Maeshowe: an Orkney saga

Podczas burzy śnieżnej wikingowie wpadli do starego grobowca. Dopóki na zewnątrz szalała nawałnica krypta dawała schronienie, jednak później okazała się mroczną pułapką...

Odpowiednio zarządzając kartami w ręce oraz zasobami musisz (dosłownie) wykopać sobie drogę na zewnątrz. Jedzenia nie starczy na długo, a czy wystarczy Ci sił? No i czy uda Ci się pozostać wystarczająco długo przy zdrowych zmysłach?

W każdej turze musisz jedną kartę zagrać i jedną odrzucić. Pilnuj poziomu sił witalnych i zasobów jedzenia. Uważaj, żeby na koniec tury nie zostać z pięcioma jednakowymi runami na ręce - wtedy tracisz zmysły.

W pudełku znajdziecie 6 mini-dodatków, które zapewnią dużą regrywalność. 

Zawartość pudełka:

• dwustronna planszetka (do kooperacyjnej rozgrywki dwuosobowej oraz wariantu solo)
• 36 kart gry podstawowej  
• 18 kart mini-dodatków  
• 8 znaczników zdrowia (w dwóch kolorach)
• 4 znaczniki jedzenia
• 7 znaczników tunelu
• znacznik Jarla
• zasady gry (w języku angielskim, francuskim, niemieckim i włoskim)

 Instrukcję w języku polskim można pobrać ze strony wydawcy.

Opis ze strony wydawcy:

….As they stumbled forwards, head bowed against the wind, they were suddenly aware of a house looming before them. They circled the house looking for a door, but found none. Fearing death from the weather, in desperation they climbed the roof of the house and used their swords to prise apart the stones that roofed the building. Without hesitation, with no room in their minds for anything but the need for shelter, they dived through the hole they’d made and fell twenty feet to the floor. Groping around the dark interior, they quickly realised that there would be no way out the way they had come. They would survive the storm but if they weren’t to die in this cell, they would have to dig their way out with their hands and swords.

According to the Orkneyinga Saga, Earl Rognvald Kali Kolsson broke into the chambered tomb of Maeshowe, on Orkney, in AD1150. In AD1153, Earl Harald Maddadson and a group of his men sheltered there during a snowstorm. The sagas tell us that Rognvald found treasure there and that two of Harald’s men went mad. When the Victorians opened the tomb in 1861, they found Runic graffiti demonstrating that both of these episodes were based on real tomb-breaks. This game combines the two events and casts you as Harald and Rognvald. Earls Harald and Rognvald had landed in Orkney less than an hour ago but the suddenness and ferocity of the snowstorm caught them by surprise…. 

Hand Management: Players will be dealt a hand of five cards at the beginning of the game. On their turn they will play one and discard one. Each card has a unique effect when played and when discarded giving you an intricate puzzle to solve with each hand of five. 

After playing, players will draw cards from the card deck until they have five cards again after which they will have to check the suit of all cards in hand. If all have the same suit, the player goes mad which has severe consequences. This increases the importance of choosing the right cards to play and discard.  

Resources Management: Your three basic resources are your Health, your food and your draw deck. Running out of health or cards in your deck will make you lose the game while food, while not necessary to win, will allow you to heal and manage your deck in useful ways. 

Cards will affect these resources differently depending on how they are played. For example a card might make you lose life when discarded and food when played, forcing you to make hard decisions on what is more important in the short and long term. 

Survival: In Maeshowe: An Orkney Saga mere survival won’t be enough but to actually win, players will have to dig their way out of the tomb. 

This is done by playing four Excavate Passage cards in a row. Each time a player does this Passage tokens are removed from the board, of which there will be different amounts depending on the difficulty setting. 

These cards do not offer any other benefits though, so having enough resources to handle the many negative effects that occur through discarding cards, will be essential before starting a new row of Excavate Passage cards.