Citadels is a city building game with a twist – become the Master Builder and create a city with 7 separate and thriving districts while switching characters and abilities each round. You might be familiar with this game from its original release in 2000, but it now has a fresh look with new unique districts and new characters.
Set up is very simple, another reason to love this game!
- Select 8 characters (either randomly or by using one of the suggested sets in the rule book)
- Place them down in order of rank
- Shuffle the Unique Districts in with the Basic Districts to form a deck of 68 cards
- Deal 4 out to each player
- Place the rest in a face-down draw pile
- Give each player 2 gold coins from the bank
Citadels is played in rounds. First up: Selection Phase!
Depending on the number of players, some of the character cards are discarded face up or face down. The rest are passed around in turn order. Each player secretly selects the character they want to play as that round and passes the rest of the cards on until everyone has a character card.
The King card can’t be among the faceup discarded cards and whoever has The King card gets the crown.
Turns are taken according to rank. Whoever has the #1 Rank card goes first, #2 Rank card goes second, and so on. The player with the Crown calls out characters for the rest of the round to keep things moving AND is also the first to choose a character in the next round.
Each card rank has several options, each with different abilities. In the suggested set of characters for a player’s first game is
- Assassin
- Thief
- Magician
- King
- Bishop
- Merchant
- Architect
- Warlord
After Selection Phase, players enter Turn Phase. Players MUST gather resources by taking either two gold from the bank or draw two/keep one district card from the deck.
After gaining gold or a district card, players MAY build a district by paying the card’s cost, following a few simple building restrictions.
Players can use their character’s abilities once per turn. For example,
- the assassin can kill another player who doesn’t get a turn that round,
- the thief can rob another character and take all his gold,
- the magician can trade hand with another player or discard and re-draw any number of cards from the deck,
- the king gets one gold for each noble district in his/her city AND takes the crown, etc.
Each player’s ability is different and strategic players will carefully select their character to give them the most needed ability for the next round.
There are five districts: Religious, Military, Noble, Trade, and Unique. Some character abilities are related to district types and certain effects score end-game points.
The game ends as soon as one player builds a city with 7 districts, points are scored, and the highest scoring player is named Master Builder!
Citadels has it all – cool abilities, unique mechanisms, stellar design, and educational connection points that make this game great for gameschooling. It’s perfect for any Medieval unit study including history, architecture, religion, occupations, literature, geography, and more. The strategy involved can be intense with constantly changing characters with unique abilities.
Don’t forget who your character is while keeping your identity at secret and strategically building your city!
Thanks to Z-Man Games for this role-playing, educational, city-building board game!
