Archaeology: The New Expedition

Archaeology: The New ExpeditionDo you fancy yourself as the new Howard Carter? Are you a wannabe archaeologist extraordinaire, dreaming of waltzing around Egypt? Then Archaeology: The New Expedition is the card game for you! Archaeology: The New Expedition is a set collection game by Phil Walker Harding. Hes the designer behind popular family weight games such as Imhotep, Cacao, Sushi Go! and Gingerbread House, to name but a few. Archaeology: The New Expedition is among good

Do you fancy yourself as the new Howard Carter? Are you a wannabe archaeologist extraordinaire, dreaming of waltzing around Egypt? Then Archaeology: The New Expedition is the card game for you!

Archaeology: The New Expedition is a set collection game by Phil Walker-Harding. He’s the designer behind popular family-weight games such as Imhotep, Cacao, Sushi Go! and Gingerbread House, to name but a few. Archaeology: The New Expedition is among good company with those games. It’s light in tone, but has a pleasant amount of strategy to keep players coming back for more.

There’s an element of push-your-luck at play, here. Players compete to collect ancient artifacts, priceless parchments and forgotten relics. Some are rarer than others, so different sets are worth more points if you’ve collected them at the end.

There’s an element of hand management, because each turn a player draws a treasure card from the deck. They can either sell to the museum (play a matching set of trinkets down in front of them). Or, they can trade treasures (placing one or matching cards to a public ‘market’ and swapping them for treasures of equal value). The third option is if they have maps, they can cash them in to locate the Monument. What bonus treasures await among the hidden stashes, there?

The risk is that archaeology in the desert is a dangerous and cutthroat business! Scoundrel thieves are out to steal your prized possessions. Deadly sandstorms could appear at any moment, sucking half of your hand’s worth of treasure to the dunes. These cards sit within the treasure deck too, so it’s no good hoarding your cards for too long. You only have one Tent Card for protection. When should you cash that in? When is the best time to sell to the museum?

Archaeology: The New Expedition comes with six Monuments. Each offers six different ways to play, offering great variability. Given that games last less than 30 minutes, Archaeology: The New Expedition is an excellent ‘filler’ card game!

Player Count: 2-5 players
Time: 20 minutes
Age: 10+