Sabre-toothed Seven

8. Mammut

By Kristian Amundsen Ostby

Players: 2 - 5
Ages: 8+
Time: 30+ minutes
Type of game: Social / Auctionish
Reccomended?: Yes

Seems like life in prehistoric times was a little more straightforward than it is now. You'd go out with your tribe hunting and gathering then split the spoils under the watchful eye of the tribe leader. Everyone shared the work and got their equal share of the spoils. Fair. Y'know, exactly like banking works now.

What if the tribe leader wasn't around and we were left to ourselves to decide how to split it? What's to stop me taking all of it? We need some rules to stop that happening. Let's see... If I have nothing in front of me I can take as much as I want from the central pile or take everything from somebody (who either has been too greedy or has what I want).

Seems fair? That's Mammut.

Here's the 2 boards. The far one acts as storage for the 7 sabre-toothed animals and a reminder of the various scoring options, the other is for keeping track of your score and furs.
You get thin and fat mammoths to mark your journey and another one to keep in front of you to:
A) remind yourself what colour you are
B) remind the other players what colour you are
C) play with
During the game you will find yourself doing mostly C.

Each round you'll upend a bag of tiles and leave them as they fall apart from separating them slightly so you can see what side is up. The first player takes what they want but tries to take little enough so that it's not stolen by another player. In our game 7 was decided as being the amount you could take without being acutes of being too greedy. Which meant we'd take 8-9 to try and push our luck.
With a number of ways to gain points and a couple of ways to lose points, you've got to get a good mix and keep an eye on what your opponents are picking up. But, as the tiles are double-sided you can never be certain of what you're going to get each round. So, although you can decide on a basic strategy you've got to be open to changing it.

Like The Resistance, the bulk of this game happens socially. Yes, you have the tokens in front of you to represent the choices you're taking but it's how you argue the fairness of those choices that really makes the game. That's where the fun of this really comes into play.

Also, there are sabre-toothed hamsters in this game.

Greed is Good (Except when it's bad and you get trapped in a pyramid with hungry mummies, crocodiles, cobras and scorpions)

4a. The Adventurers: Pyramid of Horus
By Guillaume Blossier and Frédéric Henry

Players: 2 - 6
Ages: 13+
Time: 45 mins
Type of game: dungeon run, Push your luck
Reccomended?: Yes


Feverishly, your eyes sweep across the sarcophagus lid deciphering the symbols as they go. Pausing on one you can't quite decipher you consult your notebook to find the meaning. Sure now of the secret way to unlock the casket's treasure, you tug at the lid's edge. No! You've gone wrong again. You're certain of two of the symbols but still need to decipher three. You've got one more chance before the mummy turns round and starts lumbering towards you. You're certain you could work faster if you hadn't been bitten by that snake and weren't laden down with golden trinkets. You can't possibly drop them though. You have to hold on to the treasure so, when the roof finally gives in you're ready to start running for fear of being trapped... Forever!

This the second of The Adventurers games (I own both which is why it's 4a). The first game (coming soon to The List!) sees you exploring a Raiders of the Lost Ark style Mayan temple. In this version however you explore a pyramid looking for treasure and avoiding the many dangers within.

The game has been refined somewhat but the core system remains the same.
The number of actions each player can take is decided by the roll of 5 dice at the beginning of the round. Any dice value the same or higher than your WLL (Wound Load Level) enables you to take 1 action to a maximum of 5.

How is your WLL calculated? As the game progresses you'll pick up cards. Some are treasures (yay!), some are equipment (yay!), some are wounds (boo!). The more you carry and/or the more wounds you receive the higher the number rolled has to be to count as an action.

The deeper you get into the pyramid, the more you explore hoping to find treasures the slower you get. If you should ever find yourself with 12 cards you have to start dropping treasure and equipment just so you can keep moving.

Despite this reduction in the number of actions you can take, you will find that the game doesn't slow because at the end of each round the first player randomly selects a stone (plastic) block from the box lid. Inside each of these is a number corresponding to a space on the board. The block comes slamming down into the pyramid is placed carefully so as not to damage the board hopefully wounding one of your competitors who rolls out of the way or squashing them if they can't. Each block hinders your movement until, inevitably, they form a wall trapping any with the misfortune to still be in the main body of the pyramid.

The winner of the game is the person still alive with the most treasure. Although, when we play it's generally just the person that's alive.

Somewhat chaotic, this is a favourite due to theme alone. Good silly fun.

Three adventurers ready to take on the perils of the pyramid! They're all grey so the designers included little coloured bases so you can tell them apart. Yes, that one in the middle is Rasputin.

Mummy 1,

Mummy 2...

...and Mummy 3. They all want to eat your brains!

The full pyramid. Around the board are the various treasures you can collect and decks of cards for the different areas you can search in.

David shows just how easy it is to lift a block from the box. Well done Sir!

Key of the Door - 21!

DOOM! This one missed you, but you won't always be so lucky.

Mike and David's characters are, wisely, heading towards the exit. Greedily  and stupidly, I decide to search for just a few more treasures...



3 blocks crash down and I head for the exit. Nearly at the wall and laden down, I'm moving 1 space a turn until... DOOM! A block falls sealing my fate... FOREVER!