Ghawar, located in Saudi Arabia, is the world's biggest oil field. The players represent members of the royal family and try to locate good sites for new oil wells, find and deliver the different oil qualities and ship them to their base camps. However, the oil field is so huge that the players have to memorize where which oil quality is to be found. Moreover, the competing players are likely to interfere with the player's intentions. As for the game play, Ghawar is a pick-up-and-deliver game with a roll-and-move mechanism on top of a memory element. Oil platforms are laid out in a 6x6 square with one empty space between each pair of platforms. Players seed these platforms with 36 coloured "oil stones" with nine cubes in each of four colors by way of dice rolls. After all the oil rigs are placed, a player either rolls a die to move the truck, train, or both vehicles a number of spaces equal to the die roll or moves one of the oil rigs to an adjacent location, most likely covering an oil stone previously exposed. If a player's truck starts or ends its movement by an oil rig and doesn't already have a load, the truck's owner can lift the oil rig and buy the oil stone underneath it, paying the rig's owner the current value of the oil. When your train ends its movement by an empty platform, the train picks up the platform so that you can carry it back to your camp. The game ends once all the oil stones have been delivered. If any player has failed to collect at least one of each type of stone, that player loses the game. The player with the high score wins.

We may earn a small commission when you buy through these links.