Cadwallon: City of Thieves
Cadwallon: City of Thieves is a fast-paced game of cunning thievery and ruthless skullduggery in a fantasy city steeped in magic and intrigue. Two to four players each control their own gang of four thieves, competing to amass the greatest haul of loot from the many carefully locked chests scattered about the board. This is no friendly competition, however, and there is little loyalty among thieves in Cadwallon!
The most successful players are as likely to claim their loot from the other gangs as they are to do the time-consuming legwork themselves. And always there is the Guild, directing the gangs from the shadows, and offering rich rewards to those who follow its will. But there is little time to waste; even the slow-witted militiamen will eventually raise the alarm... and woe be upon any thief who fails to creep away before the lawmen seal the district!
User Reviews (3)
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I have been eyeballing this game for awhile now. It was out of print when I first saw it but has since then been reprinted. I managed to pick the game up pretty cheap at a used game auction. I will forewarn you that I will be comparing this game to Adventurers:Pyramid of Horus.
SETUP
Everyone chooses their gangs and takes their respective character cards and minis. Deal out 5 Arcana cards to everyone. Give everyone 7 action markers. Lay treasure on the board with treasure chest side up in every room. Once you laid the last treasure flip the tokens over to reveal the treasures underneath. Put the two militiamen in the buildings indicated in the rulebook. Choose your adventure sheet and follow any special set up instructions. Lay out 3 mission cards on the adventure sheet. Place the round marker on the “1” space on the adventure sheet. Roll to see who goes first then each person will take turns deploying (placing) their figures in the deployment spaces, see rule book for a diagram.
GAMEPLAY
During your turn you will:
-Roll for a militaman to see if he moves
-Use the 7 actions to do the following: move 1 character, take 1 action with one character (characters can only have two actions and they can’t be the same action)
–Actions can include:locking picking, bashing open treasure chests, fighting other players, completing mission cards, and special actions noted on character cards.
-After the last player goes move the round marker
WIN/LOSE
The game will continue in rounds until the “alarm” has been triggered by the round marker reaching the space denoted “alarm.” Everyone races to get their characters out of the city or maybe they might try to steal a little more treasure before leaving the city. Once the round marker reaches “End” the game is over. Any character still in the city has been caught and their treasure and ducats are discarded. Players count up their treasures and ducats to see who has the most to determine the winner.
PROS
-Excellent components
-Rulebook is well laid out and easy to understand
-Miniatures and artwork looks great
-Several adventure sheets increase the replayability
-Easy to learn
CONS
-Some of the characters special abilities are weak compared to others
FINAL THOUGHTS
I really enjoy Adventurers:Pyramid of Horus however I feel it lacks replayability. It’s pretty much the same game every time. Go into the pyramid and try to steal as much treasure as you can before you get trapped inside. I do like the game but it just gets old. If it wasn’t for my in-laws, who enjoy playing it, I would probably get rid of it. My husband and I just don’t play the game together because it is lacking that replaybility.
City of Thieves has the replayability going for it! The adventure sheets have different treasures that you have to steal different ways. You can of course ignore these treasures and just pick up the ones on the board too. I like the idea of stealing treasures and beating up on other gang members. The Arcana cards are really helpful in backstabbing your neighbor and they can benefit you greatly too. The character abilities are nice but some of them are a bit weak. Overall, this game has a lot going for it. It looks complicated but it really isn’t. The rulebook is laid out really well and explains things clearly. If you have played any Adventurers games check this game out, you just might it better. If you haven’t played any Adventurers games then skip them and check out City of Thieves instead.
City of thieves is the game where action takes place in Cadwallon. Player take control of one guild of thieves and he tries to take so many golds and treasures from the city. Member of guilds cant attack other members from different guilds and take them treasure or coins if they won in battle. There are several scenarios in the game with different rules which can be choose at the beginning of the game.
Pros
-Great miniatures
-Good quality of content
-Good graphic design
-Different scenarios with different goals and rules
Cons
-Each character has own special, but status(Power,Mind,Run) are the same for all thieves
-It’s difficult to find specific rooms (you need to look in rule book) in the map
-There is no guild sheet
-Game can be too slow in 3 or 4 players
My personal opinion
This game is fun, but has some issues, this is reason why this game didn’t make success on the market. Each scenario is different and this is really fun, but i feel that game is not complete.
When we played this game in four players, turn for each player took to long and started to be a little boring.
I think that this game could be great, but for some lacks city of thieves didn’t succeed very well. (With expansion for this game, gameplay is much more better, if you have this game I highly recommend expansion)
Confrontation was the game that probably had some of the best miniatures and artwork ever made. World that was created for that particular game was very interesting, so several other games – RPG, board games, card games and PC games as well – were made. “City of Thieves” is one of them.
The basic concept of the game is simple – you control members of one of the gangs that operate in Cadwallon. Each member of the gang has different abilities and is represented by a very cool miniature. Every game is a bit different – because of the scenario that was chosen for that particular gaming session (players can choose from several different scenarios). The scenario specifies what is the object of the game, the victory conditions and some special rules as well. Of course, each scenario involves stealing stuff, finding treasure, fighting militia men and other gang members and some other cool stuff.
Unfortunately, these scenarios present one of the main problems. They are not equally interesting, and some of them simply do not work (they sound cool, but game becomes tedious if you play them). Rules are also problematic – there are several fairly common situations that are not described in the rulebook at all. This can be very frustrating, especially during the first few games. The last problem actually lies with the stat cards – all characters have same stats, the only difference is the special ability. A bit more variety wouldn’t hurt.
The main mechanic – with pool of action points that are spent for character actions – works great. Artwork is amazing – however, there are some issues on the game board (mostly regarding the walls and magical circles). I already mentioned that minis are very good – only complaint is that there are some parts that bend easily, so you have to be careful when it comes to storing them.
The basic concept is fantastic – but the execution is not very good. The game feels rushed – and even game designers admitted that they have been pressed to meet the deadline, so there was very little playtesting involved. In it’s current form, it can be a fun game, but it can be also a boring one (depending on which scenario you choose and how many players are playing it). That’s bad, because it had a chance to be a truly great game.
IMPORTANT NOTE: There is an expansion, that makes the basic game much better and definitely solves some of the mentioned problems. If possible, play “City of Thieves” with the expansion – it will be much more enjoyable.