Mammoth Hunters by Alan R. Moon & Aaron Weissblum

A Snapshot Look
Mammoth Hunters is a game of area control. Its unique “give and take” mechanics make it a fun challenge that many gamers will enjoy. Created by Alan Moon, Mammoth Hunters will appeal to gamers who want a game that is easy to learn, but deeper in scope. Rio Grande Games has produced yet another good game.

General Game Info:
Players: 3-5
Ages: 10 and Up
Play Time: 75 to 120 minutes
Game Weight: Light to Medium Light
Game Mechanics: Area Control
Theme: Mammoth Hunting During the Ice Age

Gamer Suitability:
Casual/New gamer = 5
Moderate Experience = 3
Experienced/Heavy Gamer = 2

Production Value (See Details Below):
Theme = 2
Presentation = 4
Components = 3
Gameplay = 3

Freshness Factor:
Fresh Experience with Every Play: Medium
Replay Value Over Time: Medium Low to Medium

Other Factors to Consider:
--There is a potential for leader bashing in some gaming groups.
--Alan Moon games are known for simple mechanics with unexpected depth. Mammoth Hunters is no exception and can be challenging to win consistently.

Overall Score = out of 5


The Details

Theme
As its name implies, Mammoth Hunters, players take on the role of hunters following the migrating mammoths of the ice age. Mammoth Hunters is played over 4 rounds and players score victory points by moving hunters onto various regions on the game board. The more hunters a player has in a region, the more victory points he earns. By having hunters in regions with mammoths, players score even greater victory points.

Complicating matters is that the play area may shrink at the end of each round as the glacier area expands.

Mammoth Hunters has great potential in a theme that seems to be somewhat untapped in current board games. However, Mammoth Hunters falls short of greatness as the theme is really disconnected from the game itself. As with many of Alan Moon’s games, Mammoth Hunters seems to take a decent game mechanic and loosely attaches a theme to it. Sometimes this works, but this doesn’t work for me with Mammoth Hunters.

This said, Mammoth Hunters does strive to make every piece and component fit the ice age theme. In fact, the manufacturer has done a decent job at making quality “ice age” pieces. In a different game these pieces could effectively create an atmosphere that this game deserves. However, it just doesn’t seem to work with Mammoth Hunters.
(Theme Score: )


Presentation
Even though Mammoth Hunter’s theme is a bit lacking, its presentation is quite good overall. It comes in a high quality cardboard box matching in size and design to the other games in the Alea large-sized bookshelf game series. In fact, Mammoth Hunters is the eighth game in that series. The only issues I have with the Mammoth Hunter’s box are very minor. First, the artwork does not seem to fit in with the rest of the series (for example, it is the only box with an animal instead of a person on the side). While the other games in the series all seem to have a similar style of artistic design for the box cover, Mammoth appears to venture out on its own—making one wonder if its even a part of the series. In fact, this leads me to the second minor issue I have with the box. All of the other games in the series have a large number printed on the side of the box showing its place in the series, but Mammoth Hunters is missing the number “8” which should be there. These are both minor issues and have little bearing on Mammoth Hunter’s presentation score.


(The number on this copy is a laser printer sticker that the owner placed there himself.)

In fact, the remainder of the presentation is outstanding. Inside the box is a quad-fold gameboard of highest quality. Also inside is a plastic insert which well designed for holding the various game pieces. It is perfectly designed to organize game pieces in such a way that standing up the box on end (as it is designed to do) does not mix pieces or create chaos inside.

Also quite good is the rulebook. It is clear and concise, leaving little room for confusion. There are diagrams and illustrations highlighting and clarifying key points to help players understand the details of the rules. Also helpful is the review column for players who don’t want to read the entire rules after a long absence from the game. All of this adds up to an above average presentation of an average game.
(Presentation Score: )


Components
With a good presentation often comes very good components. Mammoth Hunters is no exception.

Beginning with the gameboard, you will find that Rio Grande puts great effort into quality. This quad-fold game board is made of highest quality materials and is very colorful for an ice age theme game. It includes 12 regions on the play area and a scoring track on the outer perimeter of the board for easy scoring.



Also of high quality cardboard are 12 glacier tiles which are used to make the play area smaller as the game proceeds from round to round. These tiles fit perfectly over the matching region on the game board. When used these fit together nicely like a puzzle. On the reverse side of each tile is a number identifying the appropriate region it should be placed on. This makes it easier to place these tiles without having to move game markers around during gameplay—a huge plus.

There is also one “light/dark” separator made of quality cardboard. This is used to separate the game stones into categories. These 50 cardboard stones are the currency in the game and are used to “purchase” actions (more on this below).

Also included are 14 campfire tiles (which add a random element to scoring), and 6 clubs (which protect hunters from negative effects during scoring).



The most unique and interesting components are the 6 wooden mammoths. These great little pieces make Mammoth Hunters worth the purchase alone because of their unique design. Each of these looks like a little buffalo with a trunk. In fact, with a little adapting these could have easily been used to make Mammoth Hunters a buffalo hunting game instead.



Next, there are 65 cylindrical hunter markers (13 each in 5 colors). Each marker is made of high quality materials and bright paint. The only problem with these pieces is that they easily roll around when laying on their side. Complicating this is that they are easily knocked over.

Finally, there are 55 game cards (33 light and 22 dark). These, together with the hunters and mammoths, are at the heart of gameplay. Made of standard playing card quality paper, players should take care of these cards by not shuffling too harshly.



Overall, Mammoth Hunters has high quality components that compare to most other games by Rio Grande. For this reason Mammoth Hunter receives an average component score.
(Components Score: )


Gameplay
Gameplay in Mammoth Hunters is fairly straightforward, following a simple, but unique mechanism. Each round begins with players holding a number of dark cards and light cards. Play proceeds as each player, in turn, plays a card (either light or dark), follows its instructions, and then draws a new card (either dark or light) to replace it. This allows players to place hunters on the play area and/or move them around from region to region, thus increasing hunter control of each region on the board.

This mechanism truly shines through the way players play the two different types of cards: light and dark. Light cards can only be played by spending the number of stones on that card. Light cards generally offer benefits to the player playing the card. On the flip side, when a dark card is played, the player receives stones from the bank. However, dark cards generally benefit a players opponents instead.

This mechanism is great because a player must balance the need for more stones (thus, playing a dark card) with the need to improve his position (thus, playing a light card). It is this mechanic that makes Mammoth Hunters a game worth trying as I know of no other game using this mechanic.

This said, gameplay in Mammoth Hunters can get a little tiring because 4 rounds seems to make the game drag on unnecessarily. Fewer rounds, however, would make the game seem incomplete because tension does rise as the play area gets smaller. This is the one flaw I find with the game itself—it is too long to hold my attention, but cannot be made shorter and remain satisfying.
(Gameplay Score: )


Closing Comments
I know I have been somewhat critical of Mammoth Hunters, so I should mention that it is NOT a bad game. In fact, compared to most games on the market today, Mammoth Hunters is quite good. The problem I have is that it does not stand in comparison to the outstanding games in the rest of the Alea large-sized bookshelf game series. It is for this reason that Mammoth Hunters earns merely average scores in my book.
Overall Score = out of 5

Well done. Thanks for excellent summary and review!

Good review. The general consensus in our group was that the game was good but seemed too long. I am just thinking now that it might make it better to put less money in the dark pile. That would shorten play without leaving behind the tension of the expanding glaciers.

Not sure.... but its a thought.