Montanara

General Information:
Manufacturer : Abacus
Author : Jong Kong
Design : Guido Hoffmann
Number of Players : 2
Age : 10 years plus
Time : app. 20 mins.
Year: 2005

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Deutsche Spielerezension

1 gameboard - 80 cards (9 crystals, 23 dwarves, 48 action cards) - 4 summary cards - 1 rulebook (English, German, French, Italian)

The "Montanara" - the inhabitants of the mountains - are dwarves searching for the precious crystals hidden deep inside the mountains. Before they can start digging they have to find out where the best place for digging is.

Before the game each player gets a summary card, takes any dwarf and draws 3 cards from the stack. The dwarf and the three cards make up each player's "house mountain". Make 4 separate piles of the remaining cards and put one pile on each mountain-box on the gameboard. Determine whose going to be starting player.

Each player takes one turn and than it is the other player's turn. Each player may perform one of the 3 actions below.

Drawing: The player now draws the top-card from any "mountain" and adds it to his/her hand.
Playing: A player may choose to play either an action card or a dwarf. The action on the card has to be performed instantly. Then the card is discarded and out of the game. The dwarf can be placed in front of the player. A player may never have more than 4 dwarves in front of him/her.
Digging: If a player has got at least one dwarf he/she can start digging for crystals. He/She now selects either his/her "house pile" (the other player takes it and shuffles the cards) or a mountain-pile from the gameboard. The player must now turn around cards corresponding to his/her number of dwarves in front of him/her. A player may only keep crystals - all other cards are discarded when drawn. When having found a crystal the player's turn is over. If a player draws a "cave-in" card all his/her dwarves run away onto the discard pile. Then he/she may have a look at all the cards in a mountain (without changing the order of the cards).

The game ends immediatley when a player finds his/her fourth crystal. The winner of the game is - of course - the player who now owns 4 crystals.

(Troudi 20.09.05)

Further Information:
- Homepage of Abacus

Superfred says 6 out of 10 points:
"Montanara" is an interesting card game for 2 players. The actionscards are multipurposed. "Cave In" is an angry event in any case as well as the "Theft"-card enabling the players to swap their hands. So it can happen that your own strategy fails and a player can loose a good hand and - even more worse - good stones. Such events take place more than once. So obviously players fortune is closely connected with the cards. So the game is mostly about luck and not about tactics. Tactical playing depends on the cards as well. So even if it lacks tactics "Montanara" still is an interesting and eventful game without boredom. The game is easy to explain and play and it only lasts about 15-20 minutes. The game is okay - but not more than an easy and quick cardgame. The game is available for around 12 Euros.

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