Saboteur 2 Review – Whoops! I Just Helped The Enemy Team Win

After reviewing Saboteur, it was only a matter of time before I turned my attention to its expansion, Saboteur 2. Not too long ago, both games were mainstays in our work lunchroom – a go-to choice for their simplicity, quick playtime, and sheer entertainment value.

The sequel shakes things up in a big way, introducing new roles, rules, and scoring opportunities that add variety to the gameplay.

What’s new in Saboteur 2?

As an expansion, Saboteur 2 reimagines nearly every aspect of the original game. You’ll shuffle new path and action cards into the draw deck, swap out the base game’s roles for an entirely new role deck, and learn fresh rules to accommodate these additions.

Breaking it down, here’s what’s included:

• 30 Path Cards: Introducing new mechanics like bridges, doors and ladders to manipulate the mine.
• 21 Action Cards: A mix of returning classics like rock falls and new tricks such as steal gold and change role.
• 15 Dwarf Cards: A variety of roles that introduce new strategies and dynamics (details below).
• 32 Gold Nugget Tokens: Replacing the gold cards from the original game.

While these additions enhance the experience, the main draw for this expansion is the new Dwarf Cards, which shake up team dynamics. Instead of simply splitting players into Dwarves and Saboteurs, Saboteur 2 introduces three distinct factions:

• Green and Blue Dwarves: Competing teams of miners. To win, a Dwarf of your team’s colour must make the final connection to the treasure. If a Dwarf from the opposing team connects the treasure, no gold for you!
• Saboteurs: Still up to their usual tricks, sabotaging paths to prevent anyone from reaching the golden nugget.

So if you’re a Blue Dwarf, you’re hoping to make that final connection yourself. Or another Blue Dwarf makes it for you. Just not those nasty Green Dwarves or Saboteurs with their rotten teeth and horrid hygiene habits… Or so I’m told.

New Roles

In addition to splitting the good dwarves into teams, Saboteur 2 introduces three unique game-changing roles:

• The Boss: Wins regardless of which Dwarf team succeeds, but collects less gold. However, if the Dwarfs succeed in reaching the gold, but both teams are blocked from reaching their treasure (and there’s no Profiteer), the Boss wins solo.
• The Profiteer: Always wins but receives two fewer gold nuggets than the winning team. If the miners fail entirely (and there are no Saboteurs), the Profiteer claims victory alone.
• The Geologist: Couldn’t care less about golden nuggets! Their goal is to collect points based on the gems on path cards, so they’ll want to extend the game as much as possible.

These roles, along with the green, blue and saboteur cards are shuffled and handed out randomly, resulting in unpredictable setups – everyone might end up as a Green Dwarf, or Saboteurs could vastly outnumber miners. While this chaos could derail other games, here it creates a dynamic, ever-changing experience. And with new action cards like steal gold and change role, even the wildest Saboteur 2 setups have clever ways to turn the tables.

An exciting, if not chaotic, card game

In the hypothetical end times, when laws no longer matter and pandemonium reigns, the streets might erupt in rioting and looting. Yet even that wouldn’t compare to the unpredictable chaos of Saboteur 2.

So if the idea of a game where winning is as much about the whims of other players as your own strategy makes you uneasy, this is your cue to exit.

Still here? Excellent.

Saboteur 2 improves on its predecessor in several ways.

It’s harder to lock players out of the game, thanks to the option to discard two cards to remove a blocking card in front of you. In the original, you could spend several turns doing nothing but begging someone to spare you – to no avail. Now you can free yourself and get back in the game – even if you do so with one last card.

Another small change in being able to discard and draw up to three cards instead of just one also makes a huge difference, giving you a better chance of finding useful options and avoiding the frustration of a bad hand.

But it’s the addition of new roles that really transforms the game. Instead of just figuring out who’s sabotaging the team, you’re constantly questioning everyone’s motives. Winning isn’t simply about Dwarves defeating Saboteurs anymore. It’s about ensuring that your specific team of Dwarves – whether Green or Blue – secures the gold.

This leads to fascinating moments of shifting allegiances.

In one game, I played as a Blue Dwarf. Someone placed a green gate, restricting access to the treasure to only Green Dwarves. With no clear path to victory, my best move was to block the tunnel entirely, stalling until the gate could be removed or a new path emerged. Strangely, this aligned me with the Saboteurs, even though I was technically a good dwarf. These kinds of twists make Saboteur 2 a much richer experience.

The expansion also introduces new tools like rockfalls, gates, and ladders that create dramatic moments where a well-timed play can crush the hopes of your opponents – or open up a brilliant new path to victory. The highs and lows these cards create make every turn an opportunity for surprises, so no two games of Saboteur 2 ever feel the same.

Practical issues with Saboteur 2

Saboteur 2 isn’t without its hiccups, chief among them being storage. With the expansion, you’re mixing two sets of action and path cards, resulting in a bloated deck that doesn’t fit neatly into either of the original game’s boxes. This forces you to split the cards between the two, turning setup into an awkward shuffle of boxes.

One particularly frustrating experience I had was forgetting to bring both boxes to a game night. Since the cards were mixed, we couldn’t play Saboteur or Saboteur 2, leaving the game group high and dry.

Thankfully, this issue is resolved in the Saboteur 20th Anniversary Edition, which consolidates everything into one box while also adding extra expansion content. If you’re new to Saboteur, this is the best version to pick up.

Another challenge with Saboteur 2 is its steeper learning curve, particularly around the Profiteer and Boss roles. These roles take a bit of explaining, especially since the cards don’t include descriptions. I’ve found myself repeatedly clarifying their mechanics during games.

The new action cards also add complexity. While they’re exciting additions, you’ll likely need to explain what they do as they come up, which can slow down the game for newcomers.

This learning curve doesn’t make Saboteur 2 inaccessible, but it does mean it’s no longer the easy, go-to party game the original was. If your group includes players new to board games, the added complexity might be a bit overwhelming, making the base game a better starting point.