, enough to play two of your three district cards and end the game. Except that you also have the Magician (3), who allows you to trade hands with another player. And the Thief (2), who steals gold from another character at the beginning of the character's turn. And Shiela has a hand of no cards and doesn't have any gold, either...

* Player 3: You've just been handed the Assassin (1), the Thief (2), and the Magician (3). You don't know what other characters are in play this round. Which character will you pick and what will you do with it???

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Comments

If you enjoy light German games, it's a no-brainer to buy Citadels. This game is regularly played at my local German games group. No mind-wracking long-term decisions found in more serious German games crop up, but there's enough mind games in the character selection to keep one busy. Citadels plays best with five players, and takes under an hour to play. It also contains additional character cards not found in the previous European edition ("Ohne Furcht und Adel"). I wouldn't suggest more than five players, however. A nine-hour game took two hours, and there was considerable thumb-twiddling as player chose their characters. Likewise, the effect of the Assassin and Thief decreases with more players. New players **can** screw up other player's tactics ("Oops, sorry. I wanted to assassinate **him**!"), and being hit by the Assassin or Thief pretty much causes a player not be able to play during a round. I would seriously suggest to other players (especially the "beer and pretzel" gamers) to first play a few German games with their friends to see if they like the genre.

One note to roleplayers. GMs are a creative lot, and I wouldn't be surprised if a GM could tack this game onto a fantasy roleplaying game to add a political element. Take a break from the rpg itself, invite a few card players, and determine the rpg player's future based on how the card game turned out. Hardly intentioned by the game designer, but a GM can also use the cards to improvise areas of a city. Need to brainstorm up the seedier part of the merchant's quarter? Pull out the cheaper green merchant district cards, add a few other low-cost city cards, and lay out a few cards. Which factions are fighting over it? Shuffle together the characters of rank three or below, lay out a pyramid of three cards, and there's your power structure.

An essay about German Games: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~debbiep/billabong/german.html

About.com's section on German Games (aka. Designer Games): http://boardgames.about.com/library/games/blgerman.htm

Additional Citadel reviews and resources at BoardGameGeek.com: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=478

Citadels Game Designer Brunco Faidutti's website: http://faidutti.free.fr/jeux/games.html

Vampire (cough) review on BoardGameGeek: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=497

Citadels
Citadels Capsule Review by Cedric Chin on 20/07/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) A no-brainer to add to your German game collection. Assuming you have one. Product: Citadels Author: Brunoe Faidutti Category: Card Game Company/Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games Line: Cost: 20 Page count: n/a Year published: 2002 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by Cedric Chin on 20/07/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Diceless	Overview Citadels is a card game aimed at the German game market, Settlers of Cataan being a classic example. German boardgames are known for their emphasis on strategy over luck, multi-player games, high production quality components, often abstract mechanics, and usually appropriate themes. The strategy aspect differentiates it from more random "beer and pretzels" gaming, while the "thinly pasted theme" of some German games (though not Citadels) may bother roleplayers (let's play a rummy card game originally themed as waiters in a cafe and call it Vampire!!!). Thankfully for roleplayers, the theme of Citadels is strong enough. Each player plays a leader of a rival city, composed of districts. Each turn, each player plays a character, who represents the leader of the city. Yes, it does seem odd that you're a Warlord one round, and the Magician the next, so if you think of each player as a "power behind the throne" and the character as a pawn, for the moment, under your control, it works just fine. The distinguishing mechanic of the game is that the characters are chosen secretly, but you can try to deduce what character an opponent is playing. It's also a resource game, as you balance building districts with your cash flow, and a social game, as players to interact with each other. ** Components Citadels features a character deck and a district deck, with a flat finish. The color art on the face of these cards is gorgeous. The game also has the familiar FFG punched-out gold and scoring chits. The character cards are the most handled during the game, so you will want to sleeve them before playing. ** Mechanics The mechanics are quite simple. Each round has four steps. In the first two steps, the characters are secretly distributed. In step one, one character card is drawn face-down and two face up; none of these will be used during the round. In step two, the player who has the Crown token (typically the last player to play the King character) picks the character he wishes to play from the remaining characters. Step three are the player turns. The turns are taken in order of the character rank number Assassin (1), Thief (2), Magician (3), King (4), etc., but a player reveals his character only at the beginning of his turn. During your turn, you may either draw a district card (draw two, choose one), or gain two gold. You may then play a district -- and only one district. To play a district, you must pay gold equal to the district's cost. Cost ranges from one to six gold. District cards are played face-up; only the face-up district cards and number of cards players' hands are "public" information. Step four is the end of the round, at which players return their characters to the new King, who starts the next round. When one player creates a city of eight districts, players finish the round and the game ends. The the winner is the player whose city has the highest total cost plus scoring bonuses, including first to create a city. There is long-term strategic planning, as you balance playing the cheaper districts to complete your city (remember: unless you're the Architect, you can only build one district per round!), with the costlier districts which will score more points. It's definitely a "limited resource" game. There never seems to be enough gold, district cards, or actions one can have during a turn! The fun of the game is how the characters interact and out-thinking your opponents. Players of Cosmic Encounter will feel a twinge of familiarity with this game. It's pretty easy to select the optimum character to play during your turn -- the problem is that your opponents may know as well: * Player 1: You're low on gold, and Bernie has handed you the characters he hasn't chosen. One of them is the Merchant (6). After you take your action (of taking two gold), you will receive one extra gold. The Merchant also allows you to collect one extra gold for every trade (green) district in your city, and you have two such districts in play. Except Bernie has also handed you the Assassin (1) so you know someone will play him. And Louis also knows you don't have much gold and you have two trade districts... * Player 2: It's almost the end of the game, and you have six districts. Only two more, and the game will be over. And, since you were the King (4) last turn, you get to go first. One of the characters you can select from is the Architect (7). You also have six gold, enough to play two of your three district cards and end the game. Except that you also have the Magician (3), who allows you to trade hands with another player. And the Thief (2), who steals gold from another character at the beginning of the character's turn. And Shiela has a hand of no cards and doesn't have any gold, either... * Player 3: You've just been handed the Assassin (1), the Thief (2), and the Magician (3). You don't know what other characters are in play this round. Which character will you pick and what will you do with it??? ** Comments If you enjoy light German games, it's a no-brainer to buy Citadels. This game is regularly played at my local German games group. No mind-wracking long-term decisions found in more serious German games crop up, but there's enough mind games in the character selection to keep one busy. Citadels plays best with five players, and takes under an hour to play. It also contains additional character cards not found in the previous European edition ("Ohne Furcht und Adel"). I wouldn't suggest more than five players, however. A nine-hour game took two hours, and there was considerable thumb-twiddling as player chose their characters. Likewise, the effect of the Assassin and Thief decreases with more players. New players can screw up other player's tactics ("Oops, sorry. I wanted to assassinate him**!"), and being hit by the Assassin or Thief pretty much causes a player not be able to play during a round. I would seriously suggest to other players (especially the "beer and pretzel" gamers) to first play a few German games with their friends to see if they like the genre. One note to roleplayers. GMs are a creative lot, and I wouldn't be surprised if a GM could tack this game onto a fantasy roleplaying game to add a political element. Take a break from the rpg itself, invite a few card players, and determine the rpg player's future based on how the card game turned out. Hardly intentioned by the game designer, but a GM can also use the cards to improvise areas of a city. Need to brainstorm up the seedier part of the merchant's quarter? Pull out the cheaper green merchant district cards, add a few other low-cost city cards, and lay out a few cards. Which factions are fighting over it? Shuffle together the characters of rank three or below, lay out a pyramid of three cards, and there's your power structure. An essay about German Games: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~debbiep/billabong/german.html About.com's section on German Games (aka. Designer Games): http://boardgames.about.com/library/games/blgerman.htm Additional Citadel reviews and resources at BoardGameGeek.com: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=478 Citadels Game Designer Brunco Faidutti's website: http://faidutti.free.fr/jeux/games.html Vampire (cough) review on BoardGameGeek: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=497