Archeology - The New Expedition is a fun card game on the less complex end of the gaming spectrum, but with enough meat to make it rather interesting. In summary, you collect sets of treasure cards in order to sell them to museums. The more of a type of treasure you sell, the more money you get, and some treasure types are worth almost nothing unless you have several to sell. There are also map treasures which have an additional power - more on that later.
To help players with their set-collecting, there's a market of five cards on the table at the start of the game, and you can trade cards in and out of the market, priced according to trading values printed on them. On your turn, without revealing it to the others, you take (dig! :-) ) a card from the deck and look at it. If it's a treasure, you add it to your hand. If it's a thief, you show it, and steal a random card from someone else. If it's a sandstorm...bad news: you show it, and then *everyone* (including you) discards to the market half their hand, rounded down. You can - only once during the game - discard a special tent card you receive at the start, to protect your hand from a sandstorm.
After the digging, you may trade with the market, sell cards to the museum (place them in a set in front of you for scoring at the end), or explore one of the hidden chambers of the monument, one of six possible special buildings that is randomly selected during setup. To explore it, you surrender a certain number of map cards, and receive treasure cards from one of the chambers. The monuments' benefits are all different: with a couple, you just take a pile of cards dealt at the start. A couple have a push-your-luck element, one accrues cards as the game goes on, one lets you peek at its chambers when you sell to a museum....it all depends, but you'll only have one per game.
It chugged along nicely, each player's turn is quick but involves some fun decisions: I've got a few pot shards, I should keep collecting for a big score...but what if there's a sandstorm? I have a pharaoh's mask, but I need another, and I only have a couple of cards...should I wait to see if I can get it from the market...but what if someone thieves it from me...? I enjoyed it a lot: it's simple to teach, doesn't outstay its welcome, and scales well across all player counts.
| Model Number | ZM1280 |
|---|---|
| Number of Game Players | 5 |
| Number of Pieces | 113 |
| Assembly Required | No |
| Batteries Required? | No |
| Batteries Included? | No |
| Remote Control Included? | No |
| Release date | 17 February 2016 |
| Mfg Recommended age | 10 - 99 years |
| Item Model Number | ZM1280 |
| Product Dimensions | 4.06 x 11.94 x 16 cm; 226.8 Grams |
| ASIN | B01AI8P4B8 |
