K2
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Number of Players
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1 - 5
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Play Time
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60 Minutes
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Ages
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13 Years and up
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K2 is a game where the players attempt to climb the tallest
mountain in the world with a two man team.
Each player’s score is based off the highest point up the mountain each
of his climbers get. If one of the
player’s climbers gets to the top of the mountain then descends to a lower
point on the mountain, his score will be based off his climber getting to the
top of the mountain, not where he ends up at the end of the game.
Game play for K2 is fairly easy. There are two things that the players need to
monitor for their climbers when player the game, movement points and oxygen points. Movement points are what allow the climbers
to ascend and descend the mountain.
Oxygen points are what allow the climbers to survive the thinner air the
higher the climbers go up the mountain.
The number of movement and oxygen points get each turn are
controlled by the cards in a player’s deck.
Each turn the player draws his hand up to six cards. The player chooses three of those cards to
play face down at the beginning of his turn.
These will be the cards that he plays during his turn. The player may distribute the cards between
his climbers as he wants the only limit being that no card may be split between
the climbers. The other issue that
arises is that the player with the most movement point will take a penalty of 0
– 2 points of his choice of movement or oxygen to one of his climbers.
Each of the spaces on the board has a base movement cost of
one and oxygen cost of zero. As the
climber goes up the mountain these costs go increase and are shown on the
space. The cost in movement is paid
going into the space. The oxygen cost is
paid at the end of the turn. In addition
there are adjustments to these numbers based on the weather. At lower levels of the mountain the climbers
can actually gain oxygen.
Each player may set up a base camp for each of his climbers
on the mountain. Each climber may use
the base camp is they enter the space that it occupies. At the end of the turn the base camp provides
each of the player’s climbers that are in the same space at it is an extra
oxygen point. Once a base camp is set up
it cannot be moved.
If a climber runs out of oxygen points at any time during
the game he will die and be worth only one point at the end of the game
regardless of how far up the mountain he got so it is always important for the
player to monitor the health of his climbers.
The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
I find K2 to be an interesting game. It is enjoyable as a puzzle to figure out how
to manage your hand of cards to get the most out of them as you are moving up
the mountain. You need to manage both
the speed of each climber’s ascent and their health so that all of your hard
work does not go to waste if one of your climbers die.
The game comes with a two sided board one is the easy
side. The other is the hard side. There are also two sets of weather tiles one
for good weather and one for bad weather.
If you combine the hard board with the bad weather it can make for a
very challenging game and even experienced players run a risk of lose climbers
to a bad run of cards.
If you enjoy either hand management or press your luck games
then you should give K2 a try. K2
combines this elements into an interesting combination that should be tried by
players how enjoy those types of games at least once.
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