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Goats and Mountains
Like any animal, goats need to eat, and literally climb their way up walls to do that. Believe it or not, you'll often see them climbing trees, cliffs, and massive walls. Their motivation is simple: get food in any way they can.
In the Moroccan deserts, goats climb Argan trees because their fruit smells and tastes delicious to them.
At the Cingino dam, in Italy, goats climb the 50-meter-high dam wall searching for salt, flowers, and moss.
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And check it out: all species of goats are born with this ability. It's how they've adapted to get food.
Well, now that we know what goats can do, let's use them and get to the top of the mountain to feed our goats in Mountain Goats!
Game Info
Mountain Goats is best played with 2 to 4 players, for ages 6 and up, by designer Stefan Risthaus. It was illustrated by Daniel Profiri and Anca Gavril.
Oh, and that's right: even 6-year-olds can play this game!
Mountain Goats was released in 2010 by Allplay, but hasn't been released worldwide yet. Its base mechanics are: dice rolling, roll/spin and move, track movement, and king of the hill - that is, you need to conquer the top.
Mountain Goats was nominated by Golden Geek as the Best Abstract Game in 2010, when it was released. In the same year, it was recommended to the Spiel des Jahres, the board game Oscars.
The Game
It is a race, simple as that. Our goats, hungry as they are, need to climb to the top of the mountain to eat. The path is rocky and quite competitive: when we get to the top, we'll be rewarded, but that's where our problems start as well. At the top, there's only room for one goat at a time. If another goat gets to the top, the one that was there falls to the bottom of the mountain, and will have to climb their way up all over again.
This game is about the right timing. We'll need to do more than just get to the top of the mountain: we have to get there when no one else can, at least not immediately. Otherwise, our opponents will just knock us down.
That's Mountain Goats!
We're goat herders and our job is to herd our goats so they climb and eat, each on their own mountain. Some mountains are smaller, others are bigger, and that obviously adds more challenges to the game.
There are 6 different mountains. They award us different amounts of points and have different sizes, all according to how statistically difficult it is to get the results we want. We start the game with one goat at the bottom of each mountain.
The turns are quite simple:
To make your goats climb their mountains, roll all 4 dice.
After you roll all 4 dice, create groups of dice, adding them, or not, to make up numbers from 5 to 10 that match the values on each mountain. That's how you'll get your goats to search for food. Please note that you'll lose any dice (added or single) that you can't match to a specific number on a mountain.
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After you get your dice, move or herd your goats to make them climb their mountains. As they climb, multiple goats can occupy the same space, but only as they climb. At the top, there's only room for one - when a goat gets to the top, the other one is "knocked down" to the bottom of the mountain and has to climb it all over again.
The reason this restriction exists is that goats will only find food at the top, which is represented by numbered tokens on each mountain. Please note: there is a limited number of tokens!
When you can make each goat eat at least once on each mountain, you'll get a bonus - more food tokens (points). These are also limited.
After you move your goats and get your tokens (or not), you pass your turn to the player on your left.
That is basically a turn in Mountain Goats!
End of the Match
The game is over when:
Afterward, the game goes on until every player has played the same number of turns. Then, the game is over. Whoever has more point tokens wins.
If there is a tie, the player with the most goats at the top of the mountains wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the goat on the most valuable mountain wins.
Tips and Strategies
The golden rule is: win this race and get as many points as you can! To make this possible, you can use a few strategies.
The first is to keep in mind you can mitigate any bad dice you get. Whenever you get more than one (1) on your dice, you can change these (1)s to whatever number you want. You'll only need to keep one (1), as this result was what let you do that.
Another strategy is - actually, the simplest one of all - make all your goats climb their mountains at the same pace to get to the top at least once with all of them. This is how you'll get bonus tokens, and, considering there are only four of them, whoever gets to the top first will get the bigger bonuses. Later on, you'll get smaller bonuses, so, if you can, try to get to the top before your opponents.
Another alternative is to keep one goat at the top, getting more tokens. But then you'll need:
If you manage to stay on the most valuable mountains, great, but your opponents will obviously try to knock you off it.
Here's another great tip: know when to climb to the top. I tried to find the best time to do that, and I confess I think this is one of the best strategies: stay close to the peak, one or two steps away (that is, one or two dice away), and don't climb with other goats that would take 2 or 3 turns to get to the top. Climb to the top and try to use the other strategy I suggested: stay at the top. It is the best idea, in my opinion, as you'll usually get more points this way than running after bonus tokens.
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Another tip is to climb to the top, and, if no other enemy goats are climbing as fast as you are, get all the food tokens available. You'll have to rely on luck with your dice. However, if you exhaust all the tokens on a certain mountain, you'll prevent other players from getting bonus tokens, as they won't be able to get one token from each mountain.
Oh, and this will also make the game end faster, but that's a price you'll have to consider. If you have more points, it is a viable idea, but, if not, you'll probably need another strategy.
Follow these tips, use your wits, become a strategist and win Mountain Goats!
Unboxing, Rules, and Gameplay Videos
Check out this unboxing:
Learn the rules:
Watch some gameplay:
Teaching Moments
If you want to improve your logic, math, and strategy skills, Mountain Goats is the game for you!
Players of all ages will love this game because it is beautiful. The goat meeples are simply fantastic, and dice games usually hypnotize even the youngest players. The excitement you feel as you wait to see the dice is always an incredible feeling.
You'll also need great math skills to play this game, as you'll constantly be adding your dice to get the numbers on the mountains.
When you get more than one (1) on your dice, it will be a great opportunity to work on your decision-making skills. You'll be able to pick the numbers you want, so you'll have to calculate the numbers just right to get a value that, added up, matches the value of a mountain you want to climb.
The race to the top will be even more competitive because of the token bonuses, and this will be like a second race for you. You'll feel very tense, but very happy, in a good way!
Mountain Goats is a fun lesson in strategy, math, and logic!
I highly recommend Mountain Goats to your collection!!
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