Lost Cities: Rivals Review - with Tom Vasel

[@raymyers700]

"Play it more than once..."....this is the best advice on any Knizia game. I can't tell you how many times I played one of his games and thought it was OK at first play, only to realize by the 2nd and 3rd how deep it really is. He is hands down my favorite designer because of this reason. His games often surprise you with depth that your own stupid self didn't see the first time! Great review!

[@sebastianyanez2039]

totally true, i only played the originial version of lost cities, and the stuff u sayed is exactly what hapened to me

[@codyalanrushing1399]

I like how the scoring has changed from the "subtract 20 points" thing to the counting footprints. That's much more streamlined and simple. My brain thanks you (for once) Reiner Knizia!!!! :) lol

[@TheRmm1976]

I was hoping this was an expansion for Lost Cities!! Bummer! I guess that wouldn't make sense though, since Lost Cities has been around so many years...

[@gerardvreeswijk840]

Very well articulated, very well explained. You should be a teacher if you already aren't 👍

[@goranmajnaric556]

Best thing. If you dont have either, You buy this one because you can play and STANDARD version as well, and for less money then standard game, but you dont get little board for discarding cards. But still you get 2 games for price of one.

[@felixfryxell7529]

I wish it had hidden information (not memorizable one like hiding coins). As it is, it's all about calculating randomly generated game-states.

[@RoboStuk]

Felix Fryxell Almost, but bidding involves also some psychology as you can overbid and hope you will lure someone to overbid even more

[@felixfryxell7529]

That kind of situation (hoping your opponent to make a suboptimal move) happens in any games, including Chess. What I want in simple mathy games (like this and Coloretto) is hidden information that prevent or mitigate totally calculable endgames. It's not that bad in a two player game (it just makes the game more deterministic and dry) though, it causes many problems like obvious lame duck and king-making situation in a multiplayer game.

[@Vaole]

Also, I would rather win because I made a better move and outsmarted my opponent who was also making the best move at the time, not hoping they made a suboptimal move and I took advantage of it. You might as well just play new players and revel in the victory of beating someone who does not know how to play well, where is the fun in that?

[@calvinholt5630]

Player point trackers would be nice as constantly calculating player scores is annoying. I do like this one quite a bit regardless.

[@moyinguis]

Had to cancel my Amazon order on this one. It was supposed to be released today and suddenly changed to 1-2 months.

[@searose6192]

The look of this game is very appealing.

[@searscho]

Is it just me or at 8:07 does Tom look like Mogwai from The Gremlins? 😁

[@dexdouglas]

First time I played this was with two and my friend had already played once with 4. He didn't know how it would play with 2 but it was super tense. We had lots of moments of Chicken where I'd try to start the bid high cause I knew he wanted something but then he'd go ahead and back out and I was so disheartened.. Really fun game and can't wait to try it with more players. This is also one of those games where I want to throw some metal coins in the box as it's so much more satisfying to stack and toss coins instead of cardboard chits around.

[@clumsydad7158]

Sounds pretty cool ... the reason i like knizia aps is it does all the end game scoring for you at the end. (-: Sounds like a lot of tension in the auctions. Really interesting you recommend two for this, that is good news really. Great review !

[@Naeddyr]

Lost Cities of RAvals.

[@clumsydad7158]

Wow, i've been geeked to learn about this game... just heard a bit about it from Eric Martin. Right, doesn't everyone have a soft spot for Lost Cities... somehow (-:

[@darrylng4854]

Not played Ra but this feels like Medici the Card Game and Lost Cities crossed...

[@Skiddydebop]

Keep up the great work! 😃

[@josegodoy8461]

looks much more like Ra!

[@justsignmeup911]

Auctions aren't for me. I love Lost Cities though.

[@bricelory9534]

Does seem quite good!

[@aponyy]

artwork is terrible

[@Vaole]

This game seems terrible. No theme, which often helps is not present. The game play is boring... do you want this batch of cards... or this batch? or this batch? are the batches ever different in a meaningful way? No. Is there meaningful strategy? No. I am getting bored just critiquing it let alone actually playing. Thanks for the review, hard pass. I am surprised you liked this one Tom because you always say you like games with multiple, interesting paths to victory, this has none of that.

[@wolflarson71]

Huh? The theme is shown on the cover of the box and the strategy exists in the bidding and push you luck elements.

[@RoboStuk]

The modern board games are overrated in terms of multiple paths to victory. Usually they provide a few ways to score points and the strategy is focusing on one of them. Here it is more about tactics, but there is always a lot to think about.

[@Slyfox1775]

Yeah you think your going to buy this batch that batch ! Doubt it ,your enemy might buy the cards you need take them or scrap them in a winning bid . When your playing another player who is screwing your plans . It makes it a lot tougher then one might think ! This was the same with the original..all the Strategy comes from the player interaction Based off of what your enemy is doing

[@Vaole]

Mikolaj Witkowski Have you played it?

[@Vaole]

Wolflarson71 Theme is not one picture on the box cover. Theme comes from the feeling players get from the mechanics, artwork and game pieces in the game. Nothing in the playing the evokes... well, anything really. Are we supposed to be explorers going into the lost cities? Via an auction of who takes the most steps? No, that makes no sense. The theme is not even pasted on here, it is non-existent.