Board Game Review - Red Raven's Artifacts Inc.

Artifacts Inc. is a small box board game from Red Raven Games that has a lot going for it. In this game you take on the role of an archeologist team in the late 1920's flitting around the world to gather treasures of various types. I got introduced to this game by a friend who had a copy.

We busted it out for the first time at our FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store) and played through a quick game.

I bought it on Amazon for $21 the next day.

The Overview

This is what we call a 'die-action' or 'die-Euro' game. In short, you roll a set number of dice and what you roll determines what actions you can take. Your turn consists of assigning dice to actions you want to take.

Your tableau. You get 3 dice and you can assign these to the actions listed on the cards

In the picture above you can use your Headquarters to build (buy a new card or upgrade an existing one) using a die showing a 2+. You could also use that 2+ to go on an expedition to the Canyon and dig up a fossil. In fact, you can do that three times as long as you rolled a something like this... 1,3,6.

But that 3 can also be used to go on an expedition to the Desert and find a Scroll. And you could do that again to get another scroll using your "6" because 6 is greater than 4.

The artifacts you generate can then be sold at Museums for money. Money is used with the Build action to buy or upgrade cards. Each card you buy or upgrade nets you victory points (as noted by the shield in the upper left portion of the card).

You can also go diving for sunken treasure which is, itself, another strategy path to take towards winning the game.

Now selling to museums is the heart of the game.

The Museums are picky. They only want artifacts in certain sized lots. When they get that lot, they aren't interested in that anymore.

When you sell to a museum you are gaining board position over your opponents. For he who has sold the most artifacts to each museum get a bonus at the end of the game. And it's significant, 3 or 4 points. In a game that ends when someone reaches 20, 3 points is huge.

In the above picture Blue has majority at the Gem and Rune museums, while Green has the majority at the Scroll museum and Red the Fossil museum. Majority is determined first by number of cubes (sales) and then by highest position in the case of a tie.

The Review Proper

I like this game a lot. It's both a worker-placement and engine builder game with a dash of area control thrown in to balance things out. It's just deep enough to be fun to play while not too difficult that I can't play it tired or with novices.

It's an easy game to pick up but not an easy game to win. And that's what makes it fun. It's more interactive than a game like Dice City but it's less frustrating than Roll for the Galaxy, two other games in the genre that I've played. I actively disliked Roll for the Galaxy. Playing It felt like going to the dentist for a root canal.

That said, Artifacts Inc. is a tightly wound game. It's over before you think it should be and there isn't time to waste. There's a lot of meaningful decisions to be made and they will tax your patience. The game will make you think, if you're doing it right.

If your turns are boring, you're doing it wrong.

You score points every turn, steadily moving towards the end when someone flips a card or two in a turn and scores six or seven to go out.

From that perspective its a challenging game. I'm no good at it but I still like playing it. That's the mark of a good game in my opinion.

My biggest gripe is that two-player is really only good for introducing the game to new players. It's a little flat two-player without a lot of drama. But, it will pass the time no worse than a game of gin rummy. Think 25 to 30 minutes tops once you have it under your belt.

But, three and four player it really shines. The positioning in the museums becomes critical and that can make or break your entire game.

There are a number of official variants to spice things up as well as solo rules for those that like solitaire. For me, there's a lot of game here for $21. The theme is good, the artwork, as always, is excellent. Ryan Laukat's artwork is improving with each game he creates and his eye for design permeates everything he produces.

There are many great games on the market that simply do not get the immersion right. Red Raven always does.