My edition of the game is over 20 years old but the game has evolved very little over those 20 years. The theme is spot on, I love that the discard board is designed to look like an explorer’s desk, it also has a nice linen finish. The artwork on the cards give the sense of adventure and the beautiful pencil illustrations fulfil the brief of colour coding each suit.

This is not just a rule difference, as the scoring is different for the monuments/stones based on the number collected. The research teams are outfitted and ready to embark on their adventures to find five forgotten cities. Who will lead the way to fantastic discoveries?

To get a better understanding of why you would want to discard a card you need to look at how points get calculated. Scoring the game The game is played with each player having a small sheet showing 6 different potential expeditions. There’s also a column filled with artefacts (urns) and one with dice. Each round, the starting player rolls the 6 dice and selects one for number and another for colour. The remaining players get to select from the rest. Then everybody simultaneously writes their chosen number in the corresponding colour column on their sheet. Bottoms Up Players play cards to move their playing pieces along stone paths. There are cards with 5 different colors/symbols, each corresponding to one path; in addition, each card shows a number (0-10, twice each). In each color, each player can play his cards either ascending or descending. Like Lost Cities, it’s better to concentrate on a few paths, since the last spaces grants high points, but ending early gives negative ones. There’s an element to the game which was completely overlooked by me the first time I’d played Lost Cities. By drawing a card from the face down pile you are moving one step closer to the end of the game. Each player guides a team of explorers on up to five expeditions. To advance along an expedition path, a card in the path’s colour must be played for each step forward. The card must be of equal or greater value to the player’s card previously played on that path.

As you go along the path you collect tokens that are either extra points, artefacts, or the ability to jump an extra square. The artefacts are counted up at the end of the game and become plus or minus points depending on quantity. At the end of the game the person with the most points – converted into coins – wins. To play a three round game takes about 45 minutes. Before beginning the game you should decide how many rounds you intend to play. The winner is the person with the most combined points by the end of those rounds. The manual recommends 3 rounds, whilst that’s usually a good amount, you may wish to have a practice round with new players first. Discard a card The replay value with Lost Cities is infinite. The game changes every time, for varying reasons. It’s partly because of each of the following.You start off with eight cards. There are five differing colours of cards which correspond to five paths on the board. The object of the game is to move your people along the paths gathering points as you go. To do this you plot a route by playing the cards – these have numbers on them from zero to 10. Whilst I do enjoy other hand management games such as 6 nimmt! and find them great fun to play; Lost Cities has the added benefit of being something that you want to show off. It’s something you want to get out of the box just to look at it.

Teaching the game is about as easy as setting up the game. Each suit represents a different expedition, the numbers in the corner represent the number of points you’ll gain when playing that card. Players must pay 20 points to mount an expedition, so think carefully before jumping in. Some cards do not have numbers, instead they feature handshake icons, these are wager cards which act as multipliers.

After playing or discarding a card, the player draws a new card. Skilled team leaders assess when to play, hold, or discard their cards to move their own teams forward while at the same time preventing their opponent teams from getting ahead. If you don’t want to use a dice on a turn, you can pass. But beware! Use it too many times and you’ll take a huge hit when it comes to end game scoring. Although it is also worth noting that if you don’t use it at all, you’ll also take a hit at VP time! Sneaky! Whether you want to clear your hand of unwanted colours or maybe you have cards in your hand that you’ve drawn but can no longer play. In these instances discarding your cards is a good way to optimise your hand without mounting more costly expeditions. Draw a card