- BGG rating
- 7.6
In the Hall of the Mountain King: Champions Mini-Expansion
- 1–5 players
- 90 min
- Complexity 2.7/5
- 2019
- BGG rank
- BGG #717
- BGG rating
- 7.5
In the Hall of the Mountain King
2019
Rules assistance for In the Hall of the Mountain King
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 2–5 players
- 90 min
- 12+
- Complexity 2.9/5
For 2 players
Rules assistant for In the Hall of the Mountain King
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
In the Hall of the Mountain King is a board game released in 2019 for 2–5 players, 90 minutes per game, and ages 12 and up. It was designed by Jay Cormier and Graeme Jahns and its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Network and Route Building, and Team-Based Game.
Expansions
- BGG rating
- 7.1
In the Hall of the Mountain King: Cursed Mountain
- 1–5 players
- Complexity 2.8/5
- 2019
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About the game
Play as trolls rebuilding your abandoned kingdom under the mountain in In the Hall of the Mountain King. With muscle and magic, you'll unearth riches, dig out collapsed tunnels, and carve out great halls as you raise the toppled statues of your ancestors to their places of honor at the heart of the mountain. Gameplay is driven by the innovative cascading production system. Timing and tactics are key as you work to restore your home to its former glory and win the crown! Working on the same game board with the other players (but beginning at your own entrance), you'll dig a competing network of tunnels by spending increasingly valuable materials to lay polyomino tiles onto the map. You want to extend your tunnels to connect with buried gold and materials, with workshop locations that can transform resources, and especially with toppled statues. Statues are key to scoring, and you'll spend carts to move them through the tunnels to prime scoring locations near the heart of the mountain. A major aspect of the game is the cascading production. You begin with a line of four trolls, and every troll shows the combination of resources — gold, stone, iron, marble, carts, runes, and hammers — that it produces. When a new troll is hired, place it above two other trolls, forming a "pyramid". The new troll activates, gaining its resources, and any trolls beneath it ALSO activate, gaining any resources that they have room to carry. In this way as you hire more trolls, you gain bigger and bigger windfalls of resources as the end of the game nears. The timing of your hiring turns versus your building turns is important as you try to maximize your cascades while making sure you get the trolls you want from the shared market and also stay competitive on the map. The game ends shortly after the last player hires their sixth troll, then the player with the most honor (earned for digging tunnels of increasing quality, for excavating great halls, and for moving statues closer to the heart of the mountain, especially onto matching pedestals) is crowned the Mountain King and wins!
Categories
Designers
Publishers
- Galakta
- Gen-X Games (GenX)
- IELLO
- Skellig Games
- リゴレ (rigoler)
- Burnt Island Games
Questions and answers
In the Hall of the Mountain King supports 2–5 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for In the Hall of the Mountain King is 90 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists In the Hall of the Mountain King for ages 12 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
In the Hall of the Mountain King has a complexity rating of 2.9 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
In the Hall of the Mountain King belongs to these categories: Fantasy and Territory Building. Its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Network and Route Building, and Team-Based Game. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of In the Hall of the Mountain King are: Jay Cormier and Graeme Jahns. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists In the Hall of the Mountain King as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.