Lost Cities: The Board Game

Today's review is of the 2008 release, Lost Cities: The Board Game.  For 2-4 players, it takes 30-60 minutes.

Overview
Lost Cities: The Board Game is very similar to its card game ancestor.  As with the original, here you're trying to 'complete expeditions' by playing cards of the same color (and only in increasing numerical value) to gain points.  Here, that's done by advancing your explorers on the five different tracks.  So if you play a blue 2, you put one of your figures on the blue track in the first slot.  you must play a blue 2 or higher to continue advancing that figure (if you get a blue 1 later, you can't play it- you always must play a higher number).  The first few spots of each track are negative point values, so you don't want to play an explorer unless you have several of a given card color.

Like the original, here you do two things on your turn:
- play (or discard) a card, advancing your explorer on the associated track
- draw a card (from the draw deck or from the face-up discard piles players create)

The game is played over three rounds; each round ends when either a) the draw deck runs out, or b) five explorers have crossed a bridge (the bridges are well advanced on each track).  Points are totaled, victory points are doled out and kept for the end of the game.  At the end, the player with the most points wins.

game in progress; image from here

One difference from the card game is the presence of 'goodies' placed along each track. The first player with an explorer to reach a given square gets the goody on it- either bonus points, tokens for artifacts, or other things. 

Review
I like this game, probably better than the original.  It maintains the spirit while adding nice twists that keep it fresh and more varied.  If you liked the card game, give the board a try.

Rating: A