Tips & Strategies (25)

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Tips & Strategies (25)

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7
Paladin
Herald
Advanced Reviewer
BoardGaming.com Bronze Supporter
38 of 39 gamers found this helpful
“Solitaire Citadels - how to play this game alone”

CITADELS FOR A SINGLE PLAYER – RULES.

* Standard rules of Citadels apply unless stated otherwise.

* Do not use cards from the “Dark City” expansion.

* You play against a virtual “Fake Opponent and Enemy” (FOE) whose actions are described below.

* At the beginning of the game you get 2 gold pieces and 4 cards, and FOE starts with 4 gold pieces and no cards.

-> The turn starts:

* At the beginning of each turn you shuffle the character deck and place one character card face down for FOE. Then you reveal two card to yourself. Then you get two more cards to choose a character for you (this can be modified by King, see below). Then you reveal one more card to yourself (two remaining stay face down).

* If you play Assassin or Thief choose your target (you have a chance of 1/3…).

* Reveal the card of FOE. Play the turns in appropriate order.

* In your turn follow the standard Citadels rules with the following exceptions:
– Magician: you can discard any number of cards (including 0) and draw the same number of cards plus one.
– King: next turn you get three cards to choose your character from and reveal no more cards after that. You also get gold for yellow cards as usual.

* The turns of FOE are somewhat different as he has no cards in hand ever. First of all you use special abilities of FOE characters:
– Assassin: you lose your turn – no matter what.
– Thief: you give your gold to FOE unless you are Assassin.
– Magician: you discard the newest drawn card from your hand.
– King: next turn you are forced to get a character (you leave one for FOE, reveal 2, take next one for you and reveal 2 more cards). FOE gets one gold for each yellow card in his city.
– Bishop: standard rules apply.
– Merchant: standard rules apply.
– Architect: FOE gets an additional construction phase.
– Warlord: destroy the oldest building in your town unless you are Bishop. Foe gets one gold for each red cards in his town.

*After playing the abilities of FOE he enters the construction phase (twice if he is Architect). You do the following:
– Give 1 gold to FOE.
– Reveal a building card. If FOE has enough gold and does not have such building in his town add the building to FOE’s town paying the specified price. If the card can not be added to the town discard it. As FOE can not play the abilities of purple cards whenever a purple card is added to his town he earns 1 gold.
After the construction phase(s), if no cards are added to FOE’s town this turn, give him 1 gold (only once a turn!).

-> The turn ends.

* The game ends and scores are calculated as usual. You win only if you finish your city first and if your score (including bonuses) is higher than the one of FOE.

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3
I Got What I Wanted
37 of 38 gamers found this helpful
“Order of roles for teaching the game”

It may not be easiest to teach the roles in the 1-8 order. When I teach the game now, I explain the characters in the following order:

King
Merchant
Warlord
Bishop
Architect
Magician
Assassin
Thief

This helps explain the district colors early on, and the former powers are less complicated than the character-naming ones. After introducing their powers, I explain how the numbers correspond to the turn order, and discuss how that makes assassin and thief all the more attractive.

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6
Movie Lover
Miniature Painter
Sentinels of the Multiverse fan
37 of 38 gamers found this helpful
“3 Way Game - Alternative Character Selection”

In a 3 player game feel free to try this house rule for an added depth in gameplay. It has added a whole new dimension to my groups gaming.

All standard rules apply, except the following:

Instead of selecting characters in the standard way, each players first character is dealt to them face down at random. They then choice thier second character in the standard way.

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7
Advanced Reviewer
It's All About Me
I'm a Real Person
I'm Completely Obsessed
37 of 39 gamers found this helpful
“When you're ready to win, go as fast as you can!”

One of the stranger rules in Citadels is that as soon as you have your final building, your city is locked in place. That means the Warlord is useless as to stop someone from getting their eighth building! So, if you have enough gold to end the game, make sure you go first. The only thing that can keep you from winning is the Assassin/Thief/Witch/Magician/etc. somehow taking your cards or your gold.

The perfect plan is to take the King for your seventh build, and then choose the Assassin the next round.

If you can’t build buildings seven and eight in subsequent turns, don’t build! You will look threatening, and the Warlord will come for you.

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6
I'm a Gamin' Fiend!
Noble
Champion
My First Heart
37 of 39 gamers found this helpful
“Play cards of different colors”

If you play too many district cards of one color you risk that other players will try to get the leader you need for themselves or assassinate that leader.

In contrast if you have districts of many colors you can get small benefits from multiple leader and other players have no clue which one you have chosen in the current round.

In a longer run small but frequent benefits from different colored cards are better than bigger but uncommon bonuses gained from focusing on one color.

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7
Advanced Grader
Novice Reviewer
Knight
37 of 39 gamers found this helpful
“Assassin and Thief Statistics”

Some would tell you that if you go second and decide to be Assassin or Thief, that you should try to hit the first player, which gives you a 50/50 chance of knowing what they are.

However, in the scheme of play, you actually have a better chance to hit one of the other cards that are still in your hand. Here are the percentages in an example 5 player game:

Targeting first player – 2 cards to choose from. The card that is randomly placed faced down and one that they actually picked (50%).

Targeting a card passed to players behind you – 4 roles picked by 3 players. (75% chance)

Note this can also be considered when going second to last in the rotation.

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5
Petroglyph
Freshman
I Love Playin' Games
38 of 41 gamers found this helpful
“Yes, Your Majesty”

My group love Citadels, and think it works so well with 6 players (although I see Faidutti himself prefers it with 5) that we never play it with more or less. One variant we’ll sometimes play is incorporating the alternate roles on each turn, at the whim of the King (or Emperor). We find that especially near the endgame, when players are jousting for lucrative roles, the King is selected less and less … so we up the ante by giving the King the option to swap one role card for another (of the same numerical value) every turn. This helps to add a little variability to the game, and gives the King role a little extra beef.

If your group is especially social, a more fluff/less crunch variant is to rule that the King/Emperor must be referred to as Your Majesty, or Your Highness. If not, the offending player is immediately assassinated. This might not be too popular with groups just coming to terms with the game, but I’ve seen this rule sway players to taking the King just for the prestige that comes with it.

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7
Paladin
Herald
Advanced Reviewer
BoardGaming.com Bronze Supporter
37 of 40 gamers found this helpful
“Use 2 colors of deck protectors”

The cards are shuffled frequently, especially the character cards. In order to let them last longer them use deck protectors.

I also advise you using a different color of protectors for the district cards and character cards. If you do you will be able to sort the character out at the beginning of the game much quicker.

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5
I play yellow
Tinkerer
Gamer - Level 4
37 of 40 gamers found this helpful
“Add The Artist, bury one and pass one right.”

For a little extra mystery we always add the Artist to the base set. When the roles are to be selected the first player shuffles the nine cards, randomly choose one to bury and one to plass to the player to the right. This works very well for 5 or more players and the last player doesn’t get crushed by the remaining roles handed to him/her.

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5
I play yellow
Tinkerer
Gamer - Level 4
37 of 40 gamers found this helpful
“Sleeves vs no Sleeves”

I would recommend sleeving the role cards as soon as you can. The quality of the district cards is such that they can handle the normal shuffling during game set up. The role cards however will see a lot of handling!

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2
Gamer - Level 2
36 of 39 gamers found this helpful
“Two or three players, two characters each”

Faster, nicer, more tense and absolutely matching the game;

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7
Paladin
Herald
Advanced Reviewer
BoardGaming.com Bronze Supporter
37 of 41 gamers found this helpful
“Don't make yourself a target”

In a 5+ player games when choosing a character check what character(s) would benefit the leading player(s) most. Do that regardless if you are among leading players or not. Such characters would most probably be targeted by the Assassin and the Thief. So if you get any of them you risk being assassinated or robbed in that turn.

By the way, if you are the solo leading player you should get the Assassin as often as you can. It’s better not to get a bonus and do not risk missing a turn in such case.

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6
Unicorn Clan - Legend of the Five Rings
Gamer - Level 6
Novice Reviewer
37 of 41 gamers found this helpful
“Recommended at 4+ players.”

Many of the tips here give advice on how to modify the game for a two-player match. The assassin and thief cards are a real annoyance when it is so easy for each player to figure out which characters his/her opponent has picked. For many, like myself, they add more frustration than tactical options. Check the two player tips here to deal with it, but at the end of the day the game really takes off with at least four players. These “attack” cards cause less frustration when they are not consistently targeting the same player.

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7
Master Grader
Novice Reviewer
Amateur Advisor
I'm Completely Obsessed
37 of 41 gamers found this helpful
“Keep your opponents guessing”

Don’t pick the same roles. Not does this make you an easy target for assassination but you are missing out on some opportunities to make some easy money or building.

Choose the role that will benefit you, but keep in mind the roles that are being killed off. Don’t be obvious about it. It may be the most beneficial but if everyone knows you are going to pick it, being dead gets you nothing.

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7
Check Out My Favorites
I'm a Real Person
I'm Completely Obsessed
37 of 41 gamers found this helpful
“Left Guessing”

Not that this change makes a huge difference to the overall game but it does make you harder. In the two player version of the game you usually pick a character and choose and discard another before passing to the other player. The change we have played with a few times is to randomly discard a character after choosing one. Again, this isn’t a hugely complex rule change but we did like it because then both players had no clue what was in the discard pile and it made the game feel more like a 4 to 7 player game.

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5
I play yellow
Tinkerer
Gamer - Level 4
37 of 41 gamers found this helpful
“Warlord demolish versus destroy”

Many groups will play one less building than the rules state to end the game. This shortens the time by a little so it won’t drag. Players will grab the Warlord and destroy a leader’s buildings prolonging the game. Another way to play the Warlord card is the building is simply flipped over instead of discarded. It still counts as a building for game ending purposes, but loses its color and point value.

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5
USA
Knight
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
37 of 42 gamers found this helpful
“2 player games”

One rule we put in place for two player games is that the roles removed each round were always determined randomly, this allows for a limitation on the meta gaming that is bound to occur in a 2 player game.

Gamer Avatar
5
USA
Knight
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
37 of 42 gamers found this helpful
“Deck modification”

We have found that the over all enjoyment of the game is increased by removing the assassin, and the warlord. Replacing them with the witch and diplomat. This does remove a level of aggression from the game, but also makes every feel as if they have a turn.

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7
Marquis / Marchioness
Advanced Reviewer
Professional Advisor
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
37 of 44 gamers found this helpful
“Shuffle roles before picking one”

This relates to Azura’s tip. Even if player’s aren’t doing this intentionally, they can determine what you picked if you don’t reshuffle the cards before picking, as long as they remember the order the cards were in.

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7
Marquis / Marchioness
Advanced Reviewer
Professional Advisor
BoardGaming.com Beta 1.0 Tester
37 of 44 gamers found this helpful
“2 Player - Try to go second”

What we found playing two player is that it is usually preferable to go second because it is more difficult to guess what card you pick when you have the option to choose one and discard another one.

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