Coal Baron (2013)

About this game

Coal Baron – or Glück Auf in German, after a greeting German miners use when wishing one another luck – has players sending miners underground to dig tunnels and acquire coal, which comes in four levels of quality and is used to fulfill contracts. The game lasts three rounds, and in each round players take turns placing their workers on action spaces; you can place on a space occupied by another player, but you need to place additional workers in order to do so. Each player has an individual elevator shaft, and will need to use workers to extract coal and bring it to the surface, while also competing for contracts and scrounging for cash in order to do everything else that needs to be done!

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 2 to 4.
• Rules load. At 2.5/5 this is a mid-weight game — expect a proper rules explanation before you start.
• Age. The publisher suggests 10 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.