Citadels: Should You Kill The King?

Many beginning Citadels players assassinate the king when they are...

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When I used to play Citadels my strategy was always the same. When choosing a role I'd shuffle the cards and draw a random card. If it was the King or Assassin I put it back and drew again. Of course never told anyone which cards I'd return. By basically ignoring that aspect of the game and focusing entirely on income and building I won almost every time and was close-second in the others. Was never a fan but now I find it to be pretty boring and hope to never play again.

Edit: Thank you for the strategy article. I wish we got more of them here.

ChristopherMD wrote: When I used to play Citadels my strategy was always the same. When choosing a role I'd shuffle the cards and draw a random card. If it was the King or Assassin I put it back and drew again. Of course never told anyone which cards I'd return. By basically ignoring that aspect of the game and focusing entirely on income and building I won almost every time and was close-second in the others. Was never a fan but now I find it to be pretty boring and hope to never play again.

It's a good gambit because the "random" aspect of your selection makes you difficult to target with role-based effects like Assassin or Thief. You could probably nudge things a little by picking more optimally when you are not as obvious a target. If I see someone accumulating cash turn over turn and I pass them Architect, I know what the Assassin I am holding is going to do and they will get wrecked. But you pay a cost for this strategy by playing "slow" compared to folks that are better at optimizing and dodging. Hence the second places.