Citadels - How To Play

hi and welcome to watch it played my name is rodney smith and in this video we're going to learn the 2-8 player game citadels designed by bruno fiduti and published by z-man games who helped sponsor this video ever have a tough job interview well consider this one you've just applied for the job as the kingdom's master builder and you and the other candidates have shown up to be interviewed by the king who gives you a simple challenge he just wants you to build them a city that's right recruit local workers and specialists and build an entire city and if you can build the best one you'll get the job how hard could it be well we're gonna find out so join me at the table and let's learn how to play we're going to set up the game as they recommend for your very first play but later you can follow the complete setup instructions here to give every game you play a unique twist to begin put these gold coins in the center of the play area and give each person two in this video we'll assume that we have four players now give the oldest player this crown or you can just pick someone randomly and they're referred to as the crowned player next find all the cards with this back known as the characters characters are numbered from 1 to 9 in their top left corner and each value will have multiple copies although their numbers may match characters that share the same value will have different names artwork and abilities which are shown at the bottom using this chart found in the rulebook find the specific characters listed in this section from each of the values though i should mention if you have three or eight players the rules will tell you to add one of the value nine characters as well but in this four player game we're all set with these and can return all the rest of the characters back to the box now go through all of these smaller character reminder cards and find the ones matching the names and pictures of the characters we just put in the character deck returning any others back to the box the larger character cards that we kept are now given as a face down deck to the crowned player who again is the person with this piece the reminders are then set in a row in the middle of the play area and next you'll find all the cards with this back known as the districts from these collect all of the ones that show these four symbols in the bottom left-hand corner we'll put them to the side for now but we'll be using them in a moment you'll also find a variety of districts with this symbol in their bottom left corner each of these are unique and are known as the unique districts from them find the ones with the same matching names at their bottom as the ones shown in this table found at the start of the rulebook once you have all 14 return the rest of the unique districts back to the box they won't be used in this game now combine all the districts you collected and shuffle them into a face down pile that you'll set in the middle of the play area each player is now dealt four cards from the district deck which they can examine but must keep a secret from the other players and that's the setup the rules i'm about to teach will cover games with four to eight players but after you can check your rule book for the few adjustments you'll make if you have only two or three players in citadels you and the other players will be picking characters to use each round for their special abilities while attempting to gain gold and construct a city from district cards once a player has seven districts the game will end and players will score points for the city they've built the player with the most points wins the game is played over a series of rounds and each round is broken into two phases starting with the selection phase here the crowned player again that's the person with the crown piece will take and shuffle the deck of character cards discarding one face down and a certain number of them face up based on the number of players you have in your game using this chart from the rule book so in our four player game they would put two face up in the center of the play area now just note the character showing a four cannot be among the face up characters so if it's revealed discard another one to replace it and then shuffle the value four character back into the deck in the case of a four player game the crowned player will have five cards left in the character deck and they now secretly examine them privately picking one to keep passing the rest of the person on their left who examines the remaining characters picks one to keep and passes the rest and around the table you'll go like this until each person has selected one character leaving one left unchosen which is then set face down beside the other characters that were discarded at the start by the crowned player that said there's a special rule if you have seven players in that case when it gets to the sixth player they'll end up passing just one card to the seventh player now that seventh player picks up the card that was discarded face down at the end of the round and chooses from between those two characters discarding the other one face down that ends the selection phase and now it's time for the turn phase here turns are taken in ascending order based on the rank of each of the characters the players selected a character's rank is shown in its top left hand corner but players should keep their rank and their character card a secret for now instead the crowned player will call out each possible rank starting with one and working their way up and if any player hears their rank called out they stop the count and then they take a turn so as an example after the crown player calls out rank one let's say no one speaks up because no one chose the rank one character then the crown player would call out two and i'm holding the rank two characters so now i reveal it and i would take my turn now we'll see how you take a player turn in a moment but after a turn is over the next value is called out and you keep going like this until every player has taken a turn now when a player is taking their turn they must gather resources and this can be done in one of two possible ways the game comes with player aids that each person can have that will remind you of your options here so let's go through each of them now one option is to take two gold from the bank and add them to your personal supply or you can instead choose to draw two cards from the district deck picking one of them to add to your hand and returning the other face down to the bottom of the deck there is no limit to the amount of gold or cards a player can have and if the bank ever runs out of gold just use a suitable replacement also the amount of gold and cards in a player's hand is considered open information they can't hide those details after gathering resources as it says here you may then build one district from any you have in your hand if you want to do this play the card face up in front of you and pay the cost in gold shown in this corner returning it back to the general supply the districts that are face up in front of you make up your city and at most you may only build one district per turn and may not build the district if you have one already in your city with the exact same name districts you build come in five main types which are identified by their symbols in this corner these represent noble religious trade military and unique districts each of the unique districts has a unique effect printed on it which provides you with the benefit once it's face up in your city and their effects are always optional unless they include the word must or cannot in their description we're not going to go over all the various effects you might find on the districts because how they work is described directly on them including when their effects can be resolved that said you'll find some additional details about some of them here towards the back of the rulebook if you have any questions during your turn you will also have revealed your character which will have a special ability that you may use at most once any time during your turn unless its ability says otherwise so i could for example even use my character ability before i gather resources on my turn but now let's take a moment and go through each of the character abilities as these are a big part of the game with this ability you call the name of another character that you wish to kill when that chosen character's rank is called out if someone does have that character they must not give any reaction and instead stay silent skipping their entire turn without revealing their character the thief's ability is that they call out the name of a character they wish to rob and if that target is revealed later in the turn by another player that targeted player loses all of their gold to the thief you cannot however rob from a rank one character a killed character or a bewitched character now none of the characters that we have here in this setup are able to bewitch other characters but you'll find those abilities available on other characters in later setups the magician gets a choice they can swap their entire hand of district cards with another player even if they themselves have no cards meaning they just take their opponent's hand for themselves or they can discard any number of their cards to the bottom of the district deck and draw an equal number of new ones this king character has two effects at some point during their turn they must take the crown becoming the crowned player which still happens even if they are bewitched once they have the crown they'll then call out the character ranks for the rest of this round let's say our king character is here now if the king character is picked to be killed let's say by the assassin when they're being revealed then the king's turn is silently skipped just as we described before they'll pretend they don't have the king nothing will happen when that number is called out but at the end of the round they will then reveal that they had the king and they will take the crown so the king's turn was still skipped because they were assassinated but they've claimed the crown it's as if the crown's been passed on to their heir the king player also gains one gold for each district they have showing the noble symbol so in this case they'd gain two gold with the bishop the rank 8 character that we'll see later cannot use its ability on your districts unless you're killed and then they can the bishop also gains one gold for each district showing the religious symbol so here they'd gain three gold the merchant gains one gold no matter what and then gains one more gold for each district showing the trade symbol so here they'd gain a total of three gold the architect gains two extra cards no matter what resources they collected this turn and may also build up to three districts this turn instead of the usual one finally we have the warlord they pick one district in any player's city which could include their own and destroy it by paying one fewer gold than its usual cost to build so to destroy this manner would cost them two gold however you cannot destroy a district of a player who has seven or more districts this is known as having a completed city when a district is destroyed though you put it face down at the bottom of the deck the warlord also gains one gold for each district they have showing this military symbol and those are just some of the characters included in the game remember there are other versions of each rank so when you play you can mix and match different versions to have a different experience if you ever have any questions about the characters we just looked at or any of the others you'll find instructions about how their effects work detailed here in the rule book as mentioned once a player has finished resolving their turn the crowned player calls out the next rank and ranks will be called and resolved until every player has gone then the round comes to an end and a new one begins with the crown player gathering up all of the character cards including all the ones that were discarded at the beginning and then a new selection phase is started and rounds will continue like this until a player has managed to build seven or more districts in their city the game concludes at the end of that round and i should mention a player is allowed to build more than seven districts in their city but as soon as at least seven have been built the game will end after that round where it will then be time for players to calculate their final scores if you are the first player to complete your city by building at least seven districts you earn four points and the other player who also managed to build at least seven districts earns two points then each player scores points equal to the gold cost of each building in their district and any player with at least one district of each type scores three points finally players also score points for any unique buildings that say they earned them points at the end of the game the player with the most points wins in the case of a tie the tied player who revealed the highest ranked card in the final round wins there are slightly modified rules for two and three player games and those are detailed here which i'll leave for you to discover on your own along with the rules for customizing your own setups for future games where you want different characters and unique districts but otherwise that's everything you need to know to play cinderellas if you have any questions at all about anything you saw here feel free to put them in the comments below and i'll gladly answer them as soon as i get a chance you'll also find forums for discussion pictures other videos and lots more over on the games page at board game geek and i'll put a link to that in the description below and if you found this video helpful please consider giving it a 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