Dragon's Hoard

"Hey why do you always get to be the fire dragon?"

"Well, because I'm the older one of us and one day you'll study fire magic while all I have left is this!"

Tiala and Mabika during a game of "Dragon's Hoard"

"Dragon's Hoard" is a game from the company Tijey T. Melori, who, among other things, invented the infamous gauntlet game and is now particularly famous for its mosaic game world "JoYe". "Dragon's Hoard" was one of the first board games that the company released in 2,602 AEC, the year it was founded. Since its first publication there have been ten editions with three anniversary editions and although it has been around for almost 100 years, it is still very popular today. According to the company, around 100,000 units are sold annually. In addition, sales on other continents have also increased enormously in the last ten years.

Simple sketch of the game's cardboard cover by Blue Fairy 74

Tiala raised her sword and plunged it into the beast's chest. Instead of blood, viscous lava dripped from its neck down its tongue before the monster collapsed. Tiala took a stray branch of obsidian root, sharpened one end a little, and dipped the staff in the blood of the carcass. Then she used the blood to carve a sun of radiant flames into her skin above her left ankle.

Legends of Layida, book -

Origin

The firewalkers have always admired the Waterdragons of Ulűri̋qi̋ and perhaps also looked at them with a little envy, because today there are only these creatures and the small, all-knowing Lextari left on Elaqitan. Fire dragons, if they ever really existed, have been extinct for thousands of years.

In museums you can only find skeletons and replicas of some footprints of giant fire raptors, which could be possible dragons. There are further clues in the book "Legends of Layida", as Tiala von Halbiki is said to have once killed one of these monsters with her lava sword and burned a tattoo into her skin with its fiery blood. Maybe the inventor was inspired by this?

Layidanian Raptor of Fire by Blue Fairy 74 via Midjourney

Packaging and contents

The first edition games and the anniversary editions were delivered in a half-sided pentagonal wooden box. These editions originally cost around 25 or 30 Njur each and are now very collectible. In the later editions, the wooden boxes were replaced with cardboard, which made production much cheaper. Traditional editions cost around 5 Njur each.
Dragon's Hoard consists of a pentagonal game board that shows five different colored caves. Each cave represents a continent of Elaqitan and represents the elements of fire, water, air, earth and sulphurous metals and has a small depression in the middle around which a dragon's nest has been drawn. This means a maximum of five players can play. The level of difficulty is medium, making it suitable for players aged around twelve and over. The estimated playing time is approximately 90 minutes.
Each game contains five colored dragon figures, each with a dragon egg and two additional enlargements, five different stacks with 250 property cards each, a stack with 20 seeker cards and a stack with 75 special effects, which allows for a wide variety of scenarios and prevents boredom.
Like the game board, all cards were lovingly designed and colored. On the back of the behavior cards are dragons representing the numbers 1 to 5. The seeker cards have a dragon eye on the back and the special effects have a dragon egg. All cards also contain different victory or penalty points that should be collected or better avoided.

At a glance

Name: Dragon's Hoard
Publisher: Tijey T. Melori company
1st edition: 6,202 AEC
Price: 5 Njur
Players: 2-5
Age: from 12 years
Playing time: approximately 90 minutes
Contents: pentagonal game board, six-sided dice, eggs and dragon figures in two different sizes, 20 viewfinder cards, 75 special effect cards, 250 property cards

Simple sketches of the dragon figures by Blue Fairy 74

Preparation

The players place themselves around the game board and decide on a dragon egg, which is placed on the respective small depression in the nest of their cave. The playing field contains three stack indicators in the middle for the special effects and seeker cards, as well as a stack for the dragon type directly in the middle. That's why the five stack displays for the property cards are arranged in a circle, which connects all the special effects and seeker cards together in a ring. All cards are placed face down in the designated places. At the beginning, each player takes turns drawing a seeker card and two properties of their choice, which they initially keep face down in their hand.

Dice

The six-sided dice contains five numbers for the behavior cards and an egg for the special cards.

Seeker cards

The Seeker cards are an additional task that the player must complete throughout the game in order to collect more victory points. These could be tasks such as "Collect as many different food supplies as possible during the rounds" - yes, this would of course also mean supplies from the other players, which can be tactically clever under certain circumstances if you have the food source with a high point level in your hand holds what another player is actually looking for.

Special effects

Lastly, there are the special effects. These include, among other things, valuable trading skills, requests to skip or discard cards, exchange the seeker card or additional victory and penalty points. There are special effects that must be played immediately during the draw and some that can be held in the hand and played when the opportunity arises.

Dragon's Hoard Gameboard

Open full size

Possible property cards

The property cards cover the topics: 1 type, 2 appearance, 3 abilities, 4 diet and 5 hoard objects. There are ten properties for each dragon and theme, so that the most curious variants are possible during the course of the game. The species applies to all dragons. There are winged, wingless, single-headed, multi-headed, insectoid, bird-like, snake-like, raptor-like, scaly and feathered dragons.
Each property card has a specific value of one to ten victory points and the same number of penalty points. If the properties have been mixed well, it will of course happen that cards are drawn that do not match your dragon's element. The players should get rid of these by trading or possibly collect them tactically, although at the end each player should only have their own cards in their hand. Incorrect cards lead to penalty points or increase your own victory points if it is a dragon that weakens or further ignites your own abilities. For example, the Water Dragon might reduce the abilities of a Fire Dragon, but would potentially increase the abilities of an Earth Dragon.

Simple sketches of the property cards by Blue Fairy 74

Appearance of the skin
Fire: obsidian, lava, flames, glow scales...
Earth: leaves, flowers, bark, stones...
Water: scales, ice crystals, sea foam, shells...
Air: colorful feathers, clouds, light, rainbow...
Metal: mushrooms, metal, ore crystals, sulfur nodules...

Diet
Fire: sharps, lava, pumice stones, mineral nodules...
Earth: soils, salts, pebbles, plant tubers...
Water: ice, plankton, algae, starfish...
Air: soap bubbles, cotton candy, clouds, candy...
Metal: ores, sulfur nodules, eggs, precious metals...

Abilities
Fire: fire breath, flame pups, lava balls, ash cloud, ...
Earth: stomp attack, pebble catapult, crystals, branch arrows...
Water: ice arrows, steam attack, wave strike, water jet...
Air: rainbows, cotton nets, gusts of wind, flapping wings...
Metal: poison breath, sulfur cloud, metal blades, lightning, ...

Hoard objects
Fire: fireworks, weapons, medals, rubies...
Earth: moss, leaves, flowers, emeralds...
Water: corals, pearls, shells, sapphires...
Air: plush toys, books, diamonds, stars...
Metal: scrap, precious metal, armor, coins...

Sequence

The beginning

Initially, each player drew two trait cards. The victory points indicated on the two property cards are added together. Here it doesn't matter whether they are properties for your own element or not and this score has no influence on the further course of the game. The player who has the highest score here starts.

The 1st rounds

Each player first rolls the dice and draws the card shown on the dice. In addition to the seeker card, each player may hold a maximum of five behavior cards and a maximum of three special effects in their hand. Not much will happen at the beginning because everyone is trying to collect a few behavior cards. However, as soon as the maximum number of cards is reached, the respective player must either place one of his behavior cards face down on the stacks of cards in his cave or discard the excess cards if he cannot replace them with a special effect card.

The hatching

The dragons only hatch from their eggs if at least one card of each of the first three characteristics (type, appearance, ability) has been placed on the pile provided around the dragon egg. The dragon type is mandatory. But it would also be possible to have two cards each based on appearance and ability. In this case, the player must place one of these characteristic cards on the discard pile after his dragon has hatched. Once a dragon is ready to hatch, the player whose turn it is says, "If I were a dragon, then...", and while revealing the three cards present in their behavior piles, the player explains what his dragon for a species is how he looks or how he behaves. Then he puts the figure of a young dragon over his egg and it is the next player's turn.

The rearing

Now it's time to grow your dragon. In the next rounds, each player must try to "grow" his dragon as quickly as possible through tactical action, if possible with the use of special effects and by rolling dice and drawing attribute or effect cards. In addition, he has to work on his seeker task. Only when the player has completed his search task and, if possible, has reached the highest behavioral level of his dragon, does he have to say again: "If I were a dragon, then..." and in doing so reveals the other missing behaviors of his dragon. He can then place the figure of the adult dragon over his young dragon and receives an additional 5 victory points because his dragon is the first to be fully grown. Each other player takes one last turn in the hope that their dragon will also reach adulthood.

The end

At the end, all card types are revealed to the respective player and victory points are added or penalty points are deducted. The player with the most points wins the game.

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This article was inspired by
Haly, the Moonlightbard's unofficial challenge

"If I were a dragon..."