Citadels Board Game Review

Citadels is a role-selection card game by Bruno Faidutti, first published in 2000 and reissued by Z-Man Games in the 2016 edition most players own today. Every round you secretly hire one character, then hope nobody guessed which one. It plays 2 to 8 players, ages 10 and up, in 30 to 60 minutes. This review covers the components, rules, mechanics, and the kind of group it suits.

Citadels Overview

You are building a medieval city. Districts cost gold and score points equal to what you paid for them.

The catch is that you never build in peace. The Assassin, Thief, and Warlord let players kill a turn, empty a stash, or knock a finished building back into the deck.

The game ends after the round in which someone finishes their city: seven districts with 4 to 8 players, eight with 2 or 3.

What’s in the Box: Citadels Components

The character cards are tarot sized with art by Andrew Bosley, and the district art comes from about twenty illustrators. Card stock is average, so sleeve them if the game hits your table often.

The crown is a small resin piece rather than a cardboard token. Character tokens sit in the middle in rank order so nobody has to memorise which roles are in play.

Citadels Pros and Cons

What works:

• Passing the Assassin along means one of the next players has it, and you have to guess who.
• Setup takes under ten minutes and the rules explain in about five.
• Nine ranks with three variants each change the cast between games. The Alchemist plays nothing like the Merchant.
• It supports 8 players, and six preset lists in the rulebook set the aggression level before you start.

What does not:

• Getting assassinated twice in a row leaves you with nothing to do for two rounds.
• Turn order jumps around by rank, so downtime at 7 or 8 players stretches out.
• The 2-player rules give each player two characters and lose most of the guessing.
• Scores often hinge on one expensive district.

How to Play Citadels

Citadels Setup

Shuffle 14 unique districts into the 54 basic ones and deal four cards to each player. Everyone takes two gold, and the oldest player takes the crown. Lay out the character tokens in rank order.

The Selection Phase

The crowned player shuffles the characters, discards some faceup and one facedown depending on player count, then picks one in secret and passes the rest left.

Each player takes one card and passes on. The rank 4 character can never be a faceup discard, so the crown always stays in play.

The Turn Phase

Characters act in rank order, not seating order. The crowned player calls “one, Assassin” and whoever holds that card flips it faceup and acts.

On your turn you take two gold or draw two districts and keep one. You may then build one district by paying its cost, and you use your character ability at some point during the turn.

How to Win Citadels

Score one point per gold of building cost across your city. Add 3 points for holding all five district types, 4 for finishing first, or 2 for finishing later. Unique districts add their own bonuses.

Where to Buy Citadels

Citadels Game Mechanics

The engine is what Faidutti calls single-hand character drafting, borrowed from the game Verräter. Because the roles pass hand to hand, the cards you do not take tell everyone something about what remains.

That makes the draft a reading exercise. Take the Warlord when the player on your left has six districts and they know they are the target, so they pick the Bishop to block you.

District colours feed the characters. Noble buildings pay the King, religious ones pay the Bishop, trade ones pay the Merchant, military ones pay the Warlord.

The 30 unique purple districts break rules outright. The Quarry lets you build duplicates, the Keep cannot be destroyed, and the Haunted Quarter counts as any type at scoring. Swapping the character and district lists between games changes the shape of play, which is why it outlasts most card games in this weight class.

Who Should Play Citadels

Citadels suits groups who enjoy reading each other. The interesting decisions come from tracking what your neighbours need, not from optimising your own income.

Five and six players is the sweet spot, since roughly half the characters get taken each round and guessing stays hard without the wait becoming long.

Fans of Coup or Sheriff of Nottingham will recognise the bluffing, though Citadels asks you to build something over a longer arc. Against Splendor it trades engine control for player interaction. Groups who prefer their deduction without direct attacks will find the Assassin and Warlord grating.

Skip it if your group takes lost turns badly. Bring it out for larger evenings where a heavier game would not fit, alongside your usual games for bigger groups.

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