On the Board: Thoughts on Citadels

I've been out of town the past week, rolling around the old stomping grounds of VA so I could spend some time with the family.  That means no plastic army men, but I was able to attend board game night.  What initially was supposed to be a quick game of Citadels turned into a full-blown eight player version, as people trickled in just in time to get dealt into the first hand.  I enjoyed the game, so I thought I'd share a few of my initial impressions.

From Fantasy Flight Games

The game is incredibly simple to pick up.  The general run of play really is as easy as reading the three paragraphs on the instruction card provided for each player.  If you add to that reading the two sentences for each of the available characters and you've pick up everything you need to play in the practical sense, if not tactically.  Game turns consist of players picking one of nine unique occupations with an associated bonus.  The previous turns King gets his choice of eight, allowing the next player choice of seven, and on down the line, until last pick who chooses between the ninth card which was placed in the middle and the final card left available from those picking.  Player turns are then taken in order based on occupation.  Each player takes their bonus, chooses to take gold or cards, and then chooses if they want to pay to add one area to their city.  Each area is worth victory points based on cost, and whoever has the most at the end wins.

While simple, the game does have tactical depth.  Power fluctuates from turn to turn as different players take the lead, resulting in assassination attempts based on deductive reasoning, attempts to protect oneself slowing down your production, and character choice becoming very tricky.  Primacy is good but not all-important.  I went last on four of the ten or so turns we played and still did very well.  Balanced cities tend to do best so all the roles associated with a certain color at least yield some benefit.  Despite some characters (namely, The Architect) initially seeming overly powerful, others tend to balance them out (The Assassin and The Thief).  The dynamic yields a lovely dance with each player trying to decide how best to move themselves forward, while deducing how to slow down the other front runners.

Of course, there are always negatives.  The cards that make up your tableau seem to be hardly more than a card with a picture.  While everything has a unique name, the potential for depth seems to have been squandered.  There are special cards that have a benefit associated with them, but it's never very impressive and they seem few and far between.  That said, the game would most certainly change with a smaller group, the alternative occupations (apparently in the set), or a more competitive focus.  Honestly, I think that is how I would choose to play it if given the choice.  It strikes me as well suited for the cutthroat types who are playing to win, and while that's not all I play for, I think that would be for the best.  It's not quite Dominion, which can be played either for fun or competitively.  It's the opposite of Race for the Galaxy, where the card selections are so vast, you almost have to play it as a casual encounter.  I liked the game, but I don't think it will ever be a personal favorite.  I would definitely play it again though.  I'm happy to have it in the group's collection, but am OK not having it in mine.