Thames & Kosmos 691821 Lost Cities: The Card Game | Who Will Discover the Ancient Civilizations? | Strategic Game, 2 Players | Ages 10+, 7.9'

Really enjoy this 2 player card game! We had it for four months now and played it many times with my husband. We own selection of two player games such as Targi, Patchwork, Hanamikoji, Agricola ACBAS and 7 Wonders Duel. They all are great (highly recommend them btw) and different, but I especially enjoy this one. Quick set up, clear rules, a bit of luck, strategic card placement and repeat. Sometimes we would play over 5 rounds in one go! Yes, it is strategic as well. Player can only have 8 cards on their hands, therefore, each turn you either add a card to your expedition, or discard it on the board in the middle. You pick the card either from the deck, or one from the discarded cards (top one). Once the card had been placed into an expedition, you cannot remove it, next card placed has to be of higher value. Objective is to build total value of your expeditions as high as you can. Sometimes you have to choose to give up the card your opponent desires, to free space in hand and pick one from the deck, hoping you'll get the one you need. Other times all cards you have are great and high value, so you don't want to play them yet, but at the same time you need to play one, so you have to make a hard choice. It is about keeping the right balance. You also "pay" for each expedition you committed to (cards you've put down on your side of the board) at the end of the game, which can make your total score go into minus if you're not careful, or commit to several expeditions, but cannot build their value.The game takes little space, we did take it with us when traveling. Which was great! The board is double sided - one side Basic game (5 expeditions), other Long game (6 expeditions). We started off by playing 5, but now only play 6. It does make it more interesting with 6. Overall, one round takes 20-30 minutes.Artwork is ok. I've seen pictures of first edition online, and visually I prefer it over this one. However, when in play, I noticed I never look at the pictures anyway, just the top expedition symbol and numeric value. You can see from my pictures - cards are all different, but artwork follows the theme of expedition. Cards are good size and fit in hand nicely (see picture with typical credit card in white at the side for comparison). They ate exactly 11 cm by 7 cm, in case if you want to buy sleeves. We didn't. Really recommend it, box says it fits ages 10+. We are couple of decades ahead of the limit and do enjoy it nevertheless!

This is a really fun game, for two players (no more, no less!). It was relatively straightforward to learn, so we could start playing straightaway, yet there is sufficient strategy involved to keep you interested beyond the initial few games. Read the rules carefully, as we did find that we had skim read them too quickly at first, and were adding up the scores incorrectly at the end!Each game doesn't last too long, so it's good to play if you haven't got much time, but is also addictive enough that if you have more time you could quite happily play multiple rounds. In our group it also seemed to be enjoyed equally by people who don't play many board games and those that do, so is very accessible.Highly recommended!

Great Card Game, easy to learn, doesn't take long - always leads to 'best of 3 / 5?'

Lost Cities is one of Reiner Knizia's early games, but still happens to be one of his best offerings for strictly 2 players. (along with the brilliant Battle Line).Components; Cards, just good ol' cards with brilliant artwork.Theme: Just like Knizia's many other games, the theme is there as long as you play along with it. You might look at it as just playing cards in an ascending order, or you may look at the art and imagine you are actually moving closer to your destination.Gameplay: Fast, and quite interactive, as there is always a chance of blocking your opponent's expedition.Verdict: If you are looking for a simple 2 player game with good depth,look no further. Plays brilliantly on two flight trays as well!

This is a very entertaining card have. The premise is simple. You aim to score the most points, by building a deck of cards in increasing value. Both you and your opponent work with the same cards so its important to try and figure out what their plan is.Lost Cities is really good fun. It's write a tactical game, as if you don't make 20 from your decks then you lose points. You need to take chances and calculated risks to really do well.

This is a game I've wanted for a while but it was seemingly out of print and only available at outrageous cost. The new version has a new box but otherwise I'm not aware of any differences. This is a quick to learn, 2-player card game where each player is attempting to create "runs" of cards of different colours. The theme works but it does feel slightly tacked on but this doesn't detract from the excellent gameplay.I've taken a star off as the cards and board feel way bigger to me than necessary. This makes it hard to track down suitable sleeves (a must if playing in places with sticky surfaces, e.g. the pub!) and it takes up a lot more room than needed. I'd love a shrunk down mini-cities with smaller components.Overall this was well worth the wait and I can see this getting a lot of plays

simple to learn the mechanics, requires good strategies, quick and addictive game (let's take 5 min more for one more game).

Great game, really easybto learn and pick up but once you get into it you are really thinking hard for a strategy to win. Bought it as a present for my other half and we've both had great fun playing together.