Backstab and watch your back while you do your thing. And by doing your thing, I mean building your citadel; hence the title of the game, “Citadels“. This is a great game to play with 4-8 players; it’s fun, easy and gives the impression of being fast paced due to players usually interacting socially during the downtimes.
The main game mechanics could be summarized like this:
- Each player will have cards representing districts of a citadel in his hand, which he will be able to buy during his turn with the money he also has.
- During a player’s turn, they will be able to get more district cards or more money, and build a district using the money. A few special districts will give some special ability that will benefit you or hurt other players.
- But the spice of the game is that every turn, each players has the chance of exclusively using a character from a shared pool. They are chosen secretly in turn, and each character has some special ability such as: stealing other players money, exchanging cards with them, denying their turn, etc.
What makes this game a “make me better” game sprouts from the ability to influence on other player’s progress of their citadel by using the characters and building special districts:
- My gain vs your loss: Each turn, during the character selection phase, you have to think carefully not only about which character might benefit you most, but also which character has the ability to hurt you the most (by stealing your money, your cards, denying your turn, etc.). And not only that, you also have to think about which character other players might have chosen (if they already have) or will want to chose (if they haven’t yet). You’ll have to ponder what is best for you: to maximize your gain or minimize your (possible) loss.
- People skills: Some characters and districts in the game have special abilities that will hurt other players. When we use these negative effects on other players we should pay attention to our body language and what we say because it has a deeper impact than we might think. Have you ever noticed that person that asks to get cut in line in the supermarket with a charming smile and an (arguably) good excuse and gets away with it?
- It is not straight out social, but it encourages it: You could play the game without saying a word, but intelligent players will talk to deceive, bluff, create alliances against dangerous players, etc.
And lastly, here’s a video of how the game is played by Tech Geek Gamers.