Haba Adventureland Board Game- Three Family Games in One
When I saw that the Adventureland Board Game came from the Haba company, I hesitated a moment. Haba makes great games, but they tend to be games for little kids. Would a game from Haba keep my teens (and mostly me) engaged? But the recommendations I got were good… and I love the look of the game (I’m a sucker for judging games by their covers)… so we brought it home.
Adventureland Board Game is a Gateway Game
The first thing you need to know is that Adventureland is a GREAT Gateway Game… in fact, it may be the very definition of Gateway Game. The board, the meeples, and all the tokens can be used for 3 different levels of play…each a bit more involved and complex than the last. You can easily start young players and new gamers off at level one, and then work your way up.
The directions for Adventureland are amazingly straightforward. You will find most everything you need on one sheet… details are also covered with simple explanations. This is not a game out to get you with subtle nuance. The game is simple; Your party ventures out, collects things, fights fog monsters, and gains allies. Points are counted, and the one with the most at the end wins. Movement is uncomplicated, and there is just enough strategy for some people to overthink it. (You know who you are… play it simple!)
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How to Play Adventureland Board Game
Each Terrain Card matches a grid co-ordinate… flip the card, and place the object in that space.
The Adventureland Board is laid out as a giant grid over a map showing mountains, cities, a river and boggy areas. Each player is given 10 meeples that are lined up along the 5 spaces across and down from the top left corner. (Everyone starts in the same spot).
You populate the board with items to collect (swords, followers, herbs, gold) using Terrain Cards. Each card corresponds to a grid-space on the map. After shuffling, you flip over the first 10 cards … and place whatever the card shows, on its designated spot. For example, if you flip card H 10, you will see that a follower is placed on the grid square H10. And so on.
The Adventureland Board is a grid… move your meeple out to a space with a sword, herbs or companions to “collect” them
Fog Monsters have special rules… they are placed when their card is pulled, but then you get to pull an extra card.
Before your turn, two more Terrain Cards are pulled, and the items are placed on the board.
Like I said, movement is simple… you can move one meeple as many spaced to the right or to the bottom of the board as you want… or you can move two meeples each one space. You want to collect swords, herbs and followers with your meeples to fight the Fog monster. But warning… you can only move left or to the bottom… there is no going backwards.
Why do you want to collect stuff?
Well, when it’s time to fight the Fog Monster, you need attack points. Your Meeple is only worth one. Herbs give you additional strength, and swords give you additional dice. Gold is great for a do-over roll. And those companions… they lend you strength. Add up your strength, including the supplements you choose to add… then roll dice. If you beat the Fog Monster’s value, you get to add to your points. And of course, ultimately, you are looking for the highest point total to win the game.
The Water Sprite stands guard over the Gold
But the Fog Monster is not the only danger… the gold is guarded by a Water Sprite. He stands on the most recent Gold Piece to be revealed… and moves to the next Gold Piece, when it’s turned over. Beware, if you are in the water as he flies by, you lose your Meeple, and any companions he happens to have with him.
Adventureland Is Really Three Different Adventures
I love that there are large reference cards describing each of the Adventures with Aim of the Game, Victory Points and Final Scoring spelled out clearly!
Reference Cards for Each Adventure… (Interestingly, there are Cards for 4 Languages!)
Adventure 1– (The Following) This is the most basic version of the Game. Follow the simple instructions, and score points on the track around the board as you go. This version is perfect for newer gamers, young gamers, or anyone looking for a mental margarita. Honestly, it’s not boring, but it’s not something that an experienced player will want to return to over and over.
Adventure 2– (The Magnificent) This version adds a variant that allows players to move several of their players onto the same space to act as a group when fighting the fog monster. Once formed, groups can continue to move together. Points are only scored by largest Meeple Groups each player has (ie. The Magnificent), not the individual Meeples.
Adventure 3– (Escape to the cities) You still want to gather herbs, swords, companions and gold, and you still want to fight the Fog Monster… but there is an additional challenge of taking over the cities. When the game ends, the player with the most meeples in any given city gets the City’s Victory points (other players will only get a portion of the points). There are 5 cities with varying points. Also, gold counts as 2 points per gold piece… but additional points are granted to the player with the most gold. Unlike the other versions, scoring for Escape to the Cities happens at the end of the game.
So, how does the game end?
In all versions, the game ends when there are no more swords or companions left.
Game Components
Lots of well-made components…
The Overall look of the game is really good. The art is well done, and interesting. The Meeples are many and come in a new shape (I believe they are meant to be holding swords…). Game board and components are well made, and should hold up for years of play. The Terrain cards are stiff enough to last, but not too hard to shuffle.
My only issue is with the dice… they are light and roll kind of funky. We just use our own.
The Rulebook is easy to understand. Seriously, you can read through the basics in about 10 minutes, and start Adventure 1. This is an easy game to teach to new players, yet it’s engaging enough to keep experienced players happy. It’s a great casual or social game, where game play and conversation can happen at the same time.
Who Can Play the Adventureland Board Game
The Game Box says that it’s for ages 10 and up. I would argue that younger players, as young as 7, could play level 1 without much assistance. There is limited counting, and the strategy is fairly simple. You can play with 2 to 4 people, and it does get more interesting, the more players you have on the board.
Adventureland Board Game Is a great addition to your family Board Game line up… it’s far more interesting than the basic Roll the Dice, Move Your Man games. Added bonus, because you can play any of three different Adventure levels, the replay value is pretty good.
Find Adventureland Board Game on Amazon
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