(Image From: https://www.kosmosgames.co.uk/games/lost-cities-the-original-card-game/)
When we decided we wanted to include a Valentine’s Day article in February’s newsletter featuring the staff’s favorite two-player games, I began to think: “What IS my favorite two player game?” I always struggle with the “favorite game” question. I love so many games. I have too many favorites. I frequently play with just one other person. Usually it’s my son, but also frequently my husband or a friend.
I also thought maybe the Valentine’s Day article should
focus on our top selling 2-player games. Those include Magic: the Gathering,
Pokémon, Codenames Duet, Watergate (which was my top pick for the holidays), 7
Wonders Duel, Patchwork, The Fox in the Forest Duet, Jaipur, and last December,
somewhat unusually (thanks to an extremely popular Netflix show) chess. But
then there are also the 2+ player games that we love for just two players.
These feel like they are in a different category from games that are
specifically designed for just 2. Carcassonne, Azul, Qwirkle, Scrabble, The
Game, Wingspan, Sprawlopolis, Pandemic, Abandon All Artichokes, Bandido,
Villainous, Splendor are all games that I’ve recently been loving to play with
just 2. How will I ever decide?
So, I decided to ask our Facebook followers. They gave so
many great recommendations. Check out the post and thread here: https://www.facebook.com/labyrinthgameshop/posts/3933737913312518
I was still completely undecided, until I asked my husband. My
husband has low vision which severely limits the games he can play easily. He
doesn’t usually enjoy board games because he can’t see the board. Mostly we
play card games. I asked him what his favorite game to play with just me was.
His answer: Lost Cities! We’ve played this game together for
years (it was originally published in 1999), and it is still the one we play
most often. I remember our first game. I had played before which gave me an advantage,
so he lost badly. Later that night while I was soundly asleep, I felt him
poking my shoulder. When I asked what he wanted, he said, “I figured out what I
did wrong in that game. You’ll never win again.” Seriously, my husband woke me
up at 3am to trash talk me. Ah, love – it’s a beautiful thing. It must be love
because he’s still alive, and after many years, we still have a very fierce
rivalry over Lost Cities. Now he does win some, but we are evenly matched, and
the win/loss ratio is close enough to keep things interesting and the trash
talk lively.
Lost Cities is a card game in the Kosmos 2-player series. It
was designed by Reiner Knizia, one
of the world's most prolific game designers and a Labyrinth staff favorite. Dr.
Knizia has a PhD in mathematics and the mechanics of his games usually
explore various mathematical ideas in interesting ways. Lost Cities plays in
about 15 to 20 minutes, but we usually play several games back-to-back keeping
score to see who the overall winner will be. Sometimes we keep scores going for
months. In Lost Cities, you have a hand of 8 cards. In the original version of
the game, there were 5 colored suits numbered 2 to 10 that represent different archeological
expeditions. The newest version has an extra color, with this 6th
suit being optional for game play. Using the 6th suit changes the
tempo of the game and makes it a bit longer. We enjoy playing both ways. There
are also 3 “investment” (or “handshake”) cards for each suit. On your turn you
must play a card first. You can either play it on your side of the board to
invest in an expedition or discard it to the center of the playing area. If you
discard it, it will be available to be picked up by the other player at the end
of their next turn. You do not want to give the other player anything they can
use. Points are very tight. Investing in an expedition (playing cards on our
side) costs you money (points) though. As soon as you play a card in any suit,
that costs you 20 points. So, if I play a red 2 on my side of the board, I now
have -18 points in red. I need to play enough red cards of continuously increasing
values before the end of the game to make each expedition profitable (having a
positive point value). If I next play a red 5, then I will never be able to
play the 3 or the 4, but I may not be able to discard them either since my
opponent might want to invest in red later in the game. With the 5 played, I
now have -13 points in red. One way to gain many points is by using the
investment cards. These are point multipliers, but they must be played into an
expedition first, before any other card in that suit is played. Sometimes, you
may only have a couple cards in the suit. Do you want to take the enormous risk
that you will get more cards in that suit at the right time to play them and
make sure that suit isn’t negative? You can also gain 20 bonus points if you
can manage to get 8 cards played in a suit – 2 investment cards followed by a
2, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10 would be worth 71 points ((-20+2+4+5+7+9+10)*3)+20. You
initial investment is -20. You multiply the total sum of all cards played by 2
for 1 investment card, 3 for 2 investment cards, and 4 for 3 investment cards. You
earn +20 for having 8 cards in the suit.
After playing your card, you get to draw a card – either
from one of the discard piles (each suit has its own discard pile) or from the
deck. You play the game until the last card of the deck is drawn, and the game
ends immediately as soon as it is drawn. Playing first and THEN drawing and the
game ending are my two favorite parts of this game. It requires excellent hand
management and fantastic card counting abilities. Figuring our probabilities
and risk assessment are also key. You get into some very tight situations where
you don’t want to play anything because you are trying to wait for a lower
valued card, but you also can’t discard anything without helping your opponent.
If you think a little math-y competition with your significant other sounds
good, this might just be a great gift this Valentine’s day. We all need to
spend more time together playing.
--Kathleen Donahue
