Designed by: Holger Lanz
In The Climbers you seek to be the highest climber on a mountain of wooden blocks.
At the start of the game players build the mountain by assembling the wooden pieces randomly together, following the no over-hanging rules. Then players take their climber, blocking piece, and two ladders (one long, one short) and play begins.
On your turn, you take a single block (large, small or medium) and move it on the mountain. You can rotate the block to a new face (in fact, you can legally rotate a block and return it to the same place) and after moving a block, you may move your climber. But! Your climber must follow the movement rules: without a ladder, it can only climb up a single level (ie your climber’s head must be higher than the level you’re climbing to) and it can only climb on blocks of the neutral colour (which everyone can use) or your own colour: if your climber is purple, you can travel across purple blocks. Note too that if your climber can move at the end of someone else’s turn, it can do so!
Your ladders can be used to ascend multiple levels in one turn (your climber’s head must be clear of the next level when its on the top rung) and, once used, are gone from the game. Your blocking piece is similarly single-use; you can prevent other players moving a block until your next turn by placing your blocking piece on it.
Play continues until all players have had a consecutive turns where nobody climbed, at which point the player highest wins. If multiple players occupy the highest level, the player who got there first wins.
You can be blocked, and you can find yourself out of contention (at least temporarily) depending on the turns of the other players.
Potentially high. Because...
...although the rules are simple, your best choices won't necessarily leap out at you. Playing with 4 or 5 can mean a bit of a wait for your turn to come around.
Tonnes of variety in how the game is set up, as the players simply throw the 'mountain' together. Beyond that, it's a game of tactical play - there aren't really strategies to be explored so the replayability depends on how much you enjoy the - surprisingly combative - puzzle here.
2-5
Players
8+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
It looks really pretty on the table, but The Climbers is maybe not the type of fun it appears to be: the bright colours and simple rules say 'family game' - or even 'party game' - but it can be brutal at times, and very thinky too. Not only do you want to allow your climber to ascend as much and as often as possible, you also want to think about the opportunities you might be leaving behind. And as well as that, the mountain itself can grow taller, shorter, or even split into two mountains during play!