Citadels (card game)

Citadels

Box of the French 3rd edition of Citadels
Designer(s)	Bruno Faidutti
Illustrator(s)	Julien Delval, Florence Magnin, Jean-Louis Mourier, Jesper Ejsing, Bjarne Hansen. As graphic designer : Cyrille Daujean, Brian Schomburg, Scott Nicely, Richard Spicer, Christian T. Petersen.
Publication date	2000
Players	2–8 (in later editions)
Age range	10 +
Setup time	10 minutes
Playing time	45–60 minutes
Skill(s) required	Strategic thought, bluffing, diplomacy

Citadels is a German-style card game, designed by Bruno Faidutti, originally published in French as Citadelles by MultiSim in 2000, illustrated by Julien Delval, Florence Magnin, Jean-Louis Mourier and Cyrille Daujean as graphic designer for the first edition. Sometimes later, Citadels was published in German as Ohne Furcht und Adel, which means "Without Fear or Nobility".

Citadels was a finalist for the 2000 Spiel des Jahres award. The Dutch version, Machiavelli, won the Dutch game prize (Nederlandse spellenprijs) in 2001.

Gameplay revolves around two phases each round, character selection and then taking actions.

First characters are selected through a partially secret draft. Each character has a different in-game effect which allows the player choosing that character to activate during the next phase of the turn. Beginning with the player possessing the crown counter, players take it in turn to choose a character card secretly before passing the hand to the next player. To add further strategy to the game, not all characters are available each round. Unavailable characters are selected randomly, and may be revealed or hidden, depending on the number of people playing. Also depending on the number of players in the game, players may be able to choose a second character, allowing them two 'turns' in the next phase of the round.

After character selection is finished, characters are called out in order to take their actions. Characters that were not selected (either by choice, or because they were not in the available selection) are ignored, and the next character takes their action phase. The actions involve: taking income, taking additional district cards, 'building' district cards, and using character-specific abilities.

Characters are then reshuffled and a new turn begins with players selecting new characters in the same process. When a player 'builds' their eighth district card in their tableau, the game ends and points are tallied. Bonus points are awarded for building the maximum 8 districts, being the first to do so, and having a district of each possible color (purple, yellow, red, blue, green).

There are several cards that affect the end of the game. A player can build the "Belltower" district card to cause the game to end with 7 districts instead of 8. This affects the appropriate bonus points and the warlord/diplomat abilities.

The original set contained eight character cards:

The abilities associated with each character vary and include defensive, offensive, and bonus earning powers. For example, the Assassin has the ability to kill another character, preventing him or her from taking a turn; the King has the ability to move the crown counter, and the Warlord is able to destroy districts.