If your group likes a game where you can smile sweetly while quietly tanking a friend's investment, Reiner Knizia's Gold Country deserves shelf space. It is a sharp, 45-minute game of mining shares set during the California Gold Rush, and one of the most accessible stock-manipulation games Knizia has put his name to.
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See how it worksPublished by Bitewing Games and Allplay, Gold Country reworks Knizia's earlier game Spectaculum, swapping that game's travelling circuses for prospectors and pickaxes. You buy and sell shares in four valley mines, then drop claim tokens to swing their fortunes. Reveal a gold vein and a mine's value climbs; turn up an empty pan and it slumps; hit a collapse and everyone holding shares pays out. Bandit tokens act as wilds that can shield your holdings. Because you often share an interest with the player beside you, every placement becomes a little negotiation about who profits and who eats the loss. Beth Sobel's landscape art gives it a warm, sun-bleached look.
It is built for 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up, and runs around 45 minutes, which makes it an easy sell as a game-night opener or closer. Bitewing ran the Kickstarter in January with low flat-rate shipping and a free expansion for backers, and it lands at about $45 (roughly GBP 34). If quick, mean little economic games are your group's thing, round up a game night and bring some cash to bury.
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Find events near youSources: Allplay | Space-Biff | Kickstarter
