Designed by: Christof Schilling,Dr Hans Joachim Höh,Michael Loth
In My Gold Mine players are trying to make it out of the mine with the most gold in order to win. But beware the dragon…
The mine is established by laying out a bunch of large cards to make a board of sorts, with the exit at one end and the dragon at the other. Player pieces all start in the middle. On your turn you have two choices, represented by two decks of cards. You can either take a gold card (these are face-up) representing gold pieces you’ve found in the mine, or you can take a move card (these are face-down) that will move you toward the exit in some way: one space, two spaces, maybe moving all players or allowing you to swap positions with another player.
The catch is that mixed in with the gold cards are dragon cards. If, when you take a gold card, you reveal a dragon card beneath it, the dragon moves toward the players. If it catches up with any of them, those players are out of the round. The dragon card is discarded and – unless another dragon card is revealed, in which case it moves again! – it’s the next player’s turn. So there’s an ongoing risk/reward dilemma of lingering in the mine for more gold versus getting out, but with not enough: the player with the most gold in rounds one and two keeps just three gold for the third and final round – giving those players a head-start – but whoever of the survivors has the most gold on round three wins the game.
Enough for the game to feel a bit spiky at times: having your piece swapped back from a position of safety can and will happen, or you might be just about to draw a move card when the player before you inadvertently moves the dragon and knocks you out.
Very low. Each turn essentially has one decision.
Not so much brain-burn as risk-burn, although you have a little more agency with lower player-counts. But it's probably best with a crowd, if that crowd are okay with the bunfight feel of it.
My Gold Mine isn't really trying to be a game with huge depth - it's a silly, fast-moving cash-grab with a side portion of take-that. The shuffling of cards is the only randomizer, but it's still enough to cause gasps of dismay.
2-6
Players
6+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
This game is like someone took the luck-pushing tomb-raiding of Incan Gold (all players raid the tomb, but risk loss of life (and riches) if they're not out soon enough) and tweaked it to be even more boisterous and sillier. Better? They're both a lot of fun with an appreciative crowd, but Incan Gold has a table-reading aspect to it that I think makes it a miniature classic. For me, My Gold Mine's progression through card draws means it's not quite as compelling, but hey, it's still fun and there's none of Incan Gold's low-level mathsiness, so it's probably better for a wider audience.