Hans im Glück

Citadels Revised Edition

Out of stock
$42.00
$42.00 $50.00

SAVE $8.00

Citadels Revised Edition is a medium-light card game for 2–8 players, recommended for ages 10+, with games typically lasting 30–60 minutes. Players secretly draft powerful roles each round to gather gold and construct buildings, and this edition includes content from The Dark City expansion.

Players
2–8 players
Play time
Up to 1 hr
Age
Teens
Complexity
Easy
Sold out

About the Game

A round of Citadels is a tense exercise in second-guessing. Players secretly choose a character — assassin, thief, wizard, warlord and more — then reveal them in numerical order, using each power to gather gold, draw cards and erect buildings while trying to out-read their rivals. Once a player completes their eighth building, scores are tallied and the most valuable city wins.

Citadels plays 2–8 players in around 30–60 minutes. It is a medium-light game recommended for ages 10+, built around role selection, bluffing, hand management and set collection, with bonus points for completing eight buildings or constructing all five colours.

Designed by Bruno Faidutti and first published in 2000, Citadels spawned The Dark City expansion, originally sold separately. This revised edition includes that content, raising the maximum player count to eight and arriving in a rectangular box rather than the original square one.

History

Designed by Bruno Faidutti and first published in 2000, Citadels became a modern classic of role-driven card play. Its expansion, Citadels: The Dark City, was originally released as a separate item.

Later revised editions, including the second edition from Hans im Glück and the third edition from Fantasy Flight Games, incorporated The Dark City content. These editions can be recognised by their rectangular box rather than the original square one, and the included expansion raises the maximum player count to eight.

Shipping

$15 flat shipping · FREE over $150

Shipping details

Watch: How to play

Rules of Citadels Revised Edition

  • Set up: Shuffle the district deck, deal each player four district cards and two gold, and give the crown marker to a starting player. Choose which eight characters to play with.
  • Draft characters: Each round, character cards are secretly drafted one at a time until every player has chosen a role, with some cards set aside face down.
  • Call roles in order: The crowned player calls characters by their rank number. If you hold the called character, reveal it and take your turn.
  • Take income: At the start of your turn, either take two gold from the bank or draw two district cards and keep one.
  • Use your power and build: Characters such as the assassin, thief, wizard and warlord each grant a special ability. You may build one district by paying its gold cost (some characters let you build more).
  • Pass the crown: Once all called characters have acted, return the character cards, shuffle, and begin a new round of drafting.
  • End of game: When a player completes their eighth building, finish that round, then tally scores.
  • Scoring: Districts are worth their build cost, plus bonuses for completing eight buildings, finishing first, and constructing all five colours. The highest-scoring city wins.

Strategy

  • Balance gold and cards: gold pays for buildings, but a thin hand leaves you with nothing worth buying, so top up when your options run low.
  • Watch which characters are missing from the draft each round; knowing what has been set aside narrows down what your rivals could hold.
  • Think before taking the assassin or thief: they are strongest when you can confidently guess who is holding a rich or powerful role.
  • Vary your own picks. Always grabbing the same character makes you an easy mark for the assassin and thief.
  • Chasing all five district colours is worth steady points, so a cheap off-colour building can be a better buy than a costly duplicate.
  • Don't hoard cards forever; converting them into buildings banks points safely where the warlord and other powers can't always reach them.
  • If you are ahead, racing to eight cheap buildings can end the game before opponents' expensive cities pay off.
  • Track how much gold other players are carrying so you can judge who is about to build big and who the thief should target.