the Card Game Lost Cities

Recently I mail-ordered a card game named Lost Cities (designed by Reiner Knizia in 1999) from Hongkong. It's a simple and dapper two-player game, not like the Axis & Allies and Risk needing several players, or the War of the Ring costing 2-3 hours to play.

The object of Lost Cities is to mount profitable expeditions to one or more of the five different lost cities (the Himalayas, the ever-shifting sands of the desert, the Brazilian rain forest, ancient volcanoes and in Neptune's realm). Card play is quite straightforward, with a few agonizing moments sprinkled through what is mostly a fast-moving game. If you start a given expedition, you'd better make some progress in it, or it'll score you negative points. If you can make a lot of progress, you'll score quite well. After three rounds, the highest total score takes the day.

Here's a introduction from Board Games with Scott: