Lascaux: Exploring Ancestral Art

  Lascaux (Mayfair Games, 2007)

Game: Lascaux

Designers: Dominique Ehrhard & Michel Lalet

Publisher: Mayfair Games

Age Range: 8 & up

Number of Players: 3-5

Game Time: 45 min.

Mechanics: Bidding/Card Collection

Complexity: 2

Challenge: 3

 

            In the process of watching the Pittsburgh Steelers get by the Arizona Cardinals in the Super Bowl, I sat down on a plush carpet in a living room full of adults and played Lascaux with two, pre-teen girls - Emily (10) and Haley (12) Gragg - who were appreciative of an alternative to watching a game in which they had virtually no interest. I positioned myself in such a way that I could watch the game, but taught them how to play and watched/participated, as they quickly caught on to the tasks and thinking necessary to engage.

            In 1940, four teenagers in southwest France came upon a cave, which upon examination revealed a series of cave paintings that were later determined to be at least 15,000 years old. Known as the Lascaux caves, and often referred to as “the prehistoric Sistine Chapel,” the paintings were of various animals, which are recreated in the 54 playing cards of the game.

Lascaux is an easy-to-learn gateway game, which introduces the mechanic of bidding. It’s engaging enough to interest newcomers and though not really complex enough to interest the serious die-hard gamer, it’s one those games that they might choose as a “warm-up game” at the start of an evening.

The object of the game is to collect the most of any (or all) of the six different types of animals (there are nine of each). To do this, up to seven cards are drawn and displayed. Each player bids for the right to claim them. While collection of animals is the point, the bidding process centers on colors. Each card features a set of hands in two different colors (among six possible colors). Cards are drawn and displayed until all six colors are available or a total of seven cards are drawn. Each player then secretly selects, from an individual stack of colored disks, which colors they wish to bid for. You might, for example, see four cards with green colored hands on display and opt to bid for that color. Once each player has selected a color, the starting player (youngest, by rule), places a single stone out as a starting bid. In turn, each player has the option of adding a stone to the pile, or passing, in which case, they remove all stones bid to that point and become the last player to claim cards. This bidding process continues until only one player remains. That player reveals the color he has chosen to bid on and collects the cards of that color. Card claiming continues in reverse order of those who opted out of the bidding process until all cards are claimed or the last player (the first to opt out of the bidding) claims his/her cards.

Cards are drawn and displayed for subsequent rounds of bidding until the deck expires, at which point players determine who has the most of each different type of animal. Only players who have the most will score points – one per animal. Ties grant points to both, or all players involved (three people with bison will each score three points; if the distribution is 4-3-2, only the player with four will score).

            It takes a while to get used to the idea that while you’re bidding on colors, your goal is card superiority in the animals. This, in turn, entails watching out for the animals already claimed and realizing how beneficial it might or might not be to bid on a given animal’s color. You don’t want to be bidding too high on an animal that one player already owns five of, since that player cannot be surpassed in terms of winning the points for that particular animal.

            Money management is key to the exercise. In a game with three or four players, each receives 12 stones. In a five-player game, each receives 10. It was interesting to watch the young girls as they first, became engaged in the fun of bidding, and then, realized that while they’d won a particular round, they didn’t have enough money to bid effectively in subsequent rounds. They learned quickly and their money management skills improved considerably through the course of the 54-card deck.

            Being much more familiar with the game, I won, but both girls were eager to try again. They would have done so, too, if I hadn’t also brought Reiner Knizia’s card game, Poison, to the Super Bowl party, as well. Having played it before, they opted to go with that instead of a Lascaux re-match.

            I’d forgotten just how much fun Lascaux was to play and in light of a previous post about the eternal search for ‘gateway games,’ it occurred to me as I played while watching the Super Bowl, that it was, indeed, a gateway game. Ask for it at your FLGS (friendly local game store).

For more info: www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30932; www.mayfairgames.com