Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 20 – 40 minutes
Age requirements: 10+
Set-up time:  3 min

Lost Cities Rules Description:
Many people want to know a good board game to play for two. For my first wedding anniversary my wife bought me Lost Cities. It is a great game for just two people that provides hours of fun. You are an explorer in search of what else…lost cities. However you must choose which sites to explore and which to leave behind. Will you accept outside investors which can bring great reward and also great risk?

Lost Cities starts with each player getting a hand of 8 cards. The cards come in 5 colors (yellow, blue, white, green and red) numbered 1 through 10. Each color also has 3 investment cards. On your turn you play a card on your side of the board on the color of the city you’d like to explore. The only catch is that the card you play must be of a higher value than the last one you played. Investments are like zeros in that they must be played first. If you don’t want to lay a card on a city to explore you can discard it in the middle of the board on the corresponding color. To end your turn you draw one card from either the top of draw pile or the top card from one of the discard piles in the center of the board. You may not simply discard a card and pick it back up.

Play continues until the last card is taken from the draw pile. Now you calculate your score. Each expedition (color) is scored separately. Each expedition costs 20 so you add the total of your cards in a color and subtract 20. This gives you the value of each expedition. Colors with no cards on them are counted as zero, not -20. Investments multiply the value of your expedition and you can have 1, 2, or 3 investments resulting in a multiplier of 2, 3, or 4. This multiplier counts positively or negatively. Lastly if an expedition has 8 cards played on it (including investments), it scores a bonus 20 points. These points are added after the multiplier.

Scores are recorded and players play another round with the player with the most points going first. Usually a game consists of 3 rounds but this can be decided upon by you.

Check out this video for a quick explanation of the rules and basic game play.

A Quick Review of Lost Cities:
Lost Cities is a fun game and it has some nice nuances to it. After playing it a few times you see there may be more strategy in it than you thought. It is full of decisions and you can find yourself waiting for cards in one expedition by destroying another expedition. Although there is a good bit of luck in this game with the right strategy you can make your own luck….sometimes.

The reprint only updates the cover art. So if you own the original there is no need to buy the reprint. Unless you want to give it as a gift. 🙂

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 2 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6