I love it when a game is based in actual history, and although managing to convey the story of actual events through the medium of gaming is a tricky ask, when it's pulled off it's fantastic. Even better, when the story is Actually Pretty Crazy and the game works... well, it's a great combination. Now, over a century ago, a German named Jacob Waltz supposedly discovered a lucrative mining seam in the wilds of Arizona, and started showing up in nearby towns with huge nuggets of gold. Being a canny bloke, he kept the location secret – after all, he wouldn’t want anyone getting in on his claim - and it was only when he was on his deathbed did he reveal the location of the mine to a woman who was taking care of Waltz in his dying days.
Despite having the information, she never found the mine. Years later, another hunter named Adolph Ruth heard the stories and went exploring himself after hearing the tales and promptly disappeared. Months later his headless body was discovered and the legend was born of a cursed mine filled with riches. And that, dear reader, is how you set up a story for a game. Who wouldn't want to play something like this?
In The Lost Dutchman from Crash Games, up to five players will attempt to discover the mine and much more besides by exploring a grid of hexes and negotiating their way around the included treasure map. Each character has four attributes - Vigor, Foresight, Ingenuity and Health - which will be used to battle monsters that pop up during your adventures. Moving around the grid, you'll encounter plenty of them, most of the time by landing on an unrevealed space, flipping the hex and reacting to whatever you find. This could be anything from fighting, collecting treasure, resolving a disaster… that kind of thing. All tiles have full explanations as to what happens when they’re flipped over – another way in which the game’s rules are nice and clear.
You'll also be looking to bury treasure (tucking it under your play board) which will count towards your final score. The Dutchman’s Ghost will also be moved around, either onto an opponent’s unburied treasure which stops them from burying it or placing it back on the included treasure map, allowing it to defend the mine once more. You'll also quickly discover that combat is a big part of the game, and landing on or revealing a creature card means you must fight it immediately. One of your three attributes will be on the card along with a number called the Challenge Rating – you roll two dice, add it to your score for that attribute and compare numbers. Higher means you get a reward (a boost to your stats, generally), lower sees you take a hit. If you do happen to beat the creature, you also get to claim the card which will grant points at the end of the game and often can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Once you’re done with the hexes and have resolved your action, you then get to focus on the treasure map. If you’ve managed to defeat a creature during your turn, you may move along any trail that has the same number as the Challenge Rating of the fight you’ve just won. This is the only way to work your way to the fabled Lost Mine where, if you're the first person to get there, you're declared the winner as long as you can defeat the ghost. The game can also end if five “Water Level Drops” tiles are revealed; in that case, all players count up the treasures they've stashed away and whoever has the highest amount wins.
The more people you've got sat around the table, the better the game is - with at least four players it really shines. The board gets nice and busy, there’s a lot of confrontation on the map and everything gets pretty nasty; it's precisely what you want from a game of treasure hunting. Add in the fact that even a game with five people plays out relatively quickly (you're looking at around an hour as long as people have the rules right in their heads) and there's no reason why The Lost Dutchman shouldn't be sat in your collection.
It’s manages to straddle the divide between ease of play and having enough depth to satisfy the demands of most players. While there are only a couple of routes to victory, actually managing to get there while screwing over your opponents is quite the challenge. While you may not even turn up a single treasure during the entire game, you can still win by beating up on bad guys and racing to the mine. In fact, that’s probably one of the best ways to describe the game: balance. You can tell that time and care has been taken with The Lost Dutchman - it's like a little lost treasure that not many people are aware of at the moment, so why not give it a shot?
Despite having the information, she never found the mine. Years later, another hunter named Adolph Ruth heard the stories and went exploring himself after hearing the tales and promptly disappeared. Months later his headless body was discovered and the legend was born of a cursed mine filled with riches. And that, dear reader, is how you set up a story for a game. Who wouldn't want to play something like this?
In The Lost Dutchman from Crash Games, up to five players will attempt to discover the mine and much more besides by exploring a grid of hexes and negotiating their way around the included treasure map. Each character has four attributes - Vigor, Foresight, Ingenuity and Health - which will be used to battle monsters that pop up during your adventures. Moving around the grid, you'll encounter plenty of them, most of the time by landing on an unrevealed space, flipping the hex and reacting to whatever you find. This could be anything from fighting, collecting treasure, resolving a disaster… that kind of thing. All tiles have full explanations as to what happens when they’re flipped over – another way in which the game’s rules are nice and clear.
You'll also be looking to bury treasure (tucking it under your play board) which will count towards your final score. The Dutchman’s Ghost will also be moved around, either onto an opponent’s unburied treasure which stops them from burying it or placing it back on the included treasure map, allowing it to defend the mine once more. You'll also quickly discover that combat is a big part of the game, and landing on or revealing a creature card means you must fight it immediately. One of your three attributes will be on the card along with a number called the Challenge Rating – you roll two dice, add it to your score for that attribute and compare numbers. Higher means you get a reward (a boost to your stats, generally), lower sees you take a hit. If you do happen to beat the creature, you also get to claim the card which will grant points at the end of the game and often can mean the difference between winning and losing.
Once you’re done with the hexes and have resolved your action, you then get to focus on the treasure map. If you’ve managed to defeat a creature during your turn, you may move along any trail that has the same number as the Challenge Rating of the fight you’ve just won. This is the only way to work your way to the fabled Lost Mine where, if you're the first person to get there, you're declared the winner as long as you can defeat the ghost. The game can also end if five “Water Level Drops” tiles are revealed; in that case, all players count up the treasures they've stashed away and whoever has the highest amount wins.
The more people you've got sat around the table, the better the game is - with at least four players it really shines. The board gets nice and busy, there’s a lot of confrontation on the map and everything gets pretty nasty; it's precisely what you want from a game of treasure hunting. Add in the fact that even a game with five people plays out relatively quickly (you're looking at around an hour as long as people have the rules right in their heads) and there's no reason why The Lost Dutchman shouldn't be sat in your collection.
It’s manages to straddle the divide between ease of play and having enough depth to satisfy the demands of most players. While there are only a couple of routes to victory, actually managing to get there while screwing over your opponents is quite the challenge. While you may not even turn up a single treasure during the entire game, you can still win by beating up on bad guys and racing to the mine. In fact, that’s probably one of the best ways to describe the game: balance. You can tell that time and care has been taken with The Lost Dutchman - it's like a little lost treasure that not many people are aware of at the moment, so why not give it a shot?
