Saboteur Card Game First Impressions

Thanks to Avalon and Coup I have a newfound love for bluffing games including Saboteur.

But bluffing as a Dwarf miner? Odd… But you know what, it works.

Players take on the role of dwarves. As miners, they are in a mine, hunting for gold. Suddenly, a pick axe swings down and shatters the mine lamp. The saboteur has struck. But which of the players are saboteurs? Will you find the gold, or will the fiendish actions of the saboteurs lead them to it first? After three rounds, the player with the most gold is the winner.

We played with 8 players so ‘9’ Dwarf cards are shuffled together. 6 are Dwarf Miners, and 3 are Dwarf Saboteurs. Having the extra card this way means each game we play will have 2 OR 3 Saboteurs.

The goal is to play cards to build a mine from the mine entrance to the gold. (Seven card spaces away) The gold is under one of the 3 face-down cards at the end of the mine. The other 2 are coal.

If the Miners get to the Gold they win the round. If all the cards are played and the Miners don’t get to the gold, the Saboteurs win.

On your turn, you take one action, and then draw a card. They are...

Pass

Simply discard (face down) and draw. It can be used to get rid of those dead-end cards out of your hand if you’re a Miner and can be used as a delaying tactic if you’re a Saboteur.

Play a Path Card

It must be played on a part of the mine that connects to the entrance. Also, the path must match up all around the card. These can either move the path towards the gold or divert the path away from it if you’re a Saboteur. Of course, there are dead-end cards you can play…

Action Card

There are 4 kinds of action cards.

Break – Break a Miner’s Pick, Cart or Lantern meaning they can’t play path cards.

This stops the Saboteurs from being too obvious early on. They are outnumbered so it is easy to break their equipment and harder for them to fix it as a team.

Repair – Repair a Miner’s broken Pick, Cart or Lantern.

As with the Break cards, who you repair can give information about you away.

Map – Secretly look at one of the face-down treasure cards.

You don’t have to say if it’s coal or gold. You can also lie if you want.

Collapse – Destroy a path card.

Miners can destroy dead ends, Saboteurs can use it to destroy a mine tile near the entrance, breaking the route. As you have to play a mining card that connects to the entrance this is a very good Saboteur tactic. Also, as you need to play a Path card if a Saboteur can destroy a crossroad Path card that is connected to all 4 sides that can be very hard to replace.

Rewards & Winning

Whoever wins, a number of Gold cards are dealt out equal to the number of players. They have random gold nuggets of a value of 3, 2 and 1. The miner that played the card that connected to the mine picks first and they are drafted in reverse player order.

If the Saboteurs win they do the same. As you can imagine it’s harder for the Saboteurs to win but the rewards are much greater.

Whoever has the most gold at the end of 3 rounds is the winner.

It really is simple yet a load of fun, I have played it a few times since and I continue to enjoy playing it.

If you struggle with social deduction games check out my tips page!

Saboteur Update 15/05/2018

ANOTHER game suffering from being overplayed. This area of my hobby life was full of them. Even Coup and Avalon I referenced at the start of this post fell off too.

Also, people get far too angry playing this game!

Jesta ThaRogue