Citadela Duel (Citadels Duel CZ)

Citadel Duel – win the favour of the council, recruit influential figures and build a shared city where the winner is decided by the more cunning plan.

Two builders compete for the future of a single city. Win the favour of the council, summon influential figures and place buildings so that they bring you gold, security and a decisive advantage. However, every ally can also serve your opponent.

Citadela Duel is designed specifically for 2 players aged 14 and over who enjoy direct competition, gauging their opponent’s intentions and making decisions with immediate consequences. The rules offer plenty of scope for well-thought-out combinations, whilst not burdening you with the lengthy process of building your own game system. You should set aside roughly 30 minutes for a single game, so you can easily play a rematch.

The game will appeal to experienced fans of the original Citadela who wish to utilise its familiar characters in a purely head-to-head setting. It’s also well suited to pairs looking for a fast-paced tactical game with significant interaction. Expect to steal your opponent’s gold, thwart their plans and take over their painstakingly built structures – the rivalry here remains personal right up to the very last move.

Together, you build a city on a 4 × 4 grid, though each of you has your own vision for its future form. You choose buildings from the public selection or from your pair of hidden unique buildings, pay for them with gold, and attach them to the already completed parts of the city. By placing a building strategically, you gain a construction bonus, as you place a coin on the new tile for every adjacent building of the same colour. It is therefore not just about the cost of the building – its location, surroundings and protection are also important.

Each round begins with the distribution of character cards. You keep two of the four cards and pass two to your opponent, after which you secretly discard one of the characters you’ve received. When the Assassin, Thief, King, Monk, Merchant, Builder, Diplomat, Mercenary and Queen are subsequently revealed, it becomes clear whether you have correctly guessed your opponent’s choices. Characters allow you to gain gold and councillors, reduce the cost of construction, protect important buildings or interfere with your opponent’s property.

The council board and the royal guard figure add another layer of strategy. A majority of councillors at the end of a round ensures more advantageous development, whilst the guard protects a selected building and its immediate surroundings from theft and takeover. Once you have filled the last space on the city board, you tally up the value of the buildings you control, the gold stored on their tiles, and the points for councillors. The winner is the builder whose influence and wealth have created the more valuable part of the citadel.

• Citadela Duel was designed specifically for two opponents, so every decision is directed against a specific rival and no one has to wait for other players’ turns.
• Selecting and passing characters forces you to keep track not only of your own options, but also of the cards you’ve sent to the other side of the table and the intentions of their new owner.
• As the game progresses, the shared city gradually transforms into a clear chronicle of your rivalry, where every tile represents a successful plan or a missed opportunity.
• The public building auction allows you to plan several moves ahead, whilst hidden unique buildings bring surprises and constantly alter the available combinations.
• Nine distinct characters provide you with tools for construction, resource management and direct intervention, allowing you to continually adapt your tactics to the city’s development.
• The battle for council seats is more than just a side element, as a majority on the council grants an advantage during development and yields additional victory points at the end of the game.
• The Royal Guard creates a safe haven in an otherwise turbulent city; moving it can therefore protect your wealth or open up a path to your opponent’s building.
• The game is played on a compact board and lasts approximately half an hour, yet during that time you’ll alternate between choosing roles, managing resources, building and fighting for control.
• The scoring system rewards valuable buildings, stored coins and influence on the council, allowing you to find your own path to dominance rather than following a single ‘correct’ strategy.
• The random starting setup and ever-changing, unique buildings ensure that no two games begin with the same challenge and will not require the same decisions as the previous game.

The original publisher of Citadels Duel is the American studio Z-Man Games. The artwork was created by illustrators Damien Mammoliti, Graey Erb and Aldrey de Godoy, who also created the cover illustration.

Citadela Duel builds on the 2000 game Citadela, created by the French game designer and historian Bruno Faidutti. The original game based its competition on the secret selection of characters, guessing opponents’ intentions and building city districts.

The first prototype of the new two-player game was presented to Bruno Faidutti in 2023 by French game designers Guillaume Montiage and Manuel Rozoy. They retained the selection and gradual deployment of characters, but added collaborative construction using tiles, a council, the royal guard and a new way of scoring points. The result is therefore not a shortened version of Citadels, but a standalone duel.

CONTENTS:

• 30 tiles
• 1 royal guard figure
• 9 councillor tokens
• 9 character cards
• 2 overview cards
• 25 gold coins
• 2 bags
• 2 stands
• 1 council board
• Czech rules

Review (EN):