Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (board game)

Lore & Background

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb was designed by Stephen Hand, with interior art by Dave Andrews and Gary Chalk, cover art by James Warhola, and metal miniatures designed by Trish and Aly Morrison. The game includes four characters—Marlow Hammett, Rev Luther Kirkegard, Professor Nayland Cushing, and Lieutenant-General The Earl of Carmarthen—each with seven attributes and four lives. The Mummy miniature is from Citadel's 'Night Horrors' line, while the character miniatures were designed specifically for this game.

Gameplay involves moving the Mummy each turn via secret bidding, then players choosing to pass, heal, or move. Encounters include Hazards, Creatures, and Discoveries, resolved through attribute tests or combat. Victory requires entering the Chamber of Osiris with the Key of Osiris and passing three attribute tests. The game can be played solitaire with modified rules.

Reader's Guide

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb represents the end of an era for Games Workshop, as the company moved away from board games and role-playing games to focus on Warhammer 40K. The game is notable for its three-dimensional pyramid board and metal miniatures, reflecting the company's miniature-gaming roots. Reception was mixed: Robin Hogg in The Games Machine found it entertaining but criticized the anticlimactic victory condition and potential for stalled games. Matt Thrower called it 'lackluster,' while Chris Pennsauken rated it 3.5 out of 5, praising replayability but noting flimsy components and pacing issues. The game's reliance on player interaction through movement cards and Mummy bidding creates a chaotic, often frustrating experience. Its legacy is as a niche title that highlights Games Workshop's brief foray into pulp adventure board games before their focus shifted entirely to miniatures wargaming.

Did You Know?

• The game was not the last traditional board game published by Games Workshop before the company turned to Warhammer 40K products; Games Workshop continued to release other traditional board games after 1987, such as 'Her
• The four character miniatures were designed specifically for this game, while the Mummy is from the 'Night Horrors' line.
• The Mummy's movement is determined by secret bidding of Tana Leaves, with ties resulting in no movement.

The Pyramid and Its Perils

The game's most striking physical feature is its three-dimensional snap-together pyramid board, representing the Pyramid of Khonsu. Unlike flat tabletop games, this structure has two consecutively smaller playing areas stacked above the bottom board, creating a vertical climbing experience. Players must navigate upward through this structure, dealing with traps, hostile creatures, and treasures scattered across the spaces. The game supports one to four players, each commanding an adventurer who races toward the Chamber of Osiris at the summit. The turn structure is distinctive: every round begins with the Mummy being moved via a secret bidding system using Tana Leaf currency, before players choose between passing to gain resources, healing to recover lost lives, or moving their character through the pyramid. After movement, players face encounters determined by numbers printed on board spaces, playing Hazard, Creature, or Discovery cards from their hands. The whole system creates a tense, multi-layered race against both the environment and the ever-present threat of the Mummy.

The Adventurers and Their Miniatures

Each player selects from four distinct adventurers, each with seven attributes—Cunning, Dexterity, Egyptology, Fortune, Speed, Strength, and Will—that determine how they fare against the pyramid's dangers. The roster includes Marlow Hammett, a hard-boiled private eye; Rev Luther Kirkegard, a religious cleric; Professor Nayland Cushing, an explorer; and Lieutenant-General The Earl of Carmarthen, a soldier. Each character carries four lives, and losing all of them eliminates the player from the game. The physical representation of these characters is notable: all five miniatures (the four adventurers plus the Mummy) are 25 mm metal figures sourced from Citadel Miniatures' product lines. The adventurers come from the Gothic Horror range, while the Mummy is drawn from the Night Horrors line. Both sets were designed by Trish and Aly Morrison, giving the game a cohesive sculptural identity that elevated it above typical cardboard-token board games of the era.

A Farewell to the Board Game Era

Curse of the Mummy's Tomb arrived in 1988 as Games Workshop's final traditional board game, designed by Stephen Hand with interior art by Dave Andrews and Gary Chalk and cover art by James Warhola. Its release marked a pivotal moment in the company's history: it was published just as Games Workshop began shifting its focus away from role-playing games and board games to concentrate on Warhammer 40K products. In other words, this Egyptian-themed adventure was the curtain-closer for an entire era of the company's output. The game was not left without follow-up, however. Issue 102 of White Dwarf magazine introduced four additional characters with their own attribute profiles, and these were later packaged with four new Citadel miniatures in the expansion Curse of the Mummy's Tomb: In Search of Eternity, also released in 1988. The expansion extended the core experience while reinforcing the game's connection to Games Workshop's broader miniature and gaming community.

The Mummy and the Elixir

The Mummy is the game's most dramatic antagonist, and its movement mechanic is unlike anything in typical board games. At the start of every round, players secretly bid any number of their Tana Leaf counters, and the highest bidder gets to move the Mummy one space from its starting position on the bottom board. A tie means the Mummy stays put. If the Mummy lands on a player's character, the controlling player decides whether to deal damage or steal a Discovery before the Mummy returns to a starting location. Victory itself is multi-layered: a player must first find the special Key of Osiris, then access the Chamber of Osiris from specific locations on the top tier, and finally pass three character-specific attribute tests. Failure on the first attempt allows a retry the following turn, and multiple characters can be in the chamber simultaneously without the ability to interfere with one another. A solo mode also exists, with the Mummy driven by die rolls instead of bidding.