Citadels is a strategic board game about building a kingdom with hidden roles and bluffing. The first edition was released back in 2000, crafted by the famous game designer Bruno Faidutti. Since then, the game has become, without exaggeration, legendary and one of the most popular in the world.

Before you is the latest updated edition of Citadels. Unlike the classic edition, it includes:

• The expansion "Citadels: The Dark City."
• Nine new characters (for a total of 27 characters!) along with thirty unique district cards.
• Plastic coins and a 3D crown, with the card design becoming more animated and intuitive.
• Six character and district combinations have been added to the game rules so players can try new game modes (you can also create character combinations to your liking).
• The game designer also took care of balancing by reworking some character and district cards from the classic version.

Description of the Citadels Board Game

From 2 to 8 architects will compete to see who can build a medieval city faster and better. But what construction can be done without gold? To help earn gold coins and construct buildings, you'll need the help of "influential people"—be it an assassin, emperor, or even a witch. But each round, you'll hire a different character, and none of the players will know who they are, only guess...

How to Play?

The rules of the game are surprisingly simple and ingenious. First, determine the first player in a convenient way and pass them the plastic crown—this player is considered the crowned one. Depending on the number of players, form the character and district card decks. Deal four district cards face down and two coins to each player, and place the deck in the center of the table along with the remaining coins. The game rounds are divided into several phases:

• Selection Phase: Players secretly choose their characters. The crowned player randomly draws 2 face-up cards, 1 face-down card, and discards them. Then, they look at the remaining cards, choose a character, and pass the rest to the next player. This continues until the last participant, who will have to choose between two cards.
• Summoning Phase: Players take their turns in the order of the character ranks, starting from the first. The active player places their character card face up in front of them. They must either take two coins or draw two district cards, keeping one. After this, they can build a district card by paying the cost indicated on the card. They can also use the ability of the chosen character as described on the card.

After all players have taken their turns, the round ends. The crowned player shuffles the character cards, and a new round begins.

When one of the cities has seven buildings, the game ends at the end of the round, and the scoring begins. The player with the most points wins, and in the event of a tie, the player with the highest-ranked character in the final round wins.

We also recommend watching the video rules in the "Video" section and, if desired, reading the detailed rules with illustrations in the PDF format in the "Files" section.

And finally

The updated edition makes the beloved game Citadels much more variable. Just imagine how many different combinations and strategies can be tried with such a variety of characters. Rooster Gallu strongly recommends having this game in your collection and guarantees from personal experience that children as young as 8 years old can easily become architects, not just from 10 years old (as the author suggests). Additionally, regardless of the number of participants, the rules are perfectly adapted for both two players and large groups.