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You like the look of Archaeology The New Expedition (and so you should according to my review) but you worry about learning the game? Well worry no longer, as this blog is written specifically to help you learn how to play.
Set Up
From the stack of cards remove the Maps, Thieves, Sandstorms and Tent Cards. The remainder of the cards can be shuffled into a main deck (unless playing with less than 5 players in which case you remove the Broken Pendants for 4 players and the Broken Pendants and Broken Tablets for 2 or 3 players). The deck is placed face down in the middle of the table.
From the deck deal 4 cards to each player (face down) which they take into hand. They also receive a Tent card which is left on the table. 5 cards are dealt to the market in the middle of the table face up.
For your first game use the Great Pyramid Monument (placing it above the market) and put the remainder back in the box. Next to the Great Pyramid deal a stack of 2 cards from the deck, another stack of 5 and a final stack of 8 cards all face down.
Finally shuffle into the main deck all of the Map cards and then the Thief Cards (10 for 5 players, 8 for 4 players, 6 for 3 players and 4 for 2 players) and the Sandstorm Cards (4 for 4 or 5 players, 5 for 3 players and 6 for 2 players).
You are now ready to go treasure hunting.
How To Play
The start player of Archaeology The New Expedition takes the top card of the main deck and looks at it in secret. If it is a treasure they add it to their hand. If it is a thief or sandstorm card they must reveal this to the table and carry out the action immediately.
Thief - The thief card is placed face up on the table so all players can see how many have been played then the player who drew this card can steal a card from another player (without looking at the other players cards).
Sandstorm - The sandstorm card is placed face up on the table so all players can see how many have been played and then it effects all of the players. Players then must decide if they want to play their tent card (you only have 1 for the whole game so you must use it at the most optimum time). If they do they are protected from the storm, if they don’t the storm makes them lose half of their cards in hand (rounded down). Each player that loses cards can choose which ones to lose and places them face up in the market. After the sandstorm the player who drew the card takes another turn of drawing a card from the main deck. This could cause another sandstorm and if that is the case that player will continue after the sandstorm is resolved.
After drawing an Archaeology The New Expedition card and carrying out the thief or sandstorm actions if applicable, the active player may decide to trade at the market, explore a monument, or sell to the museum.
Trading with the marketplace – You can carry out this action as many times as you want / can. This allows you to trade your cards from your hand with the cards in the market. The trade value of a card is written in the top left and right of the card. When you trade you don’t obtain change if the value of the cards you are giving is more than the value of the cards you are taking so careful planning is required.
Selling to a Museum – Once again you can carry out this action as many times as you want / can. When you sell a card / set of cards you place them face up on the table laid out next to each other and they are then worth the value written on the bottom of the cards according to how many were sold as a set. You cannot add more cards to this sold set once they are placed on the table so make sure no sets get mixed up together. Above the values is a number which indicated how many of each card is in the game, so each player needs to be able to see how many of each card has been sold. Any cards sold to the museum are protected from future sandstorms.
Exploring a monument – If you have any map cards you can use these to explore the monument. For the starting monument (Great Pyramid) you pay 1 map to gain the 2 cards stack, 2 map cards to gain the 5 card stack and 3 maps to gain the 8 card stack. Please note the map cards can also be sold to the museum for 3 points each.
End of a turn & end of game – once a player has finished their turn the next player clockwise takes a card from the main deck. When there are no cards left in the main deck play continues (without taking a card from the deck) with players trading with the marketplace, selling to the museum and exploring a monument. If players wish they can pass and when all players have passed in sequence the first player who passed must sell cards to the museum. When every player has no cards left in their hand the game is over.
Scoring
All players then calculate the value of the cards they sold to the museum and the player with the most points wins. Ties are broken by the winning player who sold the fewest cards to the museum.
Variants
The game includes 6 different monuments all with the their own rules so once you have played with the Great Pyramid a few times start playing with the others instead. Always choose 1 of them to play with and the rules for each are pretty straightforward and are briefly explained on the monuments themselves or in more details in the rule book.
There are also variants for a longer game for 2 or 3 players where you include the broken tablets and broken pendants. You also include 1 extra thief. You can also play with all the sandstorms but each player may now use their tent twice.
Conclusion
I hope this has helped you to learn the rules and how Archaeology The New Expedition plays. Obviously I would always recommend people use the official rule book to learn the rules in depth but this blog should give you a really good flavour of how the game flows.
I really enjoy the game and if you want to find me on twitter to discuss how brilliant Archaeology The New Expedition is please do @boardgamehappy.