Keltis

Keltis is a re-versioning of an older game (Lost Cities) that was a 2-player battle for points. In Keltis, up to four may play.

The theme is a barely-there confection of Emerald Isle faeries, but really this is an abstract card-playing game. The board shows a series of paths along stones, with each path marked by it’s own unique symbol on each of the stones. Players begin with a set of coloured pieces and a set of numbered cards, and on your turn you simply play a card of a matching symbol to move one of your pieces along a path – then pick up a new card.

However, what at first sounds ludicrously simple has a little more to it. First of all, once you’ve played a second card of any particular symbol (i.e. either lower or higher than the first card you played) you may only continue playing cards in the same direction – higher, or lower. Because the position of your pieces on the paths decides how many points you get at the end of the game, this decision is not to be lightly taken! For instance, if you play a 5 and then a 3 of a certain symbol, the most you’ll get the move that piece for the rest of the game is two more places (- the 2 and the 1 cards). Each path may only take one piece from each player.

There are also tiles liberally scattered along the paths – if you stop your piece on a tile before anyone else gets to it, you get to flip it over and take the benefit: either moving a piece up a spot on any path, or collecting an emerald.

The game ends when a certain amount of pieces have passed the 3/4 mark along the paths, and scores are totted up: points for where your pieces are on the path (further is better; too close to the start is negative points!) plus points for any emeralds you have collected. Each player also has one bigger piece that it’s worth concentrating on if possible – they score double points.