Hoard (2014)

About this game

Can you gather and secure more treasure than your fellow-adventurers from the Hoard of the sleeping dragon? Can you defend yourself from their attacks and perhaps perpetrate a few of your own? And can you end the hunt at the most opportune time, perhaps by actually wakening the fearsome beast? Hoard is a dynamic game of hand management, set collection, and press-your-luck. Each turn players take one of four possible actions: 1) roll a custom die and move to take a new card, 2) secure a set of treasures or add to an existing set to score points, 3) affect the dragon, who wakes in stages from his tail to his head, by playing cards that soothe or rouse him, or 4) use a sword on an opponent or capture a used sword with a shield. The board is composed of 12 facedown cards surrounding the dragon. It changes as players remove and replace the cards. Dice rolls between 1-5 enable clockwise or counterclockwise movement and the special symbol allows access to all but one of the cards, so it is a game that rewards memory. Hoard is meant to be played in rounds, with scoring tokens obviating the need for pencil and paper scorekeeping.

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 2 to 6.
• Rules load. At 1.2/5 this is a light game — explain it in a few minutes, good for a table that has not played much.
• Age. The publisher suggests 6 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.