Lost Cities
Lost Cities is a 2 player game which takes about 30 mins for 3 rounds of play.
Each player is dealt 8 cards to begin with. Object is to score the most points by laying down expeditions. Each expedition you start though is -20 points so make sure you have a semi-decent chance to finish an expedition before starting one. Red, green, white, blue and yellow are the five colors of cards.
Here's the 8 cards dealt to me at the start of the game. White cards I have 1 investment, a 6 and an 8 so I definitely start a white expedition.
Top player plays an blue investment card which is doubles the score either negatively or positively. After either playing a card or discarding you draw from the draw pile or the discarded cards from the center.
1 investment card X2 (doubles score)
2 investment cards X3 (triples score)
3 investment cards X4 (quadruples score)
Invesments must be played first. As the top players has layed down a 7 white there's no longer any hope waiting for it so I'll lay down my 8 white. The green investment card is discarded since I (bottom player) can no longer play it since I've already layed down a 2 and 3 green.
Top player discards white investment card as neither of us can play it now.
When the last card is drawn the game is immediately over. You can always count how many are left to plan out your game play. Also if you wish to delay it you can keep drawing the discards from the center. You should probably place the last 5 cards vertically so players can easily see when the deck is about to be exhausted. Now let's score the game.
Red expedition: 2+5+7+8+9+10 = 41
41
- 20 (cost of expedition) = 21
21 x 2 (1 investment doubles score) = 42 points
Green expedition: 2+3+6+8+10 = 29 - 20 = 9 points
White expedtion: 5+6+8+9 =
28 - 20 = 8 x 2 = 16 points
Blue expedtion: 6 + 9 + 10 = 25 - 20 = 5 points
Yellow expedition: 8 - 20 = -12 x 3 (2 investments) = -36 points
Score for first round for bottom player is: 42 + 9 + 16 + 5 - 36 = 36 points
Yellow expedition: 4 + 5 + 7 + 9 + 10 = 35 - 20 = 15 points
Blue expedition: 4 + 7 + 8 = 19 - 20 = -1 point
White expedition: 3 + 7 + 10 = 20 - 20 = 0 points
Green expedition: 4 + 5 + 7 + 9 = 25 - 20 = 5 points
Score for first round for top player is: 15 - 1 + 0 + 5 = 19 points
Play 3 rounds total and the winner is the player with the highest score.
1 investment card by itself is -20 points
2 investment cards by themselves is -40 points
3 investment cards by themselves is -60 points
8 cards is worth a bonus 20 points after calculations.
SUM is 2 + 5 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 = 41 - 20 = 21
21 x 3 (2 investments) = 63
63 + 20 bonus points = 83 points
Updated Jun 09, 2006
