As I may have mentioned before, I have a fairly good board game collection. This week I've decided to feature a game from my childhood, King Oil.
King Oil is a game that features a semi-3D game board. The board is flat, but UNDER the board is an ever changing system of peaks and valleys. This is important because the main point of the game is to discover oil by "drilling" with the rig. It's rather brilliant, really.
Let's take a look, shall we?
Milton Bradley often put a quick rundown of the goal of the game on the inside of the lid.
The point here is that you buy property, drill for oil, link properties with piplines, collect royalties and eventually drive the other players into bankruptcy. Nice! The game owes a lot to Monopoly, but has enough twists to make it have its own identity.
Here are the rules...
It's really a pretty straight forward game, with a really good balance of luck and skill involved. It's no wonder that this game is fondly remembered by many Boomers and commands some respectable prices in the secondary market.
Jed Clampett would be proud!
Until next time, keep searching for treasure!
This looks like a fun game! It seems vaguely familiar, but I know that I never played it. Perhaps I saw it on the shelf of a toy store, or department store....or maybe even in the Sears catalog!
ReplyDeleteThey could have reissued this in the eighties, and put Larry Hagman's image on the box! After paying him royalties, of course.
- TokyoMagic!
I actually looked to make sure it wasn't a tie in, lol! But yeah, the dates are wrong. Had they re-released it they could have worked in a mystery part about shooting JR! Brilliant!
DeleteOk, maybe not...
Wow, how cool! I love when board games have some unpredictable element. Buddy on the cover looks like a composite of the Maverick brothers.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a tough line to toe between chance and skill, but classic games tend to get it right!
DeleteI haven't thought of Maverick in quite a while, but you're right!