Review

Schatzjäger

When less is more, sometimes

Up to six courageous players set out with the intention to collect most treasures on the ice heights of the Frost Mountains, in the thicket of jungles and the depths of lava caves. But take care, there are some “treasures” like an old shoe or a rotting egg that are better left where they are. And then there are goblins that you need to fend off ....

At first glance, this card drafting game wins you over with a simple set-up and quickly explained rules. At the start of each of the five rounds, players receive a hand of nine cards.  Those cards can be adventurers (number cards from 1 to 12, in three colors, Frosty Mountain Blue, Jungle Green or Lava Red), Watchdogs (to fend off goblins), Coins (which are paid out 1:1) or action cards. You select a card from your hand and pass the remaining eight cards to your neighbor, then all choose another card and hand on the rest, until all cards are drafted and each player again holds a hand of nine cards.

Now, Phase 2 of the round begins and we set out to loot treasures.

At each of the three locations - Frosty Mountains, Tangled Jungle and Lava Cave - two treasure tiles are available. One of those treasures is one that is hard to find; it goes to the player who has the highest total to show from summing up his adventurers plus or minus action eventual card values; the other treasure is one that is easy to find, it is awarded to the player with the lowest total from adventurers and action cards. All players must play their adventurers (= color cards with a number value) for the respective locations and can play action cards. Those action cards manipulate the total sum of values (double, plus 4, plus 8, minus 2, or annulling one single card) or allow a player to draw another card (which then must be played, if it is an adventurer) or help to fend off goblins. As soon as nobody wants to play another action card, you determine minimum and maximum number totals for a given location. In case of a tie, the treasure goes to the player who did play the adventurer card with the highest value. Players who did not play cards in the respective color or who manipulate to their total to Zero or below Zero, do not receive a treasure. If only one player did play cards for a location, he receives both treasures.

In this way, all treasures from all three locations are handed out. Treasures are usually artifacts of values ranging from -8 to +20 Gold, but you can also receive yellow or gray magical scrolls. Yellow scrolls can be used once at the end of any round of your choice; they give you, for instance, points for all green cards, that you have played in this round, or a bonus for cards of values 4, 5 or 6. But you might also come across Watchdogs or Coin Cards.

Gray scrolls, on the other hand, are kept until the end of the game and are only scored then for points, for instance for the number of treasures that you collected, or for defeated goblins.

When treasures have been distributed, the goblins must be fought and defeated. In each round, three goblins are on display; Goblin tiles show between one and three pawn symbols and you must scrape together this number of paws on watchdog cards in order to defeat the goblins, and also between one and three coins which you must pay to the goblins, if you cannot fight them off. Each player displays all his watchdog cards, adds up the paw values and checks for each individual goblin if it can be defeated. All goblins that you cannot be defeated, must be paid. The player with most watchdog points receives the goblin chips (one gold each= and all coins paid to goblins by other players. In case of a draw you win with the highest discipline value on a watchdog card. If you want to save your money, you can play the “Scaregoblin” action card, which fights off all goblins, but you cannot with the goblin tiles with it.

Now all players show all coin cards, which they selected during the drafting phase, and receive the respective amount of coins. Unused action cards are simply discarded. Finally, you can resolve the effects of any number of yellow magic scrolls.

Then, you shuffle all cards together, treasures and goblins are displayed and a new round can begin. After five such rounds the game ends and you sum up your artifacts, gray magic scrolls, goblin tiles and the coins that you have acquired – the winner is, whoever could amass most gold coins.

Friends of great tactical decisions will not take a great shine to this game, but occasional gamers and families will love it, as topic and design are especially appealing to them. In a game with three players, you can still form a good picture in your mind of which cards are in play and what your fellow players might have in their hands. But in a game with six players, the element of chance in the game is significantly higher. Some card hands you see only once! The fact, too, that all nine cards are drafted, adds a drop of bitterness to the cup, as you are dealt the last card without an option of selection and this can absolutely destroy a minimum that you wanted to achieve. And a player who draws an additional card when resolving the „Mystery Mule“ action card, can thwart the plans of several players at the same time, maybe including his own.

There is now real development or advancement, the five rounds all follow the same pattern, there are now more valuable treasures or stronger goblins in later rounds. All is randomly shuffled and assigned, which can get a tad monotonous in a game of six players, due to the slightly longer playing time. Yet, if you want a simple, chance-driven, fun card game, you have found it with this game.

Players: 2-6

Age: 8+

Time: 40+

Designer: Richard Garfield

Artist: Markus Erdt

Price: ca. 25 EUR

Publisher: Queen Games 2015

Web: www.queen-games.com

Genre: Card drafting, collecting

Users: For families

Version: de

Rules: de en hu pl

In-game text: no

Comments:

Lots of chance

Simple rules

Pretty design

Short down-time due to simultaneous card drafting

A bit lengthy with six players

Compares to:

Sushi Go, 7 Wonders, Die Holde Isolde

Other editions:

Queen Games (en), Piatnik (hu), rebel.pl (pl)

My rating: 5

Carina Katinger:

Not a game for tacticians, but a simple, nice family game, ideally suited for all players who do not mind a very much chance driven game.

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