Alea Analysis #12: Mammoth Hunters (Large Box #-)

[shannon_a]

Mammoth Hunters, by Alan Moon & Aaron Weissblum, is I think the most underrated and underappreciated Alea game. I was talking about it with a friend the other week, saying I didn't understand it, and he said, "It's because Mammoth Hunters isn't Puerto Rico," which is certainly true.

Mammoth Hunters is a nicely thematic little majority-control game with a couple of twists. Each turn you get to take an action by playing either a dark card or a light card. Dark cards give an action to your opponents, but give you stones; conversely light cards give you an action, but cost you stones. Through those mechanisms, hunters and mammoths and campfires are put on the board.

At the end of each round of play, each of up to 12 regions are examined to see how many hunters they can support (which is 3 + mammoths + 0-2 per campfire). Hunters in excess of this are killed, with the players with fewer hunters taking somewhat greater losses. Then each hunter scores 1-3 points depending on how many mammoths are in their space. At the end of the round, the player in last place gets to advance the ice sheet (likely killing hunters & mammoths).

I find the dark/light mechanism highly innovative and I'm surprised that I haven't seen it in more games (with FFG's recent Android being one of the few exceptions). Besides the obvious resource management, there's also some interesting calculation of joint interest. I also like the scoring calculation, because it's not quite majority control, but it's in the same ballpark. Beyond that, Mammoth Hunters is a neat and colorful game. As I said, it's certainly no Puerto Rico, but surely is better than Chinatown and Adel Verpflichtet.

I can see where serious players have problems though. It can be very chaotic. The dark cards allow people to punish the leader (though restrict them from doing it too much). The card draws can randomize the game. In my game tonight I felt like I was hosed by having zero hunter-placement cards through the first round of play. One of the players tonight said that he felt like the mechanics were pretty arbitrary, but also agreed it was thematic. And in that it feels more like a French game than a German one, and that could summarize the problem some players, who thought they knew what Alea was, had with it.

I'll also have to admit that Mammoth Hunters isn't one of the greats from the Alea series (that'd be Big Boxes #1, 4, 6, 7, 11, and 12 IMO). I'm happy to play it about once a year and don't mind that I don't play it more.

L1: Ra. A+. (Plays: 15) [ Read my Review ]
L2: Chinatown. B-. (Plays: 1)
L3: Taj Mahal. A+. (Plays: 7)
L4: Princes of Florence. A. (Plays: 4+) [ Read my Review ]
L5: Adel Verpflichtet. B. (Plays: 2) [ Read my Review ]
L6: Traders of Genoa. A+. (Plays: 3+) [ Read my Review ]
S1: Wyatt Earp. B+ (Plays: 2)
S2: Royal Turf. A- (Plays: 6)
L7: Puerto Rico. A+ (Plays: 11) [ Read my Review ]
S3: Die Sieben Weisen C (Plays: 1)
S4: Edel, Stein & Reich B- (Plays: 1) [ Read my Basari Review ]
L8: Mammoth Hunters B+ (Plays: 5) [ Read my Review. ]

Comments

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

greats

I think you mean 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, and 12; at least judging from your gradings.

[shannon_a]

It was actually purposeful. Though I love Taj Mahal, it doesn't strike me as being as unique as some of Alea's other tops.