PLAYED FOR YOU

Amber Route

Folk lore in Adventures

Amber Route takes you on a journey across Slavic lore; you lead a caravan across unknown terrain and at each stage you encounter ancient magic, traps and evil creatures while trying to get as many amber pieces as you can from the shores of the Baltic Sea to the castle in the center of the mainland.

Each player starts with three escort tokens and a piece of amber; a board is assembled to represent a track from the coast to the castle, either according to the template or at your choice. A player turn comprises 1) Drawing Phase - you decide to draw a card or take an escort token; 2) Action phase, you can recruit an escort, draw a card or advance and master an encounter or fight, which means you implement the case you have reached and can then fight a player already on the spot. One step per turn is free, a second step costs you an escort token. Encounters are resolved by using dice and power cards, escort tokens let you change dice results. Encounters can earn you amber or cost you amber; if you hold three pieces of amber, you secure one on your player card and put the others back into stock. Secured amber cannot be lost due to encounters or combat and scores points at the end of the game. If someone reaches the castle, all other players have one more turn and then the game is scored. Points are scored for reaching the castle first, for secure amber and unused reward cards; if you did not reach the castle you lose one point per missing step.

Amber Route is a nice adventure game between target groups of family and experienced player; it uses standard mechanism and is interesting due to the folk lore references.

Players: 2-4

Age: 8+

Time: 45+

Designer: Krzysztof Matusik

Artist: Roman Kucharski

Price: ca. 30 Euro

Publisher: Bomba Games 2014

Web: www.bombagames.pl

Genre: Adventure, folk lore

Users: With friends

Special: 2 players

Version: multi

Rules: en pl

In-game text: no

Comments:

Substantial element of chance due to dice decisions

Use of cards and escort markers introduces a bit of tactic

Also good family game for somewhat experienced players

Compares to:

Talisman and other adventure games with encounter resolving using dice and cards

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0