Citadels Review

As towering and ancient as it’s title suggests, Citadels is a legend in board gaming. Originally released back in the year 2000 (ask your gaming grandparents what life was like back then kids!) Citadels has cast a long shadow across the hobby. Or perhaps I should say a bright light, a giant upon whose shoulders many games have stood. It practically introduced the mechanic of role selection into the hobby, for goodness sake. And now it’s back in a brand new, expanded edition. My, those towers have never shined so brightly!

 

 

Players: 2-8

Time: 20-60 mins

Ages: 10+

 

 

 

But a new edition of Citadels asks many questions too. Does a 16 year old game still stack up or are those foundations starting to crumble? Do you plop down an extra £10 for the new, deluxe edition when the original is still in print, or even part of your collection? And why the hell did you assassinate me when he is clearly in the lead!?

The Citadels Guided Tour

Tour guide: Welcome, everyone, to the Citadels tour. I’m sure many of you have been here before and I’m sure much will be recognisable even beneath the substantial facelift. Our benefactors spared no expense. Please could I ask that you refrain from using flash photography throughout the tour, that you ensure your pets don’t touch anything and that children are kept on a lead at all times? Thank you.

Now, Citadels is and has always been a game in which your primary aim is to build a collection of districts for your city. While the first player to reach the target of 7 districts, yes I said 7, will earn a bonus, it is the total value of the locations that will determine the winner. As my father used to say, it’s not how many buttons you have, it’s how shiny they are that count. But then, he did get arrested for running down the high street with no trousers on… anyway, where were we? Ah yes, you see you have the choice of building a small city of gorgeous high scoring buildings or a sprawling hovel of… well… also gorgeous buildings! But seeing as how construction is simply a case of paying coins to build a card from your hand, this would be a bland and uninteresting experience if it weren’t for the roles.

The abnormally huge role cards and their abilities are the central crux of Citadels about which all the other elements revolve. Each round, the set of roles are passed around, with players choosing one as they get to them and some being discarded so that no one knows exactly who you have, much like a college party. These determine when you’ll go in the round, as they are resolved in order from 1 to 9, but more importantly determine what special ability you’ll be using this turn.

In this new edition there are 3 different roles carrying each number, so each game can feature a unique mix of roles. Isn’t that exciting!? No, please don’t fondle the Cardinal, he’s very particular about these things. The roles follow a theme though. So the 4’s are the leaders: the King, Emperor and Patricians who are all about moving the ridiculously ornate crown marker around.

The 4’s also earn money for every yellow noble district in their city. This is a core theme. The 5’s do similar for the blue religious districts, the 6’s with trade districts, the 8’s with military. So one strategy can be to focus on a given colour of district and take its matching role card for ALL THE MONIES. But, you see, everyone will know you want to do this. You don’t want to do that. Oh God no!

The 1’s, you see, are your vicious attack vector. Consider the assassin (no photography…! Oh great, another dead tourist. You just can’t help yourself can you?). As you might expect, she’ll kill a character on her turn. The player merely has to name that character, and then if anyone was silly enough to take that card then tough, they’re dead. Since she goes first, everyone is fair (or maybe unfair) game. This is one of those truly love-hate roles. On the one hand it exemplifies what Citadels is meant to be about: out-guessing your opponents. Going for the role that is best for you is seriously risky and it’s essential to keep yourself from becoming a target. But on the other hand it’s a slightly random skip-a-turn mechanic that rarely hits its intended target and can end up punishing one player disproportionately, through no fault of their own. Although I’m sure we can all agree, that photographer was asking for it.

Whether the tension in the decision making and the opportunity to try and read your opponents makes up for having to sit out an odd round or two will be a big factor in determining whether you’ll enjoy Citadels or not. If you are taken out though, at least the 2’s can’t steal your money!

Speaking of which, don’t forget to visit the shop on your way out!

Within that lose framework, individual roles and their combinations mix things up considerably, sometimes making powerful synergies or directly conflicting with one another. The “classic” set of original roles are simple enough to introduce new gamers to and in fact many of us had one of our earliest gaming experiences picking the merchant’s pockets and stabbing the magician. I know I did! As players get more experienced, the more complicated expansion and new roles can be mixed in. Citadels is now a game that you can play just to explore new roles and combinations.

With that, the basic tour is over but be sure to visit the coffee shop or stay for some more in depth analysis. And yes dear, you can collect your husbands body from the trade entrance around behind the latrines.

Out with the old

Matt: The first thing about the new edition that you can’t help but shout from the rooftops about is the art. It’s just magnificent. Each location is a joy to pore over. The role cards are gloriously extravagant in size and, while the backgrounds are a little drab, the people depicted are so… alive! Like Dave from IT,

Hillary Clinton,

And a woman who doesn’t know how to wear necklaces,

Gone are the morose men from the previous edition; in their place are an impressively diverse array of characters you might actually want to interact with. Seriously, Citadels is almost a benchmark for providing solid representation in a board game. They’ve even managed to get a female Bishop in the game, a feat that took the Church of England over 400 years.

Unlike previous editions that I’ve played, you also get a complete set of tokens to help remind everyone what roles are in the game. This is such a useful addition to a game that wants you to mix up characters. Better yet, more than one of the new roles makes use of these tokens in their powers, making them more than just fun filler.

The blackmailer seems to know everyone’s dark secrets (better not to ask how) and can threaten characters with exposure each round. The great thing is she has two tokens, one a valid threat, the other an empty bluff, so two characters are offered a choice in turn: call her bluff, potentially losing all of their coins, or pay her half of what you’ve got to keep the secret. The magistrate has a similar threat system, but here the target is forced to give the magistrate any building they construct that round as the courts seize it from you. I love the added bluffing here!

The Scholar is a great card for building exactly what you need, the Marshal let’s you buy over players’ cheap buildings off them and the Seer is an evil Marxist who redistributes everyone’s cards as she sees fit (can you tell I’ve been hit by that one before?). The Spy picks a card type and gets one of your gold and a card from the deck for each of those districts you have in hand. Random on its own, but holy hell does it combo nicely with someone like the Wizard or the Seer that gives you information on other players’ hands. Not that all the new rules are as awesome: the Patrician and the CARDinal just get cards instead of coins for their corresponding districts. Not as exciting (although points for puns).

The one disappointing thing with this new edition is that middle aged spread seems to have set in with a box that is much larger than it once was and no longer able to slip into a bag for a night out as easily as it used to. For fans of the original though, this is a superb set that easily justifies its “deluxe” status. It really is the perfect excuse to spend more time with a game you love.

That’s it Citadels fans.

Nothing more to see. Bye.

Right, good, they’re gone. For all you readers who are new to Citadels it’s time to bring up some harsh truths. Citadels is an old game, and all the artwork in the world can’t change that. The fact is, the game takes a lot of time. More than it should. The problem is each player needs to choose their roles one at a time, and you don’t know what options you’ll have until you see the cards for the first time. Then each player has to resolve their actions, one… at… a… time. Add in new roles to worry about and the game feels almost painfully slow even with only 4 or 5 players, let alone the 8 the game claims to play up to (dear God, don’t play this with 8).

It couldn’t work any other way. The game you do experience is thoroughly enjoyable too. Be quick with your decisions and you will get to have a great time. But if I had to recommend any game to you today, I would probably tell you to up Mission Red Planet instead. It’s got the same tense role selection but everyone chooses at the same time, it’s equally accessible, yet has crunchier decisions, better player interaction, and wraps up in the quickest hour you’ll ever experience… at a table… playing a board game. It’s even by the same designer, the same publisher, and got its own beautiful re-release just last year!

Go play Mission Red Planet first, then seek out Citadels. It’s still a classic, but some else has the King card now.

Rating: A Golden Age

 

Our copy of Citadels was provided for review by Esdevium Games. You can pick it up from your local hobby store for £27.99 RRP.