The strongest man, the longest sigar, the most beautiful woman, the highest mountain. Stop! Is the second highest mountain alright with you? The K2, for instance? Because it never was subdued in winter, the mountain stays a challenge for climbers who despise death and therefore usually get the worst for it.
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In front of the players is the K2 where they have a try with their two climbers. Inexperienced climbers will start off in the summer, but experienced players turn the board and start right away under winter conditions. With knowledge of the expected weather players each turn decide how fast they want to climb or descend. And of course the path to the summit cannot be walked whistling!
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Each mountain field costs climbing power to enter and apart from this, it takes away energy from the condition. The condition of the two player tokens is represented on a separate player board; at the start of the game they both are marked at a meager ‘1’.
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The climbing costs for each mountain field are stated on each field, and also if it takes away energy from the condition of the climber that ends his movement there.
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In order to pay for the climbing costs each player has been dealt an identical set of cards, but the cards must be shuffled and only six cards may be taken blind on the players hand. From these six, each player chooses three he wants to play in that round. After simultaneously revealing the cards a players hand is refilled until the deck is depleted and he has only three cards in his hand. These three must be played first before he can reshuffle his deck and start again with six cards. Not always the desired climbing cards are drawn, and so it can happen that a climber cannot reach a position because it costs too much climbing power.
Among the cards are condition cards; these are used to soften the effects of the weather or the higher positions, or just make it possible to progress on the condition track.
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At the edge of the gameboard the weather forecast cards are placed. This way the climbers are able to look ahead at the coming weather six to three rounds and act accordingly. Will it become cloudy, or will the sun shine? Does each mountain field cost additional climbing power? Will it cost additional energy to any of the climbers at the end of the round?
The weather conditions do not always have an effect on all heights; the weather cards graphically -but tiny- show from or between which heigths the condition has an effect on.
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Below 6000 meter, including the base camp, most mountain fields have conditions that a climber gets a better condition from. When a climber ends his move on such a field, his condition improves by one on the condition track. But from 6000 meter and higher, a climber must deal with the accumulated condition or that he gets assigned by means of condition cards.
A third way to improve the condition is ending a move in a tent. Each climber has one that he has to place first. Apart from the climbers own climbing costs, the cost for placing a tent is the same -but additional- as for the climber itself with the additional advantage that the tent may accommodate both climbers.
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The start player position is not unimportant, moreover because a mountain field allows only a limited number of climbers –but passing through is allowed. This forces players to reach a particular mountain field first and as quick as possible, but to brake the effect of this somewhat a small sanction has been incorporated: next to the board are three blindly drawn chits, with possible values from nil to two. The player who has played the highest value of climbing cards must take one of the number chits that limit the movement of a climber or worsen his condition -whereby the nil chit of course will be taken laughing.
When the condition of a climber becomes less than ‘1’, the climber token is removed from the mountain area and its score reduced to ‘1’ -gambled and los!.
From a certain height on, players score for climbers that reach a new position, where the new and higher score for hat climber is marked in a sideline. A climber that reached a tied position first has the edge when scores are tied at the end of the game. After eighteen rounds the game ends and from the total score of both climbers a winner is determined.
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For those players who want to play a game with a fitting and fresh theme once again, far away from castles and trains, this game is a relief. Too often the introduction text of a game invites us to take the role of a, say, nobleman, but subsequently the whole game we are busy shuffling cardboard chits from left to right, with this nobleman not to be met on any market or Landtag whatsoever.
So, ‘K2’ has a very original and fitting theme, which however does not immediately invites to get played -‘Whot, do I have to climb? I don’t like mountains, and besides, I’m catching a cold from it!’- but because of the transparent and simple rules quickly fascinates. ‘Just a bit higher; it’ll be soon and then I’m there, the weather still is good...’
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Till disaster strikes: the condition cards do not come ‘in time’ or an other player blocks the wanted position and the player token tumbles all the way down on the score, the result of the metaphorical passing away of the player token. This might seem a bit sinister, but no difference from the cleaning up of armies in Risk -don’t think about it, just continue! There’s still that second climber! But a second token is not capable of making up for the loss of points. Besides that, when this occurs the game probably is towards its end and players who were more cautious or lucky and have both of their tokens in the higher regions of the mountein determine among themselves who will win.
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It is not unimportant to remember which cards have been played; it may sound like forcing an open door but anyway: it is useless to wait for a certain climb or condition card when this card has already been played before. This makes ‘K2’ even more a card management game than one would think. Especially when a player is able to remember the cards other players have played, guessing what a player will or can do is less guesswork after all.
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The chance of getting blocked at the higher positions remains high though, especially after the middle of the game when it is a to and fro to the top of all kinds of climbers who cleverly make use of the cards that enable climbing and descending in one turn.
Because the limitations to enter a mountain field are adjusted to the amount of participating players, the game still stands and is exciting with two players.
The author is a bit reckless by sending eight year old kids to the summit; it's like flying: the take off and ascending is relatively easy, but it is the landing that distinguishes the expert from the rookie. An age of 10 or even 12 therefore would be more appropriate.
