Yeti (Alderac Entertainment Group)

In the game of Yeti, you and your opponents are mountaineers in the Himalayas searching for the elusive Yeti. In order to find the Yeti, you must follow his footprints and take photos of it. However, you will need the right equipment, the help of a Sherpa or two, and the weather to be just right to achieve this. The game plays 2-5 players, ages 8+. It takes 20-40 minutes to play and retails for approximately $30.

Setup
1. Assemble the mountain and the two-part game board.
2. Place the Photo Track next to the game board.
3. Sort the Equipment Tiles by value and place them next to the Photo Track.
4. Give each player an Actions Overview Card, as well as a Base Camp, Mountaineer, and Victory Point Marker of the same color. Have everyone pick a unique spot on the board to place their Base Camp and Mountaineer.
5. Place the Victory Point Marker of all players on space 0 of the Victory Point Track, and place the Yeti on space 50 of the Victory Point Track.
6.  Stack up a number of Peak Tiles on top of the mountain in descending order. (Note: If playing with two, use the 8 and 6 point tiles. If playing with 5, use the 8, 6, 4, 3, and 2 point tiles.)
7. Randomly determine the starting player and give him the seven dice. If playing with two players, the starting player gives one die to the other player to use on his first turn. If playing with 3-5 players, in clockwise order, players two and three each receive one die to use on their first turn.

Game Play
1. Roll your dice
2. Set aside all dice that show Snow, if any.
3. If you did not roll Snow, you must set aside all dice of exactly one type (Coins, Sherpa, Footprints, or Tents). If you did roll Snow, you may opt to set aside all dice of exactly one type in addition to the Snow you set aside earlier. (Note: You may set aside the same type of dice on subsequent rolls.)
4. Repeat steps 1-3 until all your dice have been set aside.
5. Evaluate and resolve your dice according to the Actions Overview Card.

Review
Yeti is a simple "press your luck" game that is great for the family. The setup is super-easy and the rules/game play are even easier. What I like best about the game is that it involves dice, and that helps to engage people, especially kids and casual gamers. There is also a way to spice up the game with Weather Tiles that will appeal to more serious gamers. What I like least about the game is the bit of downtime involved, especially with more players. Each player is going to make a lot of dice rolls each turn and you can space out on this, because nothing is happening to you for 3-4 turns depending on how many other players there are. That being said, I feel that you need to play this game with more than two players, because it adds a bit more racing to this game and there are more opportunities for snow to hamper other players. I also noticed that the dice show footprints on two of the six sides. I think it should have been snow instead, because it seemed in the few games that I played, the Yeti did not move nearly enough. With all that in mind, this is a fun family game that could have just been a set of seven dice. Instead they made a 3-D game board, with lots of wood and cardboard. This helps add to the theme of the game and makes it better than other similar games.

This game was provided to me for free by Alderac Entertainment Group in exchange for an honest review.