They said Shadows over Camelot was not really a cooperative game because the traitor made it doubtful who was on your team, but Saboteur takes it to a whole new level. Saboteur is a simple game that can be played quickly, and generally serves as a filler or opener for our groups. While Dwarves digging in mines is a great theme for many geeks, its appeal to the general populace is somewhat blunted, but once players get into the game, the theme becomes less important the conniving and backstabbing that occurs.

Components: This game is entirely about the cards. There are four separate types of cards, each nicely labeled with different backs to the cards. The cards are completely language independent.

Gold: The gold deck has a nice yellow back with a depiction of 1 to 3 gold nuggets on the front.

Role: Eleven cards with four saboteurs and 7 gold diggers. The role cards have pictures of a bunch of different dwarves. Many of the dwarves are nice and happy with a variety of colors to their caps to add spice to the cards, but the colors really don’t matter. Cards for saboteurs have the word “Saboteur” written across the card, and the dwarves have a mischievous grin.

Destination: Three cards. One has gold with entrances from all directions. The other two have a simple twist in a tunnel with a rock in the middle. I also include the ladder entrance in this deck, since it is functionally similar as it is placed at the beginning of the game. But since it is 2-sided with no real back, all players know where it is at all times.

Play: The play cards are fully language independent with symbols where necessary. The tunnel cards are easily interpretable with where the tunnel can go and where the dead ends are. Some of the cards have nice additions to the tunnels, including one card with a frying pan with eggs. These little additions add to the interest of the cards without taking anything away from the game play. The action cards indicate a map (which always looks like a leaf to me), a cave-in, broken picks, axes, or carts, and repairs for picks axes, or carts. The symbols on the cards are extremely helpful for people and make the cards very easy to understand.

The variety in design of the cards is very nice since there are some interesting aspects to be noticed the first few times playing the game, and they help bring a little variety to the cards without detracting from the actual utility of the cards themselves. We have not noticed any wear in the cared. However, we have put card sleeves over our destination cards to prevent wear and marking of the backs of these cards. While this may not be entirely necessary, we took it as a preventive measure.

Setup: Which role cards are used is determined by the numbers of players. The appropriate role cards are dealt with one extra being laid aside. Each player looks at their role card to determine if they are a saboteur or gold digger.

The destination cards are laid out with the three destinations placed with about 7 cards breadth away from the starting ladder. There is one open card space placed between each of these cards as well. Each player is dealt a hand of cards from the play deck (4-6 depending on the number of players).

The gold deck is shuffled and placed toi the side of the playing area.

Game Play: Each player in turn can plays a single card from their hand followed by drawing a card. If there are no cards to draw, players simply play a card. If a player does not want to ply any of their cards, they may discard face down. Once a player has completed their turn, play continues clockwise. This continues until either players are out of cards or the gold is discovered.

If they play a tunnel card, tunnels must line up with previously played tunnel cards. Thus, the tunnels will be continuous between cards. Tunnels can be ended by playing one of the dead end cards. If the tunnel is extended into one of the destination cards with a continuous tunnel leading from the start to the destination, the destination is flipped up to reveal if the gold has been found. If so, the round is over. If not, play continues as before.

If an action card is played, the player can peak at one destination card (map card), collapse a previously played tunnel (cave-in), break the equipment of another player (break card), or fix themselves or another player (fix card).

If a player has any broken equipment, they cannot play any tunnels, but they can play action cards.

End of the Game: A round ends when players find the gold or all players discard consecutively or are out of cards. If the players find the gold, gold cards are drawn so there is one for each player in the game. The player who played the card revealing the gold takes the card of their choice and passes the rest counter-clockwise to the next gold digger, skipping all saboteurs. Gold cards are passed until all cards are drawn, often resulting in the player who found the gold getting multiple cards along with the best card.

If all players pass or run out of cards, the saboteurs win. Each saboteur get 2-4 gold nuggets depending on how many saboteurs were actually playing. If there was 1 saboteur, they get 4 gold. 2-3 would receive 3 each. 4 would receive 2 each. An important note is this is gold nuggets, not gold cards. We generally distribute these from the cards at the bottom of the gold deck.

The game ends after three rounds. The player with the most gold wins.

Explaining the Game: This game is easy to explain. First, I describe the playing of tunnels, including making sure that all players know they must be placed with long side adjacent and short sides adjacent. No playing cards sideways! I go over this twice, because some people need the extra reminder.

I next go over revealing the destination cards. This lets players see that a continuous path must be made between the beginning and the end, without any breaks in the chain caused by dead ends.

This brings up a good time to introduce the role cards. I now note that saboteurs will want to place dead ends so the gold diggers will not be able to find the gold. I note that the saboteurs

Bring up saboteurs also gives a smooth transition into the other action cards, generally starting with the cave-in. If the saboteurs want to stop the gold diggers, they can cave in the path. On the other hand, diggers can remove a dead end by caving it in. The two factions can also thwart the other side by playing break cards, which can then be fixed with repairs. I try to make sure players understand that they can fix themselves or other players, but they want to be sure to fix players that are on their side.

Finally, I describe the rewards for the diggers and saboteurs and how they are distributed. I try to highlight that the player who finds the gold will generally get an extra gold card along with the best card of the bunch.

I finish off by explaining the peak card, followed by a brief review of the goals of the diggers and saboteurs as well as the game turn.

Conclusions: Saboteur is a lot of fun. It is really about the back biting and conniving that occur during the game. Players are encouraged to keep their roles hidden since their identities could be used to thwart their plans. As a result, saboteurs will often make a couple of plays that look helpful and latter stab the diggers in the back! That is where trust gets you.

This is essentially a light game, and should be taken as such since it generally clocks in at 15-20 minutes. The explanation is simple and only takes about 5 minutes.

On the plus side for this game, it is a cooperative competitive game. Players are encouraged to work with the others on their team, even though they are not sure who it is, but players do not win a s a team. The player with the most gold at the end wins, which can lead to some fierce competition.

I like the theme, but others are not completely sold on it. However, the theme works very well with the goals of the game. This game has a breaking mechanic similar to what is seen in Mille Bornes, but the play is quite different.

The saboteurs add a lot of competition to the game, especially if there is more than one. The interactions between the players are driven by two factors: who is a saboteur and who will get the gold first. As such, knowing who is on your team and how far from finding the gold players will be. More experienced players will see the gold diggers breaking each other in an attempt to get a better position in choosing which gold card to take.

This leads to the first problem of the game. The saboteurs don’t win enough in the beginning. This is solved by two things, making this a very, very minor problem. First, players get experience, and the gold diggers start breaking each other while jockeying for position. Second, playing the mean variant listed below (from the official rules).

Second, to have much of a chance, even with the diggers plotting for position, at least one saboteur must play to block the gold diggers early. If there are 3 or more saboteurs, this isn’t a problem. But if there is only one in a 3 or 4 player game, the saboteur then gets picked on for the rest of the game and must rely on the luck of the draw rather than the help of others to win the game.

Finally, players are reliant on drawing not only the right cards to play but the right roles at the right times to win the game. I don’t think this luck factor really takes much away from this light game, but some may consider it a problem. The player who wins is generally the player who got gold in all three rounds or got really good gold in one of the two rounds they collected in. As I said, in a light 20 minute game, this is not much of a problem.

Overall, this is a great game that goes over well with most people. The game is easy to explain, and everyone seems to enjoy stabbing others in the back every now and then. It is best with 5-8 people. Having only 1 saboteur with 3 or 4 players unbalances the game in favor of the gold diggers. With 9-10 players the game takes longer than it needs to. There is just too much time between turns. But with 5-8 players, the game is just fun.

The Mean Variant: The mean variant is just that: downright mean. The only difference in the rules between the mean variant and the normal game is in how players collect gold. Players who are broken at the end of a round get no gold for the round even if their side won. Thus, gold diggers who are not broken can get a lot of cards (sometimes 3-4) while those who are broken look on in shame. Likewise, saboteurs who are broken can watch the other saboteurs collect their ill-gotten gold while they wallow in the cruel spoils of their treachery, or all of the saboteurs could be broken in their victory and no one gets any gold (only seen once). This variant has more wild swings in scores as a result of this difference in scoring, and it is less predictable.

The main effect of this variant is to shift the balance of power from the gold diggers to the saboteurs. Since the gold diggers are looking for the big payout, they will often start breaking each other when the players get close to the gold. This leads to the saboteurs being able to keep their identity hidden longer and spoil plans in other ways.

While the variant is still often decided based on what roles you draw, players are more encouraged to break the leader than in the base game, leading to more interesting interactions.

Overall, the variant adds to the flavor of the game, and I think it makes it a lot more enjoyable. Add one full point to all scores below when playing with the mean variant. I just think it is that much better.

Rating by Number of Players:
3: 5
4: 5
5: 7
6: 7
7: 7
8: 7
9: 6
10: 6