Catherine: The Cities of the Tsarina

2022 · Territory Building

Catherine: The Cities of the Tsarina

Players act as advisors in the Tsarist Empire of 1762, competing for the Tsarina’s favor by developing arts, trade, military power, and city influence through a card-driven tableau. Each player selects project cards into an action row and plays additional cards beneath them as activations; matching activation colors to action cards triggers building residences, gaining resources, drawing cards, exchanging for points or favor, and earning bonuses. Play proceeds over three decades of four simultaneous rounds, with interim scoring comparing military and cultural holdings and rewarding residence placement and favor. Endgame scoring counts cards in hand, contiguous residence groups, and fulfillment of a private order based on goods from controlled cities.

Players
2–4 best 3
Playing time
30–45 min
Age
8+
Complexity
2.3 / 5
4.9 on Ludoyafrom $31.99Card GameSet CollectionHand ManagementSimultaneous Action Selection

About the game

Publisher

Photos from Ludoya tables

All photos in Ludoya
  • Catherine: The Cities of the Tsarina on the table, photo by Núria Gros
  • Catherine: The Cities of the Tsarina on the table, photo by Núria Gros

On Ludoya's tables

Full stats in Ludoya
38
Plays logged
43
Players
59m 5s
Average play
19
In collections
6
On wishlists

4.9/10

from 6 Ludoya reviews

  • Garfield2.0

    I like the mechanism with the 2 rows of cards and the activation. But this game plays you, and because it's random drawing cards, it's pure luck who will win. You have to focus on something, but you can't if you don't get the right cards. I won just because I could trade 3 cards of the same color for 10 VPs, multiple times... And I had a lot of cards with cannons AND books on them and therefore won every combat and had the most books. My rating is not based on the theme, I just don't like it because it's pure luck. I don't care about the theme. I also play game with a roman or greek theme, and these nations were also very cruel. Or France and England who killed each other over centuries. [c] Theme: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Almost none --> Gameplay: ★★☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Always the same, activating cards --> Interaction: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]No direct interaction --> Artwork: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Ok, nothing special --> Luck: ★★★★★ <!-- size 7]Random card drawing, no mitigation --> Strategy: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]No --> Components: ★★★☆☆ <!-- size 7]Good --> Play duration: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Very good --> Easy to teach: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Quite easy (20min) --> Rules quality: <!-- size 7]not read --> Setup time: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]fast --> No downtime: ★★★★☆ <!-- size 7]Almost no downtime --> Replay value: ★☆☆☆☆ <!-- size 7]Just random cards --> [/c]

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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.