Archaeology Review: work on dig sites and locate valuable artifacts!

Many things can happen when Digging, which is nothing more than taking a card from the dig site deck, and you could end up with a treasure or a map card in your hand - which, by the way, has no card limit - but very troublesome cards can also appear, such as a thief or a sandstorm.

In the specific case of a thief card appearing at the dig site, the player who removed the card will use it to steal a random treasure card from another player's hand, but without looking at it.

After that, the thief card is discarded. Obviously, if no opponent has any cards in their hands, nothing can be stolen and the thief's card is simply discarded.

If a sandstorm arrives, it hits all players, causing them to lose some of their treasures.

This is how it works: each player must discard half of their cards, rounded down, starting with the player who drew the sandstorm card, and proceed clockwise around the table. Players can choose which cards they'll discard.

The lost cards now belong to the marketplace and are therefore placed face up in the middle of the table. When all players finish discarding, the player who drew the sandstorm card restarts their turn, digging again for treasure.

The idea of the card is that, after the sandstorm has passed and swept half of our treasures that were in our excavation (our hand), these treasures are soon reclaimed from the desert by local merchants and will therefore end up on the marketplace.

The optional actions, all very useful, are crucial for the game to progress. Trades in the marketplace allow you to have rare artifacts in your hand that can be sold to the museum for a very good profit.

The trading is very simple and entirely based on the values ​​of the cards, for example: if you have a card with a value of 2, you can exchange it for another one with a value of 2, or for two cards with a value of 1 each, and so on.

Exploring the pyramid in search of more treasures is another interesting optional action, and for this you'll need a map card. It can be used to access the burial chambers or simply be sold in the museum as an artifact.

If you choose to access the burial chambers, depending on the number of map parts you have, you will be able to access increasingly larger chambers.

The pyramid has 3 chambers that can be explored:

It's certainly worth it, as they can contain treasures that'll help you complete your collection.

Selling treasures to the museum, by the way, is extremely important. This is the only way to guarantee your score and avoid the turmoils of the thieves or the sandstorm - after all, in the museum, the artifacts will be safe.

In practice the mechanic is quite simple, you have the artifact cards in your hand, which means they are in your dig site, unprotected, in danger of theft and sandstorms, but you hoard them in order to gather a minimum and satisfactory number to sell to the museum and thus guarantee your points. The goal, in the end, is to achieve the famous complete set.

Of course, the more cards of a certain artifact you have in your hand, the more points you will earn when you sell to the museum. That is the "catch" of the game, if you keep many artifact cards in your hand before selling, you risk a thief or sandstorm taking them away. It's a dilemma!

Once that's done, it's the other player's turn!

Ending the Game

Once there are no more cards in the dig site deck, the game continues, but players do not dig for treasure at the start of their turn. From this point on, a player can choose to pass and take no action on their turn. If all players pass in sequence, the first player to pass must sell at least 1 of their cards to the museum when they get their turn back.

When all players run out of treasure cards in their hand, which means, all cards in their hands have been sold to the museum, the game ends.

Each player adds up the total value of what they sold to the museum during the game. The sales value of each set of treasures is calculated separately. These values ​​are then added together and the player with the highest total wins.

In case of a tie, the tied players count the total number of treasure cards they sold to the museum. Whoever has the lowest total is the winner.

Strategy Tips

Despite the simplicity of the rules, Archaeology welcomes strategic plays. The artifact, map, thief, and sandstorm cards provide valuable information for this.

Each artifact card displays its market value and profit in the set collection, but also indicates how many copies there are in the game. This helps to estimate the availability of cards, even if you're not completely sure how many could be left.

Thief cards are six in total, and are removed after being used, so they can be accounted for by attentive players.

Sandstorms vary depending on the number of players:

- 2 players: 6 cards

- 3 players: 5 cards

- 4 players: 4 cards

They are also discarded after use and can be checked at any time.

Maps are essential to access the three burial chambers of the pyramid, with exactly six cards in the game. If a player sells them to the museum, some chambers may become inaccessible. As discarded maps can also be checked, this facilitates strategic planning.

Each sale of artifacts to the museum is final, with no possibility of adding more cards to the set later. Evaluate whether it is worth keeping cards in your hand or selling them immediately, considering the rarity and value of the artifacts.

The sandstorm can be used to your advantage, as it puts cards on the market, allowing for interesting acquisitions. Take advantage of this opportunity.

Observing your opponents is essential. Their trades in the market reveal what artifacts they are collecting. Use this information to plan your sales and choose who'll be targeted by the thief.

Manage your hand well, use the marketplace intelligently, sell at the right time and win in Archaeology!

Rules:

Gameplay:

If you're looking for a quick game that's easy to explain and to learn, withouth language barriers, intuitive and offers a variety of educational stimuli, Archaeology is your game!

Pedagogically, the game brings several references to archeology with the artifact cards, and this can yield good stories, and even some research in books or on the internet to show your children how enchanting and important the work of archaeologists is. You can take advantage of this and talk about history and geography, in a very light and fun context.

Mathematical-logical thinking will always be present when trading with the marketplace and selling to the museum, and also by managing your hand of artifact cards, knowing whether you already have the complete set collection for a good sale, and even preparing for what you will unfortunately lose in the event of a sandstorm.

In fact, the thief and sandstorm cards bring a cool surprise factor to the game, generating good expectations with each card drawn from the dig site deck. This will certainly create good moments to remember, given the famous “good vibes” that you get from this game.

Memory will also be greatly stimulated during the game, as you can encourage the child to memorize what the opponents have already taken so as not to put what they are looking for on the market, or even to use it to your advantage when the thief is in your hand, to know who is the better target to take a card from. Encourage the use of memory.

Management and strategy work together. Pedagogically, Archaeology provides several necessary and important stimuli for your child! Enjoy it!

I recommend Archaeology in your collection!