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Run! Dragobert is on the hunt for gold stealing miners, and he looks cross! Who is Dragobert? Oh, he’s just the fire breathing keeper of the mountain where the gold is found!
My Gold Mine is a fast-playing push-your-luck card game for 2-6 players where you are miners trying to collect as much gold as you can before Dragobert catches you!
Set-Up
Super simple to set up and learn, each player receives a miner card and a corresponding colour token. The gold cards are shuffled and placed face-up on one of the spaces on the inside of the box lid. The exit cards are shuffled and face down on the remaining space. Then the 9 large card mine track is laid out with the exit card on the left, the mine cart in the centre, and dastardly Dragobert on the right side. The miner tokens are placed on the mine cart, and the shiny gold nuggets are placed within reach.
Playtime
Every game lasts 3 rounds. Each turn you choose between taking a gold card and an exit card. As well as giving gold, the gold cards will either move your miner 1 card towards the exit, keep you where you are or, if you go for the two nugget cards, move you back 1 card towards the dragon.
Conversely, the exit cards show a combination of options; move 1 or two spaces towards the exit, move everybody one space towards the exit, or swap your miner with another player elsewhere along the mine cart track. There's even one card with a very greedy bonus of 3 gold on it!
Whenever a Dragobert card is revealed in the gold deck, the Dragobert track card slides forwards one space and the card it replaces is flipped to show the fiery flame side.
If and when you reach the exit, you can't collect any more gold, but you are safe! Any greedy-guts miners caught by Dragobert are, however, out of the round, and all their hard-earned gold cards are worthless! When every miner still left in play reaches the exit, the round is over and the winner of that one gets 3 nuggets, 2nd place gets 2, and 3rd place gets 1. The game ends after 3 rounds and the richest miner wins. Final Thoughts!
We Love My Gold Mine
We learnt it in under a minute and our son hasn't stopped asking to play it since! It’s a quick, fun push-your-luck filler game that feels tense but only ever in a super fun, light way. We hesitate for a moment, debating whether to risk mining another gold when the flames of Dragobert’s breath are licking at your heels. We laugh out loud as our miners get knocked out if it doesn't work out.
Although the artwork is cute and cartoony, it is also quite clever. With the gold deck face up, you know what's on offer on your turn. You could take it and stay where you are or move spaces closer or further away from danger. But you don't know what's underneath, is it Dragobert? Is it more gold? If Dragobert suddenly moves closer, the risk that two-nugget card you took suddenly doesn’t seem like such a good idea!
The sliding mine track card mechanism is great to look at. I can almost feel the heat as Dragobert breathes closer and closer! And the race/reverse race to get closer to the exit but not waste potential gold mining opportunities is a really fun tug of war. Especially when your opponent either moves you back towards Dragobert or over to the exit, thereby ending your chances of gaining more gold.
Knowing how many Dragoberts have appeared at any stage of the game can help plan your moves if you're good at memorising cards. But honestly, not doing that and just taking the risk is a lot of fun.
The Components
The track cards and nuggets are top quality, and the mine cards and gold cards are good too, our stickers are peeling a little on the tokens, but to be fair we have played it so many times already (and you only really need to know which colour you are in any event). I really love that the box itself acts as a place to stack the cards (a feature of their new-in-box range apparently!). Oh, and I am aaaaallllways a huge fan of magnetic catches!
Player elimination can (and does) happen if Dragobert catches you. Some players might not like that. But the time-out only lasts 1 round, so it doesn’t feel mean. Mini-Meeple was knocked out of one round early into our first few games (and I was expecting a big lippy moment). But he doubled down his efforts on the next one and sent us both into Dragobert’s fiery clutches! The fact we are playing it at breakfast, after school, and after dinner without grumble is a testament to how much everyone in our house is digging My Gold Mine!
