The game is played in a series of short rounds during which players receive
their income and spend it on purchasing and hiring different equipment to
aid their sightings of the monster. Once the players have placed their
equipment on the loch, the position of the monster is determined and any
sightings are rewarded with the appropriate evidence cards.
There are six ways of gathering evidence, each of which incurs a specific
cost to buy and to run, and each of which is represented by a transparency
with its own unique shape. The different types are: eye witness,
surface camera, underwater camera, sonar, biological unit and cage.
Only one piece of equipment can be purchased each turn and running costs are
paid on those obtained in previous rounds.
Players then place their new piece of equipment onto the loch, attempting
to cover as many hexes as possible. All transparencies except biological
units and cages must have one point touching the shore and great care is needed
in determining their placement. Transparencies may overlap, but only if they
are the same colour.
Each player now throws the die and moves their expedition leader around
their particular track on the board. If in doing so they land on a square
marked with an asterisk, they must take the next `logistic card' from the
deck and act upon it. These mainly bring benefit to the player in the form
of bonus payments, but some provide the chance for a gamble of money and
equipment and others are quite disasterous. When all players have moved their
expedition leader and taken any logistic cards, the position of the monster
is determined by the character of the squares that the leaders now occupy.
These are in the form of upper case letters, lower case letters and numerals
and they combine to give a reference for the current sighting of the monster.
The monster's head and neck is placed in the referenced hex and a `submerged
monster' outline is placed in the surrounding hexes, provided they are still
within the area of the loch.
Players then claim their appropriate evidence cards if their transparencies
cover the hexes just determined. Eye witness and surface cameras can only
claim cards if they match the head and neck outline, whereas other pieces
of equipment can claim both types of sighting. On receiving their cards each
player is encouraged to read it out aloud, as some of them are quite amusing.
The cards contain information about a real (or imagined) sighting and are of
interesting scientific content, many containing pictures in colour of the
evidence. Players keep the cards in front of them for later play and the
game then continues with the next lot of income and the placing of
transparencies..
Whilst the above description seems a little dry, I can assure readers that it
really is good fun trying to predict where the monster will appear. By
studying the current position of the expedition leaders on their turn tracks
you can guess where the next sighting may occur and place your next
transparency to cover as many of the likely hexes as possible. You cannot
place all your equipment at once as the running costs would be too high, so
that is where the resource management comes in.
Nessie Hunt provides an interesting diversion for about two hours if treated
in a light-hearted manner. It is suitable for older children who have an
interest in scientific matters, or for homesick Scots. The game was developed
by Searchglen in 1986 and so it may not be readily available, but I `made a
sighting' in Westgate Games about two years ago and they may still have copies.
Also, Games Corner have had it for sale within the last year, so any reader
interested in obtaining the game could start their search there.
Mike Oakes