Category: Off the Shelf

In the “Off the Shelf” blog series, we will take a closer look at games from our shelf. Each post will feature photos, overview, how to play, skills needed, ages suitable to play, and more!

Dragon’s Cave

A shout-out to the awesome Andrew and Anitra over at The Family Gamers podcast, who sent us a copy of this game. Thank you!

Sneak through the dragon’s cave collecting gold…but look out! If the dragon guesses your next move, you’ll need to go back on the path and risk losing your gold!

Further reading: our family’s review

Dragon’s Cave

Designer: Marco Teubner

Publisher: blue orange

2-4 players

approx 20 minutes

Theme: dragons / treasure

Mechanisms: action retrieval, push your luck

Overview

Players take on the role of brave little dwarves who, lured by the promise of gold, enter the dragon’s cave to explore its riches. The dragon, played by an alternating player each round, tries to guess which colored area the dwarves will advance to, hoping to guess correctly, collect their gold, and send them back on the path.

Components

The components of the game are simple, but well-made and fit perfectly inside the box. The dwarves and dragon are nice chunky wood, and the treasure chests and gold coins are heavy cardboard. The cards are of good quality.

Rule Book

Easy to read – no issues.

How the Game Plays

Each player receives a colored dwarf, a coordinating set of colored cards representing the spaces on the cave’s path, a treasure chest, and a treasure square.

The youngest player will play the first round as the dragon, and then this role will move clockwise around the table. The other players will be dwarves.

Decide which colored area you would like to move your dwarf to, laying the corresponding card face-down on the table. Once all players have selected and laid out their cards, the dragon chooses a colored space at the top of the board.

If the dragon chooses your color: you must take any treasure NOT inside your treasure chest, secretly place it in one hand or divide between both hands, and allow the dragon to choose a hand. You must then move back to the previous square of the same color.

If the dragon does not choose your color: you advance your dwarf and take any gold earned, placing it on your treasure square – NOT in the treasure chest.

Any cards played remain in front of each player until the player “resets” their hand by playing the grey treasure chest card and moving the gold coins from the treasure square to the treasure chest, which protects the coins from the dragon. The cards then go back into the player’s hand.

Play continues, rotating roles, until a dwarf reaches the end of the path and takes the bonus coins. Count up all coins in your treasure chest and on your treasure square – the player with the most coins wins.

Who Should Play?

This is a fun children’s/family game that could play well with children as young as 4-5 years old. It’s relatively quick and has silly moments, sure to make for lots of laughs. Children could become frustrated if the dragon keeps guessing the color they choose, preventing them from advancing through the cave.

Santa Monica

Design a Santa Monica neighborhood that appeals to tourists, locals, and VIPs to score the most points.

Santa Monica

Designer: Josh Wood
Publisher: AEG

2-4 players

25-45 minutes

Theme: city building / travel

Complexity according to Board Game Geek: 2.17/5

Mechanisms: card drafting, tableau building, chaining, set collection

Overview

Draft cards or spend sand dollar currency to build a Santa Monica beach neighborhood that pleases tourists, locals, and VIPs while trying to meet various scoring conditions on the cards. You might focus on the beach by linking waves or leading locals to play volleyball. Or maybe you’ll build shops and restaurants along your street for the VIPs to visit. Why not a little of both? Either way, you can only play 14 cards into your neighborhood tableau.

Components

Check out the dreamy pastel shades of the meeples/components:

Light blue locals

Sand dollars (used as currency)

Light green VIP footprints (to mark the path of the VIPs for additional scoring)

Light orange tourists

Light green VIPs

With limited opportunities to move the people enjoying the beach and businesses of Santa Monica, you really need to consider placement.

Rule Book

The rule book is generally an easy read, but when we first started playing some of the descriptions of iconography and scoring methods were a bit confusing. We referred to the book quite a bit, and still do on occasion for clarification.

We are fans of “how to play” videos on You Tube, and use these for guidance with nearly every game we play.

How the Game Plays

Players take turns drawing cards from the bottom row of eight face-up cards in the center of the table, playing them immediately into their neighborhoods. The bottom left side of the card displays what you take for playing the card (sand dollars, tourists, or locals) and the bottom right side of the card shows the scoring condition. The small rectangular icons above that show the features of the card, used towards scoring conditions. This could be adjacent property types or chains of multiple property types. (For the beach, this is all at the top of the card.)

Moving the meeples is the tricky part, so card placement is important! Players can pay sand dollars to take advantage of a purchased perk (shown on the large sand dollars) and move meeples, and some cards allow for movement. Why move the meeples? Some cards require them for scoring conditions like 3 playing volleyball at the beach.

You have 14 cards to score the most points as possible. Each game will also use one of the beach towel additional scoring conditions, so don’t forget to plan for those points too!

The Food Truck and the Foodie

If you choose the card above the food truck, you may take a sand dollar (used as currency in the game.)

If you choose the foodie, you may move one of your meeples.

If the food truck and foodie ever meet up, it’s a “happy day” and you get to take a couple of perks!

Also pictured: the sea gull first player marker.

  • starting neighborhood tiles
  • additional actions / scoring goals
  • reference cards

Who Should Play?

People who like drafting and tableau building games with a nice theme we don’t usually see in boardgaming / people who like puzzley games

Good for newbies?

I think for new gamers, getting used to different scoring methods and iconography can be challenging. BUT, I think this game is GENERALLY accessible with a bit of patience.

Good for kids?

The Board Game Geek community puts this game at a 10+ (never go by the ages on the box, as this is for safety testing, NOT ability) and I would agree with that. There is minimal reading, but the game is strategic.

Click here to read our review of Santa Monica.

The Dice Tower Santa Monica Review with Tom Vasel
The video we watched to learn how to play Santa Monica.