I love it when a board game gets a catchy title.

And that’s exactly what I thought when I heard about Mountains out of Molehills by The Op. My mind immediately started thinking about the possibilities.

Then I saw the box art, the cute mole characters, and the sweet looking 3D game space where the game box is actually part of the game play area and I totally wanted to play it!

The big question was if the game play would live up to what visually looked like such a fun family board game.

We’re happy to report that it does!

 

How to play Mountains out of Molehills

In Mountains out of Molehills, players take on the roles of moles competing in a Mountain Maker tournament. Players move their moles on the underground board and then build up their mountains above ground correspondingly. The goal is to score the most points based on what they’ve built and the mountains they control.

To set up the game, players put the Underground board in the bottom of the game box and place the 4 support pieces in the corners. Then they place the Aboveground board on top of the supports. Each player chooses a mole and takes the molehill pieces of their color. In turn order, based on the King of the Hill tokens, players place their mole on a corner of the underground board, facing the direction of their choosing. They place one of their molehill piece above their mole and the game is ready to begin!

The game is played over 6 rounds with each round consisting of 3 phases:

1. Card Drafting
2. Planning & Movement
3. Scoring / End of Round

Card Drafting

At the beginning of a round, players draw and set out 5 face up movement cards per player to form the card drafting area. Starting with the first player and proceeding in player order, players take turns selecting 1 card from the draft area and adding it to their hand.

The movement cards include options such as moving forward 1, 2, or 3 spaces, turning left or right, making a U-turn, placing the stone, and toppling a mountain.

Once each player has selected 4 cards for their hand, the remaining movement cards are discarded and play continues with the next phase.

 

Planning & Movement

Once everyone has drafted their 4 movement cards, players simultaneously choose the order in which they’ll play their 4 cards. To do so, they stack them face down on the table in front of them. Once everyone has chosen their order and stacked their cards, the moles are ready to move.

In turn order, a player reveals the top card in their stack and moves their mole accordingly.

When players move their mole underground to a new space, they place a molehill piece of their color in the corresponding space above ground. If there’s already a molehill piece (or many) above them, they add their piece to the bottom of that stack (as they push more ground up below the growing mountain). If they only turn their mole, they don’t place a molehill piece.

As moles are polite, if they bump into another mole, they stop and additional forward movement is ignored. Likewise, if they run to the edge of the board, they forfeit any additional forward movement.

If they bump into the rock, they become disoriented. They replace the 1 movement into that space by instead turning their mole in the direction shown on the top of the rock die (left, right, or U-turn). Any additional movement is carried out in that new direction.

Mountains have a limit to their height that corresponds to the current round (indicated on the score pad). When a mountain would exceed that height, it will topple. Likewise, when a player plays a “topple” movement card, they can choose one mountain to topple.

The player chooses the direction to topple the mountain and spread the molehill pieces, one piece per space, in that direction, starting from the bottom molehill in the mountain and working towards the top. This may also trigger additional topples depending on the height of the mountains those pieces land on.

 

Scoring / End of Round

At the end of each round, players add up their points.

Players earn 1 point for every molehill piece in the mountains they control. Control of a mountain is based on the color at the base of each mountain.

After scoring the round, players select turn order for the following round. The player with the most molehill pieces on the top of mountains gets to choose their turn order first, followed by the player with the second most, etc. When choosing the King of the Hill tokens, the player can choose any remaining token. For example, if the first person to choose wants to take the #3 position for the next round, they can do so.

All mountains above ground remain in place (to continue growing over the following rounds), players discard their used movement cards, and then a new round begins.

After the 6th round, players total up all their points from the 6 rounds and the player with the most points is dubbed the Top Tunneler and wins the game!

 

Can the whole family enjoy Mountains out of Molehills?

Like almost every board game by The Op, Mountains out of Molehills is a great family board game.

Since it’s a light strategy board game, it’s also best suited, like listed on the box, for those 9 and above. That’s mostly due to the drafting and programming aspects of the game. And that’s also what makes the game shine!

We love the programmed movement – it reminds us a lot of another favorite family board game, Robo Rally. In that game, players pre-program the movements of their robots from their hand of cards each round and then see what happens.

One of the big differences in Mountains out of Molehills though is the card drafting at the start of each round. Because of the card draft, players will know which cards their opponents have in their hands. In this way, they’ll have an idea of what they might do with their cards.

So when planning your own movements, you may have an idea of which moles may block you or try to thwart your plans. And you can plan accordingly.

Players need to keep track of what’s happening both below and above ground every turn.

We also like that in each round players only have 4 cards to program. So if someone does mess up your movements, it isn’t too long before you have a chance to get back on track.

The theme is also a perfect fit for this game!

Having an Underground and Aboveground board is fantastic. The aboveground board is set at a good height so it’s easy to maneuver your moles on the underground board even if you have big hands.

And it just makes sense that as the moles move around below, that they’ll push the ground up above them.

It’s fun to add your molehill pieces to the bottoms of the mountain stacks. And the rubber type material that the pieces are made out of fit perfectly together. They aren’t hard plastic pieces that you need to worry about tipping over. Instead, they’re very form-fitting. So when placed on top of each other, they stay put.

There’s also a great balance of luck and strategy.

The luck comes into play at the start of each round with which cards are set out in the draft. And the strategy comes into play with which cards you choose, which order you choose to play them in, and in jockeying for the right spots in turn order.

It’s cool that points are based on who controls the mountains (bottom piece) yet the turn order selection is done by which pieces are on the tops of the mountains. It’s a nice interplay to keep things in check and balance the opportunities for all players.

And of course, we absolutely love how the game play area is integrated with the game box itself and towers on the table. It’s both a joy to behold and to play.

 

How does Mountains out of Molehills score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Mountains out of Molehills scores very well on our “let’s play again” game meter because of the fun theme and game play. While we may not play multiple games back to back because each game lasts around 45 minutes, it is a board game we’ll pull out when we want a fun programmed-movement strategy game to play.

If you’re looking for a light strategy game with a fun theme that can also introduce your kids to programmed movements, we highly recommend Mountains out of Molehills.

We’d like to thank The Op for a review copy of Mountains out of Molehills.