Karakorum is a board game designed by Reiner Knizia that centers on the theme of mountain climbing. The game challenges players to evaluate risks carefully and decide the perfect moment to rest and claim their progress. While it functions as a race on multiple levels, the mountain climbing theme is somewhat abstract. In the story, you manage three climbers, each tackling a different peak. Your goal is to help them climb as high as possible, earning points based on how far they advance.
Every player receives a board featuring pawns in three distinct colors. These pawns track your progress on the three separate peaks. It is important to note that the peaks shown on the board can be a bit misleading. To reach the summit for each color, you actually need to reach a total of 30 points for all of them, rather than the specific 10, 20, and 30 markers that might be visually suggested.
To advance your pawns in any of the three colors, you must collect, play, and trade in cards. During your turn, you are required to reveal cards from the deck. You must reveal at least one card, but you can reveal up to one more card than the number of players currently in the game. From the cards you reveal, you must take at least one. You are allowed to take more than one, but only if they all share the same color. The cards come in the three game colors and are numbered from 1 to 9. Some cards also feature axes. Any cards you do not take are offered to the other players, who may then take one card each from the remaining pile. This mechanism creates a strategic dilemma: revealing more cards increases your chances of getting what you want, but it also increases the chances of helping your opponents. If the very first card you reveal is useful to you, it is perfectly acceptable to stop revealing and simply take that single card.
Once you have claimed cards, you must play them in front of you. You can set up four columns on your board, one for each color, plus one additional column that can duplicate a color. Cards placed in the same column must be in ascending order. Cards with the identical number can be played next to each other in the same column. When you add a card to a column and that column now contains at least three cards, you can trade that column in to make progress on that specific peak. The amount of progress you make depends on the number of axes shown on the cards in that column. However, if you are ever forced to discard a column that has fewer than three cards, you suffer a penalty. Your pawn will move backward by three steps. This is a significant setback because making progress in this game is already quite difficult.
When you trade in a column to make progress, you have another option. If you fulfill one of the 12 public objectives using your column or columns, you can discard the column to gain progress based on the rewards listed on those objectives. These objectives operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Once an objective is claimed by a player, it is turned face-down and is no longer available. The objectives include requirements such as having at least four cards in a column, creating two separate columns of three cards each, having at least six cards total, or possessing at least 10 axes.
Throughout the game, you will face several dilemmas. The first is deciding how many cards to reveal on your turn. Drawing more cards can help you, but it can also benefit your opponents. Since you can only pick one color, you will often find yourself torn between two or even three colors, knowing that whatever you leave behind might become useful to someone else. Deciding when to trade in a column of cards is not always straightforward. Should you wait for one or two more cards to make even more progress? However, delaying can mean a long wait before your next opportunity, which represents an opportunity cost. Even choosing whether to take a specific card can be tough. If you already have a red 1, will you take a red 4 as your next card? Doing so means you lose the opportunity to play any more red 1s, 2s, or 3s. Despite being a relatively simple game, it presents many difficult decisions.
The end-game scoring is interesting and features a classic Knizia-style twist. You do not simply sum up your scores in the three colors. First, to be eligible to win, you must be the top scorer in at least one of the three colors. If you are not a top scorer in anything, you are immediately eliminated from contention. Among the players who remain, you then score your two other colors. This means that during the game, you must ensure you lead in one color while also performing well in the other two. If any player is doing exceptionally well, you can plot to eliminate them by denying them the top position in any color. This creates an interesting dynamic.
Karakorum is a simple yet clever game that deserves more attention. It is a title that has not been heard about very often, but it offers a unique experience for those who enjoy strategic planning and risk management.
