presentation

Lost Cities Das Duell

Rivalry for successful expeditions

19 years after the publication of Lost Cities we are again sending expeditions into Ice, Rain Forest, Desert, Volcanic Cave and under Water, again by using cards 2-10 in five colors and three betting cards per color. There is also a discard board with five cases in the five expedition colors, and you begin with eight cards from the well-shuffled deck.

A turn comprises placing or discarding a card and then drawing a card. You can place a card to begin a new expedition row, or to expand an expedition; for this, the new card you place must be higher than the currently last one in the row. Gaps are allowed, but cannot be filled, and you can only start one expedition per color. If you have betting cards of a color, you can place them at the start of an expedition, the double the value of an expedition. If you do not want or cannot place a card, you put a card on a slot on the discard board. You can draw a card from the face-down deck or from each of the discard slots on the board.

The game ends when the last card is drawn from the deck; the expeditions are now scored: Each expedition that you started has -20 points basic costs to which you add the values of all cards; an expedition containing minimum eight cards yields a bonus of +20. Betting cards multiply positive and negative points. After three such rounds, you win with most points.

Somehow, you are being played and then maybe not, the discard board seems to provide some tactic, but all in all you don’t care because the game is pure fun and also thrilling - can I get all expedition into positive values? Ha, there is tactic! Simple, easy, quick and very, very good!

Players: 2

Age:10+

Time: 30+

Designer: Reiner Knizia

Artist: Vincent Dutrait

Price: ca. 16 Euro

Publisher: Kosmos Verlag 2018

Web: www.kosmos.de

Genre: Card placement 

Users: For families

Special: 2 players

Version: de

Rules: de + 18 languages

In-game text: no

Comments:

New edition, first edition as “Lost Cities” 1999

Series: Für Zwei Spieler

Unchanged rules

Superlatively good game for two players

Compares to:

Lost Cities

Other editions:

Currently Galakta (pl), Iello (fr), lots of editions of Lost City (1999-2016)

Chance (pink): 3

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0