Introduction:

Nuggets were found in Golden Valley! The gold-diggers try to sell their claims to the big mining companies by offering as many nuggets as possible. The players act as agents of the mining companies and compete for the best claims by cleverly placing their influence and claim boundaries.

Game Description:

This game comes in a small box as it is part of the "Compact Game" series of WINNING MOVES. It consists just of one 8x5 square game board and some paper and wooden markers. The 40 squares on the gameboard represent single claims where the valuable nuggets can be found. The eight wooden markers display values from 4 to 8 and represent the amount of gold which can be found there. Beginners place the 8 claim value markers on the board according to a standard setup depicted in the rules, but advanced players are recommended to use their own prefered method for setup. The values of the markers remain visible during the all the game.

The players obtain paper chip markers in their colour with values from 5 (only one) to 1 (up to 11 times) which represent their influence. The numbers and values of influence markers used in the game vary with the number of participating players. In a two player game all markers are distributed, in a three player game a few markers are left aside and in a four player game two opposite players form a team.

Each turn, The players either place one influence marker face down in a square claim field or place two wooden claim boundaries between two squares. The wooden boundaries restrict the claim size, but a claim size smaller than 4 squares (including the fields with the wooden claim markers) is not allowed.

The game ends when either all material is placed on the board or all players renounce to make further moves. All placed influence markers are then turned over and the claims are evaluated. The player with the highest influence (sum of his markers) in each claim obtains the score given by the wooden claim markers. The highest score wins.

Evaluation:

As simple as the rules and the structure of the game may sound, the more tricky it is during the game to make the "best" choice for action each turn. Nuggets needs a lot of bluffing and short term tactics. Since you have only very few "heavy weighted" influence markers you have to consider carefully where to place them.

However, after all careful planning it may still happen that in the end an other player sets the claim boundaries against your considerations. It is very hard to estimate the final arrangement or distribution of the claims. Thus, the players are posed the question whether it is advisable to place the highest influence chips in an early phase of the game in order to get as close as possible to the most valuable gold nuggets? Or is it better to wait in order to see how the claim boundaries develop during the game. Both strategies have their advantages and disadvantages. Nevertheless you will be happy if your plan works well at the end...

In my opinion the game works best with three players, because the surprise factor and the tactical struggle is most convincing. For two players it is sometimes predictible if a special claim is yours at the final evaluation by just counting the number of influence chips of each player (remember - most of all chips are worth 1 point). With three players you cannot conclude from this, because the distribution of markers is different and three players have to be evaluated. The four player team game is also different from the two or three player game. Here it becomes important to co-ordinate the two team players without talking secretly. It is allowed to exchange hints with the co-player, but they have to speak aloud.

The most tricky rule option is to forbid to look again at already placed influence chips. In this case it can add some more difficulties to keep track of all your previous moves.

Nuggets offers for each number of players new characteristics, it gets along without much luck and is not that tactical. A round lasts no longer than 25 minutes, which is ideal for a quick game before dinner…