Is scoring of Lost Cities unfair/biased?

[Lieven D.]

I have the feeling Lost Cities is awarding to much points to one exceptional expedition, while it doesn't take into account all played expeditions.
If you don't get what I mean, take a look at the attached game between Botanist and me.

Botanist has played 4 expeditions, of which 1 is exceptional (98 points), 1 is good (26 points), and 2 others are bad (-9 points and -14 points).
I have played 3 expeditions, that are all good (at least 20 points per expedition).

Yet in final scoring, Botanist has 30 more points than me (101 vs 71).
I somehow feel this is unfair, but maybe that's just how scoring works and I have to adapt to it.

What do you think?

[Huggable T.]

Hi Lieven.  Lost Cities is not my strong game but I think its because the rules are that you get 50 bonus points if you make eight cards of the same colour suit.  You needed one more re your green expedition to achieve the same result.  I hope this helps.  If you knew this already - I apologise.

[Huggable T.]

Meant to say its the strategy of the game - do you go for one suit and try to get the bonus at the expense of other expeditions or go for multiple expeditions and try to boost your points that way.

[Meri R.]

It's 20 points for the bonus, but it can be a killer, and why it forms the basis of a strong strategy. There's really not much you can do to mitigate it if your opponent gets 8 out of the 12 cards for any particular expedition, especially if they have a couple of $ cards in the run. It's a mix of luck and clever hand management in that respect.

The trouble with removing that 20 point bonus is that it then becomes a game purely of who gets the high cards, so is then far more luck based. Playing to achieve that 8 card run, and knowing it will ultimately trump simply having 8s, 9s or 10s in any colour, is what makes the game.

In answer to the original post... yeah, it's a question of adapting, and knowing that those 8-card runs will destroy you when they happen.

Lost Cities isn't my favourite, personally speaking, because the luck of the draw is still very swingy. Hanamikoji is far more tactical, but obviously very different. Keltis Or adds dice manipulation to the Lost Cities set up, but the games take twice as long if not more, and that drags from about two-thirds in if you know you're probably going to lose.

[Mike A.]

All the games here have a substantial amount of luck involved. That's why we play them and not chess. Anyone can win any of these at any time. That's especially true of Finito, which I surprisingly still enjoy even though it's maddening.

Regarding Lost Cities, as has been said, part of what makes it fun and exciting is trying to figure out how much you should give up in some expeditions to go for the big bang ones. The Happy Meeple version plays a bit different than the official game because it's one hand instead of three. That makes luck much more important here.

[Infi01]

Regarding Lost Cities, as has been said, part of what makes it fun and exciting is trying to figure out how much you should give up in some expeditions to go for the big bang ones. The Happy Meeple version plays a bit different than the official game because it's one hand instead of three. That makes luck much more important here.

I know it's an old thread but I'm curious what does this mean:
"The Happy Meeple version plays a bit different than the official game because it's one hand instead of three"

[Jamie A.]

Regarding Lost Cities, as has been said, part of what makes it fun and exciting is trying to figure out how much you should give up in some expeditions to go for the big bang ones. The Happy Meeple version plays a bit different than the official game because it's one hand instead of three. That makes luck much more important here.

I know it's an old thread but I'm curious what does this mean:
"The Happy Meeple version plays a bit different than the official game because it's one hand instead of three"

The official game rules recommend playing three hands (or three games) and adding the scores together to determine the winner. On Happy Meeple we play one hand (or one game) and that one score is the final score to determine the winner.