Citadels

Yesterday afternoon I sat down and taught myself how to play Citadels while wife was at work and daughter was sleeping. It's a card game meant for 2-8 players where each round sees players taking on different roles in an effort to build up their city. The first player to place 8 district cards (which make up your city) ends the game, high score wins. A round consists of each player taking their turn; the round then ends and each player chooses a new role card for the next round.

A typical player turn looks like this:
- Draw 2 district cards, keeping one in your hand and discarding the other

OR

- Take 2 gold from the bank.

- Build one district from your hand by paying the gold cost shown on the card.

- Utilize your role's special ability.

The turns happen in the order of the roles. That is, each role card has a number on it from 1-8. The assassin card is number one, so the player with the assassin card takes his turn first. The thief is number two, so whoever has the thief card goes second, and so on.

The roles:
1- Assassin: you call out another role name. That character is murdered and does not get a turn this round.
2- Thief: Name a role card. When that player's turn begins, the Thief takes that player's gold
3- Magician: You may discard any number of cards and draw the same number - OR - trade hands with any player.
4- King: You get first choice of roles next round. You gain 1 gold for each yellow district card in your city.
5- Bishop: You gain 1 gold for each blue district card in your city. Your cards may not be destroyed by the Warlord.
6- Merchant: You gain 1 additional gold after taking your action. You gain 1 gold for each green district card in your city.
7- Architect: After taking your action, draw two extra cards. You may building up to three districts.
8- Warlord: You gain 1 gold for each red district in your city. You may destroy 1 district on the board (by paying the district's gold cost minus 1.)

That's the gameplay in a nutshell. So far I've only played the 2 player game, but I'm excited at the prospect of playing with more. It's easy to learn but has a good amount of strategy and tactics.

My opponent has lots of green districts, so she'd be a fool not to take the Merchant role, because that would give her a lot of gold. So I should pick the Assassin role and try to murder the Merchant this round. But she knows I'm going to take the Assassin because she knows I think she'll take the merchant. I'd hate to take the Assassin then waste it by trying to murder a role who isn't picked this game. (This scenario played out last night. I out-thought myself and let her have the Merchant, scoring her lots of gold. Next round I took the Assassin and chose the Merchant as my target. That round, of course, she didn't choose the Merchant...)

Last night was the very first game we played and wife waffled me pretty good. The two player game sees each player choosing 2 roles, which works out well. I'm looking forward to playing a game with 5 or 6 people. I think this will be fun as hell.

I really wanted a clever title for this post, but since I can't make anything clever using the word and I'm feeling too shitty to try, Citadels it is!