Sutter’s Mill, Coming from Mayfair Games

Mayfair Games will release Marco Teubner’s Sutter’s Mill, first available at Spiel 08 from Phalanx Games, in January 2009. Here’s a description of the game from BGN’s Spiel 08 preview:

It’s time to relive the California gold rush, with players taking part in the rapid expansion of the town of Coloma. In addition to building up the town and welcoming the new citizens drawn in by the lure of gold, the players get struck by gold fever themselves.

Each player has five gold prospectors in her color, along with a set of 13 cards valued from 2 to Ace and a set of 1, 2 and 3 gold coins on chips. They’ll use the prospectors to claim gold from the river and mine; the cards will allow them to have influence in buildings constructed in the town, and control of the buildings gives a player unique or modified actions during the game. Players can take 1-5 actions during a turn, with the first action being free and each additional action costing more of your hard-earned gold.

Gold is limited, of course, and once the vein starts running out players might want to split town as quickly as possible. The building up and tearing down of the town doesn’t happen automatically; each player switches gears at her own pace, so some players might still be building while others think it’s time to head home.

Once players have started to remove their prospectors from the board, they can remove influence cards as well – but the cards are removed from top to bottom, no matter who owns the card. Removing the cards affects the ownership of the buildings, which still provide benefits after players have started to leave, but more importantly, players lose points for any cards of theirs that remain on the board and score points for those played, then removed. To get to all of your cards, however, you might have to remove an opponent’s, which is a huge plus for her, so weigh what you want to do and what you’re comfortable leaving behind.

Sutter’s Mill is for 2-4 players, ages 10 and up with a playing time of 60 minutes and a retail price of $45. This game has been added to Gone Cardboard.

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