Cutthroat Caverns was the game of choice for this week's B&B&B. Originally released in 2007 (that seems so long ago now), this was a massive part of our collection which would get played pretty much every other session.
Smirk & Dagger were lords of the backstabbing game back then and Cutthroat Caverns felt like a really nice step up from Munchkin which we'd played to death by that point. So, when returning to it, it was fascinating to see if it was going to stand up against modern games. Turns out, I had a lot of fun with it even if I did get picked on!
Semi-Cooperative Dungeon Delving
The aim of Cutthroat Caverns is that you need to fight your way through nine (or more) encounters and survive to the end of the dungeon. The person with the most prestige points at the end of the game declares themselves the greatest adventurer and wins fame and fortune.
You get prestige in a number of different ways. The most obvious way is for killing monsters which each have a prestige value printed on them. The more powerful the monster, the more prestige it awards. You'll also find yourself occasionally fighting hordes of creatures like wolves. In these cases, these smaller tokens each have their own prestige value on them and you can pick them up like terrifying candy.
The twist of the knife in Cutthroat Caverns though is that you don't get any prestige for helping someone else kill the monster. Only the person that delivers the killing blow gets to claim the bragging rights for slaughtering their foe and this is where the core of the game lies.
Cutthroat Caverns then becomes a game of balancing your attacks so that you are the one who gets to kill each creature during an encounter. The initiative (the speed at which you act) is dealt out randomly at the start of each clash against the monster so, if you're going first, you really don't want to hit it too hard or you'll end up making it easier for someone else.
Throwing all kinds of other spanners into the works you've also then got cards which can make people critically miss their strikes, force them to sit out for a round or even halve all the damage done after you've hit. There are also potions which can heal you, buff your strength, make you faster and even allow you to hold more cards in your hand.
With all this backstabbing potential you'd assume that you simply murder the person in first at every opportunity. Doing that too early could end up in everyone losing the game. Monsters have a hit point and attack value that matches the number of players who entered the dungeon so if you wipe out everyone too soon then you'll be stuck trying to beat all the creatures by yourself.
In Cutthroat Caverns you, therefore, have to balance just how evil you're going to be. Yes, you want to land the killing blows but you all have to make it through at least three-quarters of the way if you want to win. Some monsters are just terrifying too and will do insane amounts of damage. If you spend too much of your time fighting something like Hate or the Clockwork Golem you could end up dead simply by virtue of everyone being terribly petty!
Not all encounters in Cutthroat Caverns are combats either. Two of the cards (at least in the initial set) are Traps and Riddles which you have to solve. These are a nice break from the norm and they also make everyone discard their hand of cards, potentially making the playing field more even for those involved.
Revisiting A Classic
I was worried that Cutthroat Caverns wouldn't hold up after such a long time sitting there gathering dust. I was wrong. We played the game four-player and I think we had a fair amount of laughs with it, bickering with each other, stabbing each other in the back and working out how best to beat each encounter...even if I did get stiffed in our second game!
Player elimination is something I don't normally like in games but the chances of someone truly getting crushed before the end are very slim. Maybe we should have been more cutthroat (hah) during our games but each felt about right in terms of "screwing over" each other.
One thing that I think has not aged well at all is the aesthetic of the game. The artwork and general layout of the cards are pretty mismatched. This is just the game showing it's age though as back then there clearly wasn't as much money floating around the board game industry. It makes things look awkward on a revisit. The updated Anniversary Edition is much nicer looking though so maybe get that if you can.
That's more or less the only complaint I have about the game. Yes, the little gems for tracking health and such are rather irritating if you accidentally move them but generally, the core of the mechanics in Cutthroat Caverns remain solid. It certainly impressed one of the more backstabby members of our group and that's always a good sign!
I'm sure there are better games of this ilk out there nowadays but if you get the chance to play this then I'd recommend it with a larger group of between four-to-six players. I think that's where the game works best and remains suitably bloodthirsty!
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