Description

Keltis is a multi-player game based on Lost Cities, with some rules changes, later published with Knizia's original rules and theme as Lost Cities: The Board Game.

Players play cards to move their playing pieces along stone paths. Cards show one of five different colors/symbols, each corresponding to one path; in addition, each card shows a number (0-10, twice each). In each color, each player can play his cards in either ascending or descending order. As in Lost Cities, it's better to concentrate on a few paths since the final spaces on a path grant high points, but ending early gives negative ones.

The active player plays one card (out of a hand of eight) or discards one, then moves the corresponding playing piece on the path. Many of the spaces have a token that grants some bonus: either immediate points (counted on the scoring track), an extra move on a path, or wishing stones that are needed at game end to avoid negative points.

• Pieces that moved only 1-3 steps earn negative points (-4, -3, -2).
• Pieces with 4+ steps earn points (1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10).
• One piece of each player twice the height of other pieces scores double, either positive or negative.
• Holding fewer than two wish stones earns negative points (-3 / -4), while a collection of five or more stones yields a bonus of 10 points.

All endgame points are added to any scored during the game. The player with the highest score wins!

Included expansion: This new board provides new challenges and requires new ways of thinking. The new gameboard is arranged portrait-style rather than the landscape orientation of the original, and the five roads have been replaced by a network of intersecting and overlapping roads, so you can continue on a different color or even choose which way to go. The point values also change during your way, not simply increasing.
Also you have 5 cairns on the board, with each cairn having a stack of five stones in a particular color. When you reach a spot on that track, you claim the top stone. Stones of all five colors are awarded 10 points; collecting three stones of the same color is also worth 10 points, too.