Saboteur
3-10
8+
30
You are dwarves digging for gold in the depths of a mine when suddenly, the pick-axe breaks, and the lantern goes out. The saboteur has struck again! But who is the saboteur and will he (or they!) stop you from reaching the treasure? If you succeed, gold awaits you. If you don’t, then to the victor goes the spoils. Whoever has the most gold nuggets after three rounds is the winner.
User Reviews (5)
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Saboteur is a simple, quick and easy co-operative game with the traitor mechanic. It is an awesome introductory game, with easy to understand mechanics and a short teaching time commitment. While the game isn’t perfect, it’s just a fun compact and not too serious bundle to pull out while in the cafeteria, waiting for a meal or chillaxing at home.
Saboteur begins with each player assuming the role of a garden gnome looking dwarf. You each receive a card which either depicts you as a relatively normal looking gnome, or as a “saboteur”; a French-English word which roughly translates to “jerk-face”. All players keep their identities hidden; the good gnomes are working to build a path using maze pieces to the gold. The saboteur’s goal is to prevent them, causing the draw pile to run out.
Each player draws a hand of cards; this will have maze pieces, player blocking cards, player unblock, cards or map cards. Maze pieces allow you to make a path, the block and unblock are pretty self-explanatory, and map cards allow you to check one of the three destination cards to see whether it is gold or not. Playing a map card allows only you to check a destination card and upon examining it, to say anything you want to your fellow gnomes. If you are a saboteur you may wish to lie, of course, you may also want to play the sleeper agent and tell them where the gold is. As a sleeper you may be able to make it appear as though someone else is a saboteur if they have a bad hand, then when everyone attacks them, WHAM! No gold for you.
The artwork on the cards is well done. There are little trinkets and fossils scattered throughout the cards to provide fun little distractions and the cards are printed on a hardy quilted paper board. The game’s real only problems come out in the scoring.
If the good gnomes win, the player who is the last person to connect gets first choice and last choice of a random hand of gold. If the bad gnomes win they get a set number of solid nuggets. The random quality of the good gnomes winning hand can seem frustrating. The benefit to it though is that it sets up a race amongst the good guys towards to end to get the best pick of the cards, a situation which sometimes causes them to kibosh each other.
In the many times that I’ve played the point distribution has been quite wide. This may be because of the relatively stilted scoring for good vs. evil sides or because of the random quality of the good guys winning deck. The funny thing is that almost every time, no one really cares because it was just so much fun getting to the end of the game.
GOOD:
Entry Level, Social / Party Game, Mobile, Solid Quality, Not overly serious (friendships will be repairable afterwards)
BAD:
Scoring seems someone iffy, Number of Saboteurs can be overwhelming (4 vs 6 is hard if you’re a good gnome)
In Saboteur everyone takes on the roll of a gold digging dwarf.
Saboteur is a hidden roll game (probably my favorite genre) and everyone is either a gold digger, who want to find the gold, or a saboteur, who want to stop the gold diggers from finding their shiny nuggets.
Gameplay is simple.
There is a starting card, and three treasure cards face down 7 card spaces away from the starting card. Only one of those three has the gold.
Players play one card on their turn and then draw a card.
They can add a card to the path, getting closer to a treasure card.
If they suspect someone of being a saboteur, or if you are a saboteur and want to hinder someone, you can break one of their tools by playing a card on them. This keeps them from adding any more cards to the path.
There’s a card that lets you peek at a treasure as well.
If the saboteurs can stop the gold diggers from getting to the treasure (the deck of cards runs out) they win. Otherwise the gold diggers win.
But whoever got there first gets first pick at the gold cards! In the end there will still only be one winner.
After 3 rounds whoever has the most gold wins.
Important to note is that the discard pile is face down. On your turn you must either play a card, or discard a card. You could have awesome cards and be the saboteur and say “All my cards are ****. Gotta discard.” And they wouldn’t know you were lying because you discard face down.
This game is very fun. Especially with more people (it can have up to ten).
It’s not as easy as in say, The Resistance, to hide the fact that you’re a saboteur, but experienced players will find subtle ways to deter the gold diggers without bringing suspicion on themselves. The more players they easier it is to fake people out.
If you enjoy hidden role games you should try this one out.
Concept
You are a group of dwarves digging for gold in underground tunnels. You build the tunnels with your path cards, but watch out: there will be saboteurs among the dwarves! Saboteurs will block gold diggers (but gold diggers can also block saboteurs).
The roles are secret, so it’s a card game with some bluffing.
Material
Just cards in a tiny box, easy to take with you. The card art suits the theme.
Rules
Nothing special, the basic game is easy to teach.
Gameplay
Fast and funny game, hilarious sometimes and there will be a lot of accusations. Don’t take the game serious!
Children will like this game and it’s also a good party game for adults. It plays best with big groups.
Negative points
It can be frustrating if you are blocked a long time and near the end the outcome can be very predictable. You can add some complexity with the expansion (saboteur 2, with more roles).
Conclusion
A fast deceptive card game with a child-friendly theme.
Watch a video of this game by gamesoverboard on: https://youtu.be/JeJpksOcDfw
Whenever I explain Resistance to my friends, they always say “so its like Saboteur”. And after so many of the same response, I decided to try it out at a local pub which had a board gaming night.
I participated in a 10 player game and I didn’t even learn the rules. I just watched what people were doing before it got to my turn and then I realized that this game very easy to learn, simple to play and the objective is very clearly explained even if no one explained anything to you.
That is what makes this game great for beginners and family gaming groups. I can see this as a big hit with the kids. I enjoyed it for number of rounds that I played it but I feel there are more exciting deduction themed games. I do appreciate the theme of the game with it being dwarves who are mining for gold.
If you got a table in front of you, whip out this game and you have get a pretty good time with Saboteur amongst a group of friends.
The only thing I think would improve this game a lot is if there is an actual board or template to show you exactly how far of a distance between the initial card and the lineup of the “possible” treasure cards. Having that as part of the game would improve the experience quite significantly. But don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the current setup. It’s just that I would think that the game would be even better this way. But at least, it keeps the price point for the game quite cheap.
Perhaps they can have it as an optional expansion piece.
I will probably not go through a “how-to-play” on any of my reviews, because there is so much material on the Internet to gather that information. I will, however, tell you of my thoughts playing these games.
Saboteur is an EXCELLENT hidden-role party game. Yes, party game. Along the same vein as The Resistance and such. If you are good at misdirection and, well, lying, then you will enjoy this game immensely. I happen to be great at those skills…
I can recommend this game as an excellent social deduction filler that comes in under $15. A steal!