Incan Gold / Diamant

Is it a chill games day if we don’t play Incan Gold? We hadn’t caught up for a while, and the incredibly relaxed and fun gameplay was the best call to start the day.

I have talked about Incan Gold a few times – draw a card, and as long as perils don’t match choose to continue or turn back. That’s it. A little bit of card counting, but really it’s pushing your luck and seeing how many points you can get.

The very first game was a strange one though. Not for anything bad, but it was a rare combination of cards. In Incan Gold, seeing high gem cards is rare. We had a run where we got 7 cards out, and only 1 was a peril. On top of that, there were a lot of gems on offer!

This was the first time we got 15 cards out before a peril caught us. Well, I say us. Rabbit and I had already bailed. Alpal decided to keep going. It’s a playstyle that works for her though – she will score 0 or 60, rarely anything different!

The other strange thing this round was it took a long time to see an artifact. Late into the second game long to see one. We were joking that Alpal had shuffled all the artifacts to the bottom of the deck. Again, not a bug or an issue, just rare.

Bottom line, we play Incan Gold a lot because it’s fun, fast and easy to talk around. There isn’t much else you can say about it. We had fun, there was trash talk and jokes, and then we got into ‘proper’ games.

Incan Gold is great, and you should definitely give it a try. It’s one of the few games I think should be on every gamer’s shelf because it is easy to teach, learn and quick to play. And being able to try it out on Board Game Arena is a great plus!

I should do a proper review soon…

A super quick entry today for Incan Gold. We played a heap of Downforce, and Rabbit and I were both a bit mentally exhausted after a week. We were looking forward to curling up for naps for different reasons. But we had to play another game or two at least – we were having too much fun!

So I suggested Incan Gold. Push your luck, two choices, mindless fun where we could still talk. Hit the spot perfectly! We had a fun time chatting and razzing each other, as we always do.

I also managed to get a sub-game going with Rabbit. Every time an artifact appeared, I was able to pick when she would try and return to camp to claim it. This became a weird sub-goal to Incan Gold. It didn’t matter that I didn’t get the artifact, it became a game of Rabbit not having them.

Alpal pushed her luck as always, which is always her own mini-game. But we had fun time flipping cards and chatting away. It let Rabbit and I continue to play, while letting our brains wind down.

Incan Gold was a great way to end the day, and I am super pleased we got to play it again. It’s been a few weeks!

Sometimes, you want a game where you only have a small number of choices. For me, this usually means the group wants to talk during the game and not be distracted by the board. Other times, like last week, we wanted to play with minimal repercussions for not planning ahead. So Incan Gold it was!

It’s been a while since we played Incan Gold, but it’s a game that I still recommend for most gamers’ shelves. Sure, you won’t play it all the time.

But if you want to get a new player in, presenting Incan Gold with the rules explanation of “Keep going, or Head back to camp?” presents an easy intro to gaming.

That’s all you have to do – keep going, and explore the temple for more gems and possibly artifacts, or head back and ‘bank’ your haul. Incan Gold is push your luck, pure and simple. Fast to play, with five ‘runs’ to maximise your score and mitigate a bad call.

Or, put the pressure on you because you know you are only 5 gems behind, and the leader just went back to camp on the fifth run.

Often overlooked, Incan Gold is a great little game that can be played in many situations with all levels of players. I am glad it’s back on the table after a few months!