Play Something Old: Citadels

The latest in my Play Something Old series is one of my favourite games – Citadels. Citadels paved the way for a slew of games that take its core concepts and build on them

citadels box — My battered old copy of Citadels

It’s a game of set collection, hidden roles, drafting, bluffing and a delicious amount of take-that. I think that everyone should have a copy of Citadels in their collection, so let me justify that.

What do you do in Citadels?

In Citadels, you hire characters to do your bidding in your quest to erect eight buildings in your own citadel – the space in front of you on the table. How this works in practice is through successive rounds of drafting characters from those in the game, then each player playing their character in order, and resolving their effects.

citadels character cards — The standard character cards from Citadels. Image courtesy of BGG user Rafael M

The important part here is that the cards are resolved in order. The Assassin acts first, and the person with that character calls out the name of another character- not a player- and the person holding that character doesn’t get to play their card this round.

Ouch.

Then we carry on down the list. Next is the Thief, who steals the gold of another character, then the Magician who can swap their hand of cards with another player. The King earns gold for the yellow buildings he has built, and more importantly, gets to choose his character card first next time, and every subsequent round until someone else plays it.

The Bishop gets gold for his blue districts and is protected from having his buildings destroyed by the Warlord, who plays later. The Merchant gets money for their green buildings and gets extra gold after taking their action. Then we’re left with the Architect, who takes more buildings into their hand (and can build multiple buildings), and finally the Warlord, who gets money for their military buildings and can pay to destroy other characters’ buildings.

All you’re trying to do is earn gold and use that gold to build eight buildings. Then the game ends. You work out the points according to the rules and see who wins. Quick, easy, and a lot of fun.

Why should you still play Citadels in 20xx?

If the description of the ‘resolve in order’ part of Citadels sounds familiar, there’s a good chance you’ve played other games that borrow from what Bruno Faidutti put in Citadels’ little box. Since it arrived on the scene in 2000. Mission Red Planet, Broom Service, Libertalia (I reviewed the recent reprint, Winds of Galecrest, check it out), One Night Ultimate Werewolf, The Resistance: Avalon, Night of the Ninja – all use a similar method of turn resolution.

Perhaps most importantly of all, the modern tabletop (despite needing no table) cultural phenomenon of Blood On The Clocktower. Whole groups now exist who meet to play Clocktower only. Even down here, in the extremely rural confines of Cornwall, BOTC groups meet every week to lie, cheat, and murder one another in the name of a good time.

some citadels cards — Early in the game, with only a Temple and Manor to my name, and a solitary gold. Who knows which character lies in wait…

Would any of them exist without Citadels? Probably, in one form or another, but in my opinion Citadels is the original, and still one of the best examples. The box and artwork might have changed, but here we are a quarter of a century later, and you can still buy new copies of Citadels just about anywhere.

There are so many elegant things in the game that still excite me. Simple things. The King being able to choose any character they like, and the way that each person has slightly more information than the person before them about which characters are likely to be where. Guessing what character someone has chosen based on their buildings, hand size, or gold. The joy of bluffing and seeing someone else taking the sting of a barb that was intended for you.

My battered old copy of Citadels still gets played, and it will continue to for years to come.