Black Gold is a 2 – 5 player game in which players in West Texas are competing to drill, extract, and transport oil to markets. The object of the game is to become the wealthiest player before the Oil Baron (the black train) reaches the last space on the train track.
COMPONENTS
The components of the game are of excellent quality. The playing cards are quite small (like in Ticket to Ride) although they take up less table space and are easier to conceal (players keep their Sales License cards hidden.) In reality the small cards work well.
The plastic playing pieces (trains and trucks) are very cool!
The oil derricks and plumes are simply awesome (no wooden cubes in this game!) The plumes snap together and also snap on top of the derricks:
The money is small, thick cardboard chits (and gratefully so, paper money is hard to handle and such a drag!) I wish the money had been better color coated to differentiate the different denominations. The pastel colors are kind of tricky to differentiate if not playing under bright light.
The player reference cards are very helpful at first but not really needed later as the game is not complicated at all once you play a few rounds. We use the cards mainly as a place to hide our Sales License cards.
The rulebook is 19 pages, in color, and of excellent quality. Examples are shown for most of the steps.
GAME PLAY
The game is played in a series of eight steps. The starting player completes steps one through three; all players participate in steps four through seven, with the starting player completing step eight. The game is played until the Oil Baron (the black train) reaches the end of his track. The eight steps of the game are as follows:
1. Adjust Oil Prices
The starting player rolls the die and slides the price marker either up or down to change the oil market price. This is completed for each of the three oil companies (only two oil companies are used in a two or three player game.)
2. Draw and Choose Action Cards
The starting player draws one Special Action Card and then draws Standard Action Cards (one per each player in the game) and places them face up for all players to see. Then players choose which card they want. The remaining card either gets put back in the discard pile or goes to the Oil Baron (two player game only.)
The card on the left is the Special Action card and the card on the right is the Standard Action card. The starting player moves the black train up the track according to the number on the top of the Special Action card (in this case three steps.) Next, players observe the numbers on the cards. These numbers show the number of Sales Licenses to be received (shown next to the cards image) and the number of movements allowed for this turn (shown next to the wheel image.)
The Special Action card displays a special action at the bottom. 84
In this case the player can move all other player’s trains back four spaces. Other special actions include changing oil prices, receiving extra oil, finding an extra well, and drilling deeper. (Some of the Standard Action cards also contain a special action. In this case it does not.)
3. Deal Sales License Cards
After players choose their action card the starting player deals X number of Sales License cards to each player according to the card they picked. The Sales License cards are used for bidding in the market. The more Sales License points a player holds the more influence he or she will have in the market.
4. Prospect and Drill for Oil
Players now begin to move their trucks to find oil wells (each player owns one truck.) The number of spaces a player may move depends on the action card he chose. Some spaces on the board require multiple movement points to be spent (plains spaces require one movement, rough terrain requires two movements, and hills require three movements.)
Once a player is adjacent to a well marker, he may look at it to secretly see if the well depth is a good pay off. He may purchase the well according to the price or he may pass it by.
The well markers shown below display the well type on the front (level one, two, or three) and the depth of the well (the number of plumes received) on the back. The cost to build a level one type is $4000, a level two is $6000, and a level three is $8000. As one might guess, the payout is larger on a level three as opposed to a level one.
The level two well types are interesting. They show a special warning symbol on the front. With these wells you must buy if you look! They reward either two or five plumes. At a price of $6000, two plumes are a bad deal. Five plumes are great! 84