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Citadels: Building A City Has Never Been So Ruthless

Citadels takes the concept of city-building and turns it into a race full of back-stabbing, theft, and deception. In this fantasy board game, you’ll take on different roles as you attempt to be the first to construct eight buildings and win the game. You’ll love the opportunities for throwing a wrench into your opponent’s plans as you take on the role of the deadly Assassin or malicious Warlord. With Citadels, you’ll find there’s nothing that you won’t do for your city.

Choose Your Character

Citadels is played in rounds in which each player takes on a new role. These roles represent the newest character you’ve hired to help you acquire gold and construct your buildings. At the beginning of each round, the player that was King on the previous round will randomly discard one of the eight character cards and choose one from the rest. Then, they’ll pass the cards to the next player, with everyone taking a card until each player has their own secret character.

These characters all have different unique abilities that can help you either get more gold, construct buildings, or hinder your opponents. Depending on what your strategy is and what your current needs are at the beginning of the round, certain characters can help or hinder your mission. 

The characters will perform their actions in numerical order, beginning with the Assassin. The Assassin will eliminate one of the other characters from the round, while the Thief will steal gold from whichever character you choose. The Wizard can swap building cards with another player, while the Warlord can destroy a building.

Choosing your character is a decision not to be made lightly, so be sure to plan ahead if you want to make the most of each round. However, you’ll also have to anticipate the moves of the other players if you don’t want to be caught off guard.

Constructing Buildings

The goal of the game is to earn the most points, which you earn by constructing buildings. The game begins with each player being given a certain number of building cards. These come in five different colors, each of which can provide you with a different ability provided you have a specific character that round.

Each turn, a player is given the choice between earning two or more gold or drawing two building cards and discarding one. Then, each player is allowed to construct one building if they choose (or as many as three when playing the role of the architect). In order to construct your building, however, you must have the amount of gold indicated by the symbols on the card.

Buildings are worth a certain number of points when you build them. You can also earn bonus points by constructing buildings of each color or by being the first player to build eight buildings. Once all eight buildings have been built by one player, then the game ends and everyone tallies up their points.

Citadels Expansion

Citadels comes with an expansion called Citadels: The Dark City that allows you to play the board game with up to eight players. It also includes additional elements such as the Quarry, which allows you to build identical districts to the ones you already have. If you order the 3rd Edition of Citadels, then you automatically get the expansion.

You can also earn bonus points with the Imperial Treasury, giving you a boost at the end of the game equal to the amount of gold you have. You can also earn bonus points with the Fountain of Youth or the Wish Fountain, which earns you points equal to the number of purple buildings you construct. 

Be the First to Build Your City with Citadels

Citadels is playable by 2-8 players, which makes it just as good for one-on-one games as it is for a family game night or a group of friends. It’s suitable for ages 10 and up, which makes it a good game to play with both adults and children together. Playing time lasts around 20-60 minutes depending on how many players you play with.

Buy Citadels today and enjoy the ruthlessness of city politics!

 

New York Zoo: Animal Lovers Will Rejoice

Nothing is more relaxing and magical than a trip to the zoo. Witnessing the gentle grace of the herons or the silliness of the monkeys is something that stays with you for years. But while visiting the zoo may be all fun and games, building a zoo is another story entirely!  New York Zoo pits players against each other to see who can be the first to fill their zoo with a variety of wild animals. Players will have to balance their strategy between building new enclosures and acquiring new animals in order to fill their zoo and win the game.

Build Your Own Zoo

The goal of New York Zoo is to be the first player to completely fill your playing board and complete the construction of your very own zoo. In order to fill your board, you’ll need to build enclosures, collect animals, and manage the breeding of these beautiful creatures as they do what animals do naturally: create offspring!

The board game begins with each player taking their own playing board, which represents the zoo they’re attempting to build. There is also a board that sits in the middle of the table for all of the players to use in order to collect different tiles for their individual zoos. A little Elephant pawn is placed on the board, which each player will take turns moving around the board to collect either an Enclosure tile or an animal. 

If a player collects an Enclosure tile, then they will immediately add that tile to their board wherever they like (as long as it doesn’t cover up another tile on the board). Then, they have to move one to two animals into the Enclosure. These animals can come either from one of their houses or from another Enclosure. If the player has no available animals to move, then they can’t add the tile to their board.

Breeding the Animals

If a player lands on the Animal Acquisition space, then they get to collect up to two animals that are shown randomly. Players must immediately place the animal in an Enclosure or in one of their houses. If there’s no space for the animal, then the player can’t take it. However, if the player doesn’t like the random options of animals shown, then they can select one animal of their choice from the main supply.

There’s a special way of acquiring more animals in New York Zoo called breeding. This occurs for all players whenever the Elephant crosses a breeding line on the board. One specific type of animal will then breed, and all players that have two of that animal in an Enclosure can add an additional animal to their Enclosure.

Filling the Zoo

Once you’ve filled up one of your Enclosures, then you can empty all of the animals out of your Enclosure and select an Attraction tile to add to your board. These are useful for filling in single gaps on your board in between Enclosure tiles. When you empty an Enclosure of animals, you’re allowed to store one of the animals in one of your houses to use later.

New York Zoo ends once one player has successfully filled their board with Enclosure tiles and Attraction tiles. This means that players will need to make sure they’re placing their Enclosure tiles properly in order to reduce the number of Attraction tiles they need to collect. If more than one player fills their board at the same time, then the player with the most animals wins the game. 

Monkey Around with New York Zoo

New York Zoo is a board game playable by 1-5 players, so it’s well suited for families or single-player games. It’s suitable for ages 10 and up, as the mechanics are relatively simple to follow. Playing time lasts around 30-60 minutes, which is good for younger players who may lose interest in games that drag on for hours.

This board game is very easy to learn, as you only have two choices each turn: build an enclosure or collect animals. However, there is plenty of fun to be had in strategizing the best way to build your zoo before the other players. Embrace your inner zookeeper and buy New York Zoo today!

 

Dominations: How Will You Be Remembered?

What if you got a chance to go back in time and build a civilization from scratch? Dominations: Road to Civilization gives you the opportunity to craft society to your own liking. This domino-based game will assign you the role of a primitive tribe that’s seeking to one day become an influential nation permanently etched into the annals of history. Dominations is a compelling board game that combines resource management with long term strategy for hours of fun.

Building Your Society

Dominations uses triangular dominos to help you expand the population of your fledgling society and collect the Knowledge that will help you grow. This Knowledge can be used to build Cities, learn Master Skills, and ultimately create a legacy for your civilization. Dominations lasts three rounds, with each round lasting 1000 years in the history of your society.

Within the three rounds, each player takes their turn in three different phases: Grow, Build, and Develop. The Grow phase will have you placing your dominos in such a way as to gain Knowledge points. During the Build phase, you can build Cities and Monuments to earn extra Knowledge and special powers. Lastly, the Develop phase will allow you to use your Knowledge to master or perfect Skills, which give you greater power and bonuses.

Knowledge vs. Skill

Knowledge is the biggest resource of the game, as the player with the most points by the end of the game wins. Knowledge is split into six different types, from things like Government and Science to things like Art and Religion. If you match up the Knowledge types on the edges of your dominos in just the right way, you can earn more even points.

When you master a new Skill, that Skill becomes one of the pillars of your society. This earns you new Mastery cards that give you additional bonuses with which to further develop your civilization. Then, once the round is complete, the players with the most points of each Knowledge type earn the title of Master. This can earn you special aid from different Characters in further rounds.

Game Components

Dominations comes with a bunch of different game pieces that really set the tone of the game in a fun way. In addition to the triangular dominos and 50×50 Mastery cards, you’re given tiny little pieces to track each of your resources. Players can stack their little plastic cities on top of each other and watch their civilization grow right in front of them.

The board game also comes with a little cardboard playing board that you can use to score your Knowledge and see where you are in becoming the Master of your Domain. The multitude of pieces does add to the setup and tear down time of the game, but it should be easy enough to do faster once you’re used to the game.

Dominations Expansions

The makers of Dominations have released four different expansions to the original board game that add new mechanics and objectives. The Dynasties expansion adds a new drafting mechanic to the game, which allows you to recruit prestigious members of society for extra bonuses each round. There’s also the Hegemon expansion that adds a new common objective for each player to fight over per round.

The Provinces expansion adds a slew of new nations to the board game. Players can either befriend, conquer, or ignore these nations, but whatever they decide will have repercussions. Lastly, the Silk Road expansion can help you earn additional points and bonuses by adding Trade Routes to connect your bustling cities together.

Make Your Mark on History with Dominations

Dominations is playable by 2-4 players, so it’s more geared towards small groups or one-on-one play than it is large families. The board game is playable by ages 13 and up, however, which makes it a perfect game for teenagers and their parents to enjoy. 

Dominations has a playing time of 1-2 hours, which can be a bit of investment for new players. Still, the board game is easy to learn and will suit gamers and non-gamers alike. Buy Dominations today and build the society you wish to see in the world!

 

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