The dungeon is open. Gold and treasure beyond the imagination of even the greediest adventurers lies unclaimed on the ground, for anyone to take. Unfortunately, you are not the only one to ascertain the location of this treasure trove. If you want to emerge with the riches, you’ll need to employ heroes to grab gold and monsters to sabotage your opponent’s plans, and you’ll need to do it all faster than anyone else. Enter the depths and catacombs beneath the earth: Cave Troll is now available at your local United States retailer and online through our webstore!

Cave Troll is a game of dungeon-delving and area control for two to four players that challenges you to seize as much gold as possible while preventing your opponents from doing the same. You and each of your opponents control both heroes and monsters, moving them from room to room throughout the dungeon in an effort to control the chambers with the most gold. Of course, your plans rarely go forward unhindered, especially when every player is struggling for the same supplies of gold. At the end of a game of Cave Troll, only the richest player will emerge from the dungeon victorious.

Control the Dungeon

In our first preview of Cave Troll, we explored the mechanics of gameplay and how you can move your figures through the dungeon and recruit new heroes and monsters to your cause. On your turn, you have four actions to spend however you choose. You may spend an action to bring a new hero or monster by drawing a card from the top of your player deck and adding it to your hand. After you’ve drawn a card, you may play one of your player cards and place the appropriate figure on the board, either on a staircase or in a pit. 

As an action, you can draw and play a card from your hand, bringing a new figure like the Knight into the dungeon.

Once you have figures on the board, you can spend actions to move them—one action moves a single figure one space. Repositioning your figures is essential for seizing control of the different chambers in the dungeon and gaining more gold when the board is scored at certain points throughout the game. Every chamber in the dungeon has a number of gold coins printed on it, and whenever the board is scored, the player with the most heroes in a room receives the gold from that chamber. On every turn in Cave Troll, you must determine your best move: will you spread your forces thin and try to claim as many rooms as possible or battle your opponents for supremacy in the rooms which provide the most gold?

One action allows you to move a single figure one space through the dungeon. You may spend multiple actions to move the same figure, as shown above.

You may also spend an action during your turn to trigger the effects of a powerful artifact that you have found within the dungeons. These artifacts can turn the tide of your struggle in the dungeon dramatically, but if you don’t use your artifact, it offers you a gold bonus for the end of the game. You must constantly weigh the benefits of playing your artifact against the rewards of saving it for its gold value. 

Our second Cave Troll preview turned to the heroes and monsters that you will use to claim control of the dungeon. Though the majority of your forces is composed of simple Adventurers, every player also commands a host of powerful heroes with special abilities and monsters who can slay enemy heroes or push them into sub-optimal positions. Using these heroes and monsters wisely is crucial to your victory, and to expand your experience with the game, Cave Troll includes two sets of heroes and monsters: one for the classic game and one for the variant game. Though these two games use the same plastic figures, they feature different cards and abilities for the heroes and monsters, giving you multiple options for experiencing the game and challenging you to enter the dungeon again and again. 

Heroes, Monsters, Gold

The treasure within the dungeon is yours for the taking. Only three other players stand in your way. Muster your heroes and monsters and enter the chambers of the dungeon! Cave Troll is now available at your local United States retailer.