Saboteur

Customer Reviews

A simple, portable fun-packed game! Review by Fong Chun

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For a quick and easy to learn game, Saboteur packs a lot of fun in such a small portable box. Anyone who has played the party game Mafia (or any other title it is known as such as werewolves) will feel right at home. The game setting is in a dwarven mine where the gold diggers (they are actually referred to gold diggers in the manual) are digging for gold and must work together to reach the prize. At the beginning of the game, three cards are placed faced down with one card containing gold and then players must reach these cards by playing different path card in their hand.

The twist to the game is that one or more players is actually a saboteur who is working against everyone else and trying to stop them from reaching the gold. This is accomplished by leading others away from the gold card, placing dead end path cards, or breaking other player’s tools. By breaking their tools, players cannot build until they fix their tools by placing specific cards or having a teammate play one for you. It is typically pretty obvious when someone is a saboteur since they have to play cards to slow-down the progress of the gold diggers. In this sense, being discreet is not the best idea for a saboteur.

Despite it’s simplicity, Saboteur is surprisingly very enjoyable. It is a quite party game and really easy to learn. And the best part is that it is super portable as it fits right in your pocket. So you can bring it around and play some quick games at coffee shops! (Posted on 2/28/11)

-Small box big fun- Review by Maxime Yazz

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This small card game is simple yet very fun. You must reach the gold in the mine before the other players so that you can clam more of it then them. But wait a traitor may hide among you, he might trow a monkey wrench your way to keep all the gold for himself.

The nice little traitor mechanic really make the games fun. Player are going to spend most of their time suspecting other players. Also it can be played with more then 7 people making it a very nice party game. (Posted on 4/3/10)

Fun packed card box Review by Morris

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pretty fun trying to guess the saboteurs. The last path piece to the gold is most fun as all gold diggers suddenly play for themselves trying to be the one to reach the gold first.

Very involving game. Everyone is proactive during the whole game trying figure out the saboteurs or to deceive others into believing they are gold diggers.

If you're looking for a small fun game to bring around in your pocket and to play with a bunch of friends, this is definitely a good one. (Posted on 12/23/09)

Cute, fun filler game....great for camping or taking on the road. Fun group game. Review by Austen

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Saboteur is a card game that plays 3-10 players. It is a quick fun little game that is good when you have a bunch of people and you are looking for a game that is fast paced and keeps everyone involved.

In Saboteur you are either a miner or a saboteur. The Saboteur's are evil dwarves that are trying to stop the good dwarves(miners) from finding the gold.

In a 4 player game for instance you shuffle 4 miners with 1 saboteur and then deal 1 card to each player face down. This tells you if you are a miner or saboteur. It is possible to have 4 miners or 3 miners and 1 saboteur. You then get dealt 6 cards. These cards are a mix of action cards and mine cards.

The set up for this game is simple. On the right hand side of the table you will place the 3 treasure cards. Only one of these cards is gold, the other two are stone. These cards are placed with a card length distance between them resulting in 5 rows. Next you take the starting card, a 4 way intersection with a ladder, and place it 7 card widths to the left of the middle treasure card. The result is a game area that is 5 rows high and 9 columns wide.

In your hand you will have action cards and mine cards. The mine cards will have straight sections, corners, T's, intersections and dead ends. The action cards will have tools, broken tools, maps, and a rock fall.

The miners are trying to connect a tunnel to the treasure card with the gold while the saboteur is trying to stop them from finding the gold before you run our of cards.

On your turn you can lay down a tunnel(mine card) or you can play an action card. The Map card lets you look at a treasure card which will help you narrow down where the gold is. You can also play a broken tool (lantern, pick, cart) in front of any play. This will mean that that player cannot play another mine card until they fix the broken tool in front of them. If you have a broken pick you need to play a pick to fix it. Just as anyone can break a tool anyone can fix it. So if you think the saboteur has broken a miners tool you can fix that tool. If you have a broken tool in front of you you can still play an action card you just can't build tunnels. The Rock Fall card lets you destroy any card in the system. So a saboteur can break a tunnel or a miner can unblock a dead end using this card.

Miners can only build on a tunnel that is connected to the starting card. Once a tunnel reaches a treasure card you flip the card over. If it is a pile of rocks you have to keep trying. If you strike gold everyone reveals their identity. You then deal out as many gold cards as there are miners. The miner that uncovered the gold gets to pick first. In the event that the saboteur stops the miners from reaching the gold the saboteur gets gold cards amounting to 4 gold. You then reshuffle and re-deal the miner/saboteur cards and start the next round. Usually you play 3 rounds but you can play until you run out of gold cards if you are playing with a larger group.

I like this game. It is a nice little filler game. The set up is quick and easy and it is a really easy game to explain. What is fun is watching people second guessing everyone's move trying to determine who the saboteur is. You can easily play 3 rounds with 4 people in under 30min. It is a very light game, so for hard core gamers it may be a little light and fluffy. There is some strategy to the game but how much will depend on who you are playing with. It is fairly interactive and can become very cut throat as people start accusing people of being the saboteur.

If you are looking for a quick game to pull out when you are between games or for a game that you can keep in your glove box/bag/purse it is worth picking up especially at the price. (Posted on 10/6/09)