Overview
You’re a dragon collecting treasure — coins, princes, wishing trees, and more. Steal sheep from farmers and spend them to buy treasure for your lair. Race your opponents to build the most valuable hoard while sending angry mobs and thieves to slow them down.
Featured on: Best Card Drafting Board Games
Charlene’s Review
Likes
- Stunning artwork
- Genuinely intense gameplay
- Double-sided cards — a mechanic that works brilliantly
- Zero setup time
Dislikes
- No expansion to add more players or cards
First Impressions
Just looking at Dragon’s Hoard leaves me mesmerized. The artwork is captivating — you immediately feel immersed in the dragon theme. The sheep come in five colours (yellow, red, purple, blue, orange), each with distinct shapes to accommodate colour-blind players. I’ve played this game many times and still find myself admiring the cards.
The theme is strong, the games move at a great pace, and it’s easy to teach. A standout.
Thoughts
The double-sided card mechanic is the game’s best feature. Each card has sheep on one side and a treasure, lair, or action card on the other. Only you can see your own treasure side — other players see your sheep. This means you’re constantly managing two sets of information: the sheep you need to buy treasure, and the treasure value of those sheep if you haven’t spent them.
This creates real tension. You might finally have enough red sheep to buy that 8-point treasure — but one of those red sheep has a unicorn action card on its back that could protect you later. Do you spend it now or hold on?
Other players can see your sheep colour counts. If I’m collecting red sheep and I see my neighbour has several red cards, I might play a thief to steal two of them. You can also bluff — hold onto a low-value card to make others think it’s valuable. Watch them waste a thief card stealing it. This is quietly one of the most satisfying moments in the game.
Lair cards reward focus. You score bonus points for collecting 2, 3, or 4 treasures of the same colour. With 2 players, you can commit to a colour strategy. With 3–4, you often have to compromise and grab lower-value cards just to score something.
Two viable strategic approaches: go heads-down collecting your colours, or study what your opponents need and deny it to them. The second approach usually generates more conflict — and more entertainment.
Conclusion
Dragon’s Hoard is one of my all-time favourites. Beautiful, fast, and surprisingly strategic for a card game. Pull it out when you want something with no setup and an intense card-drafting experience. The Kickstarter English edition and a later German version both exist; an updated English version with tarot-sized cards was announced. If you can find a copy — grab it.
