Mountains of Madness

Designed by: Rob Daviau

Published By: IELLO (2017)

Players: 3 – 5

Ages: 14+

Time: 60 min

Unearthed by: Mike

In Mountains of Madness, you get to play scientists unearthing remnants of an ancient city nestled in a chain of impassable mountains.

You must all work together and communicate well to successfully scale this mountain, recover fascinating relics, and escape this accursed place while trying to maintain your health and sanity!

Each step forward presents the players with a new challenge: to collectively add the numbers on their equipment cards to a total (within a specific range). As you progress, your team members begin to crack under varied types of madness creeping into their minds! Communication between the players becomes more difficult as you edge closer to escape, or death!

Through the Desert

Designed by: Reiner Knizia

Published By: KOSMOS & Fantasy Flight Games (1998)

Edition Played: Z-Man Games (2017)

Players: 2-5

Ages: 10+

Time: 45 min

Unearthed by: Ed

In Through the Desert, you control a tribe of nomads vying for control of the desert. On your turn, you place two camels, expanding the reach of your caravans. By taking control of oases, claiming valuable water holes, and enclosing the most land, your tribe gains points and increases in power.

Strategy is essential in deciding how — and where — to build your tribe’s caravans. There are multiple ways to gain points, and several ways to win. Should you try to build the longest caravan? Dominate the oases? Whatever your strategy, remember to keep an eye on your opponent’s caravans, or you may find your own tribe cut off — and in trouble.

The game ends when all the camels of one color has been placed. At that point, the tribe with the most points wins.

Nut So Fast

Designed by: Jeff Lai

Published By: Smirk & Laughter Games (2018)

Players: 3 – 6

Ages: 8+

Time: 20 min

Unearthed by: Celeste

In the box are pose cards, nut cards, and big wooden pieces shaped like walnuts, cashews, almonds or pistachios. The nuts are all laid out in the center of the table.  Players takes turns flipping cards, most of which are nut cards; everyone looks the cards over as fast as they can, scanning for valid nut matches. If a player finds any good matches, they grab an appropriate nut from the center of the table.

Just in case you think keeping track of the nut cards is too easy, sometimes you’ll draw a pose card instead! Poses, such as rabbit ears behind the head, must be taken immediately. In either case, the slowest players often get penalties! The player with the least penalties at the end of 3 rounds wins.