The Mole Company

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The Mole Company
Game situation of the game "The Mole Company"
Game situation of the game "The Mole Company"
Game data
author Virginia Charves , Bertram Kaes
graphic Walter Pepperle
publishing company Ravensburger
Publishing year 1995
Art Board game
Teammates 2 to 4
Duration about 30 minutes
Age from 8 years

Awards

The Mole Company is a three-dimensional board game by the game authors Virginia Charves and Bertram Kaes , published by Ravensburger in 1995 and published internationally. In the same year the game was list the jury of the game of the year received, also it won in 1995 in vuoden Peli in Finland and the Årets Spel Sweden and in 2002 in Japan Board Game Prize each award as "Children's Game of the Year".

The players play a team of moles that dig in a competition for the “golden shovel” that only a single mole from the team can reach.

Style of play

Number discs are used to determine how far the moles can move.

In The Mole Company , the aim of the players is to use number tiles to get as many of their mole figures as possible into a limited number of holes on a hexagonal playing field and in this way to get to ever deeper levels of the board. In each level the number of holes is reduced and in the last level only one mole can reach the last hole.

In addition to the instructions, the game material consists of:

  • a playing field made up of four different digging levels that are placed in the game box,
  • 1 target layer with the "golden shovel",
  • 40 pieces in the form of small moles, 10 of them in the colors green, red, blue and yellow and
  • 4 sets with number discs in the player's colors, each with the values ​​1, 2, 2, 3, 3 and 4.

Game preparation

At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a color and receives the corresponding set of number discs and his or her mole team. In the game with two players each player receives 10, in the game with three players 7 and in the game with four players 6 mole figures. The number chips are shuffled and placed face down in front of the player. The playing field is set up by placing the “golden shovel” at the very bottom of the game box and above it the various layers of earth. The top layer is a green field that represents the meadow.

Game flow

In the first phase of the game the players, beginning with a starting player, place one of their pawns one after the other on the field, although they are not allowed to put them in one of the holes. This phase continues until the players have distributed all of their figures.

When all pieces are distributed on the field, the second phase begins. This phase is also played in clockwise order. The starting player begins by revealing a hidden number chip and moving one of his pieces in a straight line according to the specified move distance. Each player tries to get his own moles into the holes, but may not jump over other moles on his turn or end up on an occupied field and must take the full number of steps. There is compulsion to act as long as the player has moles on the field that are not yet in the holes, which can also force him to leave a hole again. As soon as all the chips are turned over, they are again face down and shuffled. If a player has all of his moles in holes, he pauses until all holes are filled with moles. As soon as all digging holes are filled, the top layer is lifted and all pieces that are not in the holes are removed from the game.

The game continues accordingly on the following shifts, but special fields (large fields) are added here. Whenever a piece is placed on a special field, it can move again. In the last level there is only one central hole above the "golden shovel". The first player to enter this hole wins the game.

Expenses and reception

The game The Mole Company was developed by Virginia Charves and Bertram Kaes and published by Ravensburger in 1995, first in German and then in numerous other languages. The game was a revision of the abstract game Inner Circle , published by Milton Bradley (MB) in 1981 , developed by Virginia Charves and published in Germany in 1984 under the name Top Star by Spear's Games .

The game was included in the selection list of the jury of the game of the year in 1995. Also in 1995 it won the award of “Children's Game of the Year” at Vuoden Peli in Finland and Årets Spel in Sweden and in 2002 at the Japan Boardgame Prize . In 2007, a new edition of the game was published by Ravensburger in the series “Our best family games” and in 2018, a small version of the game was launched with The Mole Company Bringing Game.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Rules of the game for Die Maulwurf-Company at Ravensburger, version from 2007; accessed on May 26, 2018.
  2. ^ Versions of The Mole Company in the BoardGameGeek database; accessed on May 26, 2018.
  3. ↑ Versions of Inner Circle / Top Star in the BoardGameGeek database; accessed on May 26, 2018.

Web links