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What lies beneath the crumbling walls of Karak castle? A labyrinth full of treasures...and monsters! Six brave adventurers are going in there for a fortune waiting to be claimed, each one of them with a different trick up their sleeve — but the treasure chests are locked and monsters are everywhere. Who will outsmart their opponents, beat the monsters, and seize the dragon's gem?
In Karak, a.k.a. Catacombs of Karak, each player leads one of six different characters into the labyrinth. Tile by tile, they uncover what the labyrinth looks like, and it will differ on each playthrough. They have to equip themselves with weapons and spells, fight monsters, and (most importantly) collect treasure. The player with the most treasure at the end of the game wins — a true champion of Karak!
—description from the publisher
- Clean, timeless abstract design
- Engaging tension and planning in a compact package
- Accessible to fans of abstract games
- Two-player play isn't ideal
- Three-player balance is not as strong as four-player play
- Color/row- and column-based scoring in an abstract format
- Abstract tile-placement with bowls and tiles in a spatial layout
- Abstract, clean, puzzle-like
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Compound Scoring — Score depends on how much of your color appears in a row/column
- marker/meeple scoring multiplier — Use a big meeple to potentially double scoring in key moments
- negative scoring with thresholds — Negative points exist unless thresholds are met or offset
- sliding-scale scoring by rows/columns — Score depends on how much of your color appears in a row/column
- tile placement — Place tiles into bowls to form rows and columns of your color
- tile placement into bowls — Place tiles into bowls to form rows and columns of your color
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a lightweight family-style game that takes around 20 minutes to play
- the randomness and swingy nature of it has you know diminished my enjoyment slightly
- it's such a clean game as you're placing these tiles
- this is such a great game I love this one
- a new Twist on the area control genre