Brian Homan
United States
O'Fallon
Missouri
-
This is part nine in a series of reviews that I am writing about the games that my family plays, why we love them and what you should know before making a purchase. I have three unique daughters, ages 12, 10 and 7 who love to play games with me, and a wife who sometimes likes to join in. Finding games that we all enjoy can be a challenge, so I am constantly trying to introduce more games to the family to build a collection that we can all appreciate. Today's review:
Citadels
I have only played this, thus far, with my older two girls. The text of the role cards, as well how their actions are played out, would be a little too much for Abby right now. However, since I've already done a few reviews on Abby's favorites, I thought I'd do one for a little bit older audience.
Citadels is a role selection game where each round the players (starting with the start player, or previous king) choose one of eight roles for the round, then passes the remaining role cards to the other players. The last player selects a role, then places the remaining roles face down in a pile. (This occurs a little differently for 2-4 player games, but will not be covered here.) The king calls for each role in order as follows:
Assassin - May prevent another role from taking a turn this round
Thief - May steal gold from another role
Magician - May switch cards with another player or the deck
King - Gains an extra gold for yellow districts. Gets first role selection next round
Bishop - Gets an extra gold for blue districts. Districts of the bishop cannot be destroyed by the warlord this round.
Merchant - Gains an extra gold plus one extra gold for each green district
Architect - Draws an extra two district cards from the deck. May build up to three districts this round
Warlord - Gains an extra gold for red districts. May destroy an opponent's district for one less gold than it cost to build.
If a player has a role that corresponds to the role that the king has called, she reveals her card and takes her turn by fulfilling her role and doing one of the following:
1. Take 2 gold
2. Take two cards from the deck, choose one and place the other on the bottom of the deck.
Next, the player may choose to build a single district from their hand. The cost of a district is equal to the number of gold coins depicted on the left side of the district card. Players pay this gold to the bank and place the district in front of them. Players may never have two identical districts.
Once all player have had their turn, all of the role cards are given to the player with the crown marker (the most recent king) who will begin the next round. Play continues in that fashion until one player has built their eighth district. That signals the end of the game. All players finish their current round and then players score their districts, one point for each gold coin on their districts. The first player to get eight districts gets +4 points. Each additional player to build their eighth district in the final round gets +2 points. Additionally, each player to build all five district colors gets +3 points. The player with the most points wins.
So what's so great about this game?
 Building a kingdom is fun! I always enjoy games where I feel like I'm building something. My girls like that too, but they prefer it on a much less grand scale than Agricola or one of my civ games. This one works very well for them.
 Role selection! Having a chance to play many different roles during a game is a lot of fun. Even more fun is trying to figure out the roles of the other players when you are the assassin or the thief.
 Game play is very simple and moves quickly. This is a necessary quality for a game that plays up to seven people.
 This game plays up to seven people! (Yes, I know I just said that, but it's worth making a special point of it.) Larger families will appreciate this game, especially as the kids all get to reading age. It does scale very well, right down to two players, so you can spend quality time one on one, with just a few, or with the whole family.
 This is a good semi-direct confrontation game to start with. Attacks from the assassin or thief feel less personal, as they target another role, and not a player (at least not directly). The Warlord is a bit more personal, but usually it's used against the lead player, so that's a bit more understandable from a kid's point of view.
 The price. You get a lot of game for your buck here. The components aren't much to speak of, but the interaction between players is what really makes this fun.
 Little downtime. Decisions can be made pretty quickly in this game, so there shouldn't be a ton of down time between turns. I have played this with at most four people before, and it progressed quite well. I am sure a seven player game will have a little more lag time, though.
Kids, parents and grandparents alike can enjoy this game and enjoy knocking each other down a peg or two as you each claw your way toward victory.
 It's very portable! You can practically take this anywhere and play.
 It is expanded by Dark City which adds more flavor (particularly the nine new roles) and replayability to the game.
So what's not so great about this game?
 Burnout. The p-r-e-c-i-o-u-s can be very addicting. The fat one.. we can feel his eyes. Always looking, always wanting another game. Seriously, though, I read about one poor chap here on BGG whose regular gaming buddies only every wanted to play this game, nothing else, just Citadels. He ended up abandoning game nights with those folks. It's a good game and all that, but COME ON! People need some variety, man!
 The components are a little disappointing and the cards don't stand up very well over time. This is forgivable, as the price on this is not very expensive at all. If you plan on buying this, you should plan on sleeving at least the role cards.
Beka's (12) Opinion: This game is so much fun! I love the role selection and trying to guess what role everyone else is choosing. Beka's rating: 8.5
Lindsay's (10) Opinion: I like building up a pile of gold then using the architect to throw down three districts at once (unless the thief finds me first!) I really like this one! Lindsay's rating: 8
Abby's (7) Opinion: N/A, she hasn't played this one yet and isn't quite ready for it.
My Opinion: This is a great game to introduce kids to more direct conflict. I'd wait until they are 8+ unless you feel like they can handle it okay. Abby refuses to play games (correctly) where she would need to harm another player to get ahead, even if that was the best move for her. I'm still teaching her about not taking things that happen in games personally. She's always a good sport when she loses. It's her sisters that she doesn't want to upset. I don't have many role selection games that I get to play on any kind of regular basis, so I'm glad this fits the bill for us as a family. My rating: 7.5
Overall Opinion: We are really enjoying this one right now, but have been good about not overplaying it. The girls are always happy to play a game of it, but they're not always suggesting this one when asked. I think that's a good thing, as I believe this game has staying power if we don't play it too often. The speed of play combined with trying to figure out what role each other person is playing, is a great way to spend some quality time with my two eldest girls. They enjoy this mostly for the role selection. I enjoy it for having a bit more depth than the other games we typically play. Overall rating: 8
Well, that wraps up number nine with no end in sight to this series. I'll see about putting another one up tomorrow. I hope this has been helpful to you, and as always, please feel free to leave comments/questions/suggstions. Thanks!
-
Brian Homan
United States
O'Fallon
Missouri
-
I have compiled this series of reviews into a GeekList, which can be found here.
-
C Paget
Canada
Toronto
ON
...
-
I've been following your gaming with my girls reviews, and as someone who grew up in a family of three sisters, I'm enthused to hear about your experience gaming with your daughters.
Coming from a girls-only family, I've experienced a lot of stereotyping and dismissive comments from the outside world (including my extended family) and I know my dad always got the most mean-spirited comments.
But within our family, we did lots of quote-unquote "boy" things, like construction toys when we were younger and strategy games when we were older. It seems so obvious that all children need thinking-play, but now that I'm all grown-up I've seen so many daughters raised without these opportunities.
Congrats on your family, and bravo for turning them into gamers!
-
C Paget
Canada
Toronto
ON
...
-
Also... If your older daughters enjoy Citadels, then you should get them to try Dominion.
You start with a more indirect set-up (avoiding curses and attacks in general) if you want to avoid the direct conflict, but I'm sure they'd love to get into the direct conflict once they get the hang of things!
-
Brian Homan
United States
O'Fallon
Missouri
-
tathta wrote: Also... If your older daughters enjoy Citadels, then you should get them to try Dominion.
You start with a more indirect set-up (avoiding curses and attacks in general) if you want to avoid the direct conflict, but I'm sure they'd love to get into the direct conflict once they get the hang of things!
Slowly working up to this. I have Dominion and Intrigue, waiting anxiously on the shelf, eagerly anticipating the day the girls will be ready to play. Shouldn't be long now.
-
United States
Danbury
Connecticut
-
I really liked Citadels when I was introduced to it, circa 2003 or so. Over the years I played it pretty regularly; I recently sold off my copy because I'd gotten tired of one person inevitably being in no position to compete. It's one of those games that you have to play fast and not care if fate is against you, but it can be a miserable experience if it drags out and you're the guy who's always getting assassinated or stolen from.
A decent game (and even a somewhat groundbreaking one), but one that's been superseded by many other, better lightweight card games, in my opinion.
-
Brian Homan
United States
O'Fallon
Missouri
-
cannoneer wrote: A decent game (and even a somewhat groundbreaking one), but one that's been superseded by many other, better lightweight card games, in my opinion.
What games do you prefer that have this role selection mechanism? I have San Juan, which I have played with Beka (she liked it), as well as Puerto Rico and RFTG, which I haven't played with any of my girls, yet.
-
Brook Gentlestream
United States
Long Beach
California
-
bmhoman1 wrote: cannoneer wrote: A decent game (and even a somewhat groundbreaking one), but one that's been superseded by many other, better lightweight card games, in my opinion. What games do you prefer that have this role selection mechanism? I have San Juan, which I have played with Beka (she liked it), as well as Puerto Rico and RFTG, which I haven't played with any of my girls, yet.
I'm very curious about this too, but I think its a subject for a different thread.
-
United States
Danbury
Connecticut
-
lordrahvin wrote: bmhoman1 wrote: cannoneer wrote: A decent game (and even a somewhat groundbreaking one), but one that's been superseded by many other, better lightweight card games, in my opinion. What games do you prefer that have this role selection mechanism? I have San Juan, which I have played with Beka (she liked it), as well as Puerto Rico and RFTG, which I haven't played with any of my girls, yet. I'm very curious about this too, but I think its a subject for a different thread.
Well, not to derail the thread completely, I wasn't referring to 'role selection' per se, but medium-length, light-to-middle-weight card games, eg. San Juan, Jambo, 7 Wonders, Race for the Galaxy, etc.
Specifically for role selection, besides San Juan, RFTG, and the hopefully-forthcoming-in-English The City, the only other one I can think of is Castle, and it's not really role selection and definitely not a favorite of mine in any case.
Derail complete; you may now return to original rail
-
-
Another role selection game is eminent domain, and it's probably in the same weight range. It also gives you a little more to do during other people's turn, but learning the technologies can be fairly painful. The roles are also more abstract than, say, thieving; you aren't likely to get a big thrill from going military. It does lack direct negative interaction (other than ending the game), which might be a plus for your particular group.
I would disagree with you about the gameplay being fast. It can be very rough to get assassinated or thieved, and picking the right role can be a very complex decision, based on which roles you think will be out. It also scales very linearly with the number of players, and Citadels seems like it would be terrible with 7 (five was already pushing it for me). So, while you can play the game quickly, there's a tendency for the game to drag in my experience.
-
Brian Homan
United States
O'Fallon
Missouri
-
Stunna wrote:
I would disagree with you about the gameplay being fast. It can be very rough to get assassinated or thieved, and picking the right role can be a very complex decision, based on which roles you think will be out. It also scales very linearly with the number of players, and Citadels seems like it would be terrible with 7 (five was already pushing it for me). So, while you can play the game quickly, there's a tendency for the game to drag in my experience.
I suppose it depends quite a bit on the people you play with. It takes us about a minute and a half to finish a round with just the three of us (as we already have in mind what we want to do and what we expect each other will try to do). If the play length goes exponentially upward with more players, then that would not be good thing. I can't speak for playing with more than three, so you would be a better judge than I.
Being the victim of the thief or assassin is not much fun for that round, but in our play those roles usually get buried very quickly if they are not being used by the first or second player. Being the assassin doesn't really help you (directly), it just hurts someone else. For that reason, we usually only play that role when someone is starting to pull ahead too much.
As for Eminent Domain, I have played that one once before. It feels like a cross between Dominion and San Juan (probably more like RFTG, but I haven't played that yet so I can't compare). I have San Juan, RFTG and Dominion, so I'm not sure I feel the need to own ED. I have a friend who owns a copy, and that's good enough for me, for now.
-
Andrew Royal
United States
Manchester
New Hampshire
-
Great review, man. I need to give this game a chance.
-
Scott Bedell
United States
Marietta
Georgia
-
I just played my first game last night with my girls (wife and 8 y.o daughter). I was surprised how well Zoe took being murdered.
There is something elegant about a humble card game in a small box, yet still packing a punch. Many more games are in store for us (especially since I came in last).
-
Ryan Tullis
United States
Florida
-
What an awesome review! Since my wife and I are planning on growing our family with children in the next few years or so, reviews like these hit the spot wonderfully. What a great blessing it is to play with a new generation.
Glad you all liked Citadels! I brought this to play with my wife, my father, and my little step sister and had an awesome time.
Keep up the great reviews!
-
Brian Homan
United States
O'Fallon
Missouri
-
Thanks for the kind words! I have slowed down a bit on the reviews since the beginning, but I will be ramping up again soon. I hope to get out at least one review a week, just to keep things fresh. Thanks for reading!
-
|
|
