Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Cave Pilot 55 is an 'Arcade' card-board game where 1-4 players race their sophisticated technological bat-planes through a gauntlet cave. Players jointly contribute to the construction of the cave.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Open Drafting
Select cards or items from a shared face-up display.
Modular Board
Build the play area from interchangeable sections that vary between games.
Dice Rolling
Roll dice to introduce uncertainty into actions, production, movement, or resolution.
Race
Compete to reach a destination, threshold, or objective before opponents.
Read the full game description
Cave Pilot 55 is an 'Arcade' card-board game where 1-4 players race their sophisticated technological bat-planes through a gauntlet cave. Players jointly contribute to the construction of the cave. The goal of the game is to finish alive with the most experience points gained during the race. Each turn, player's put a small part of the cave on the table, representing either the ceiling or the floor of the cave. By doing so, a long small cave is created on which different dangerous objects or animals (vampiric bat, giant centipedes, laser beams, etc) are shown. During movement the bat-planes fly either along the cave ceiling or along the cave floor until they arrive at a cave and have to encounter its horrors. The dice-fight that follows during an encounter can be won (experience points are gained) or lost, depending on the strength and equipment of the bat-plane. Players can strengthen their bat-planes by upgrading various parts of their plane (shields, short-range attack, plate armor, power, maneuverability and navigation & control), however only at specific locations in the cave. Players can not only invest their money in upgrades, they can also decide to buy long-range missiles or booster fuel. The long-range missiles can be used to shoot rivals, caves and obstructions. Booster fuel is used to outmaneuver other players by playing an extra turn or to move diagonally. Some cave locations also offer the possibility to explore the local environment, and with a bit of luck player's might find special upgrades there. Each game, the layout, the length and the difficulty of the cave is different. It is a tactical game, thrilling to the last turn, based on a few simple rules, in a steampunk sci-fi technological world, where players have to continually cope with limited resources.