David K.
United States
Pflugerville
Texas
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Overview
Thebes is a board game for 2-4 players.
(From the rule book) The players travel as archaeologists around Europe in order to acquire the necessary knowledge for their excavation expeditions. With the aid of assistants, players get needed equipment and services for their expeditions. Once properly equipped, the players head off to Egypt, Crete, or Mesopotamia to dig at the sites there for valuable artifacts, which will bring them fame and enhance their reputations in the form of victory points. Players who can arrange exhibitions and visiting congresses will add to their reputations (victory points). But all this costs time and time is, of course, a limited resource. Who best uses his time for planning excavations and exhibitions, will score the most victory points and win the game.
Components
Upon opening the box you will find the following components:
1 rule book and 1 summary sheet
1 game board – with 12 places (7 cities in Europe and 5 excavation sites in the area of the Mediterranean) connected by a transportation network
4 archeologists – in the 4 player colors (Red, Yellow, Blue and Green)
4 time markers – in the 4 player colors (Red, Yellow, Blue and Green)
1 year marker (Black)
85 researcher cards – including knowledge cards, various support cards, and 9 congress cards
5 summary cards – shows the layout of each excavation site
4 time wheels – each consists of two disks and two plastic rivets. Before the first game, carefully assemble them as shown in the book.
4 sets of excavation permissions – 1 for each player for each area (1 set = 5 permissions)
155 excavation tokens
5 cloth bags with colored tops
Setup
Setup is relatively easy after you've done it once. Each player takes: One set of excavation permissions, one archeologist, one time marker and one time wheel in the color of his choice. The archeologists are placed on the starting city of Warsaw. The archeologist pieces are nice wooden pieces (meeples) in the shape of an "Indiana Jones" character. They are pretty cool really.
Shuffling the cards is confusing the first time you do it, but it's pretty easy to grasp the idea after you've done it one time. Remove the 10 exhibition cards (separate them into 2 stacks of 5 small exhibitions and 5 large exhibitions) and also remove the 5 reference cards from the deck. The deck is shuffled and then split into three equal piles face down. Now take the 5 small exhibition cards and shuffle them into the 2nd pile. Place the first pile on top of the 2nd pile. This is the deck that you begin the game with. Take the 5 large exhibitions and shuffle them into the 3rd pile and set this pile to the side for later use. Place the 5 reference cards next to the board so that everyone can see them.
The next step is to place the year marker. This depends on the number of players. And the rulebook is not 100% clear on this. One page 2 of the rule book, the diagram says to: "Place the year marker on space 1901 with 2 and 3 players and on space 1902 with 4 players. But on page 3 it states the following:
Depending on the number of players, the game is played over:
• 3 years with 2 players,
• About 2 1/2 years with 3 players
• 2 years with 4 players.
So this adds some confusion. There is also some discussion in the rules forum that a three player game should start in 1901 with player markers on week 16. I wish the rules book had been more consistent and specific on this, but we all can't everything.
Next, remove a single point artifact token from each bag and place it on each one of the excavation sites. This will act as a prize for the first archeologist to visit the site.
Finally, take the top 4 cards from the starting deck and place them in the four card locations on the board (which geographically is central Russia)
Game play
The player’s colored markers are placed on the board inside the corner where week 1 is. The player who was decided on to go first places his/her marker on top. The player order is determined by whose marker is the farthest behind. If two players are on the same spot, the player whose marker is on top takes the turn. It is possible that a player can have multiple turns in a row.
The player whose turn it is has two choices for his turn, Research, or Dig. Either action will cost the player the main resource, Time (measured in weeks). Researching involves taking one of the four research cards, moving to the city denoted on the card (spending the weeks needs to travel) and then spending the time needed to research (as indicated in weeks on the card). Research cards include general knowledge, specific knowledge, shovels, assistants, local rumors, cars, and a zeppelin. Each card has a city and a time payment involved. They player must make the trip to the city indicated and pay for the time.
If the player chooses to dig instead, he declares what site he wishes to dig at, moves his archeologist there (paying for the weeks needed), determines the amount of knowledge he has in that area, uses the time wheel to determine how many token can be "dug" from the bag based on the number of weeks he has chosen to stay and dig. He moves his week marker the appropriate number of weeks, and removes X number of tokens from the bag. (X is determined by the time wheel). The player keeps all artifacts and returns the "dirt" back to the bag. A card is drawn from deck and placed on the board for the next player.
Players also have the option of taking a Conference or an Exhibition card. Exhibition cards are kept separately on the board and are placed there when drawn from the main deck. These cards offer additional points at the end of the game. Taking these cards incurs the same time and travel payment as all the other cards in the deck. In order to take an exhibition card, the player must have the correct number of indicated artifacts. Congress (conference) cards require only the travel and time payment and accumulate more points the more cards you have.
End Game
The year marker is advanced once the trailing player has passed week 52. Once a player passes week 52 of 1903, they stop on week one, and allow all other players to do the same. Points are then added up to determine the winner. It's handy to use the week counter track to keep track of your points as you add them up.
The Luck Factor
There have many comments made that this game has a certain amount of luck involved (regarding drawing the tokens from the bags). It is true that you draw tokens from a bag, and there is a certain amount of luck inherently involved with doing that. But I believe that you can manage your luck by employing a good strategy. Keep an eye on the reference cards and the tokens that other players have already drawn. This will help you decide on where to dig and for how long. Just like any other game that relies on a dice roll, or a card draw, sure there's some luck here, but I don't think that it's overwhelming.
Summary
As I write this, I can confidently say that Thebes is my number 1 game to play right now. I love the bits, the board and card artwork is beautiful, the rules balance , and the length of play is not too long. Everything works. I can't say enough. If you are looking for a nice Eurogame that's both interesting and fun, and you like the archeology theme, then Thebes should most certainly be on your short list. I only wish that the rules were a little clearer on where to start the year marker with three players.
Good luck and good digging!
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Linda Baldwin
United States
White Plains
New York
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They may have revised the rule book, but my copy states very clearly where to put the week marker for 3 players. (I don't remember where, as I've only played with 2 and 4.)
Curious: have you played this with 2? My experience with the 2-player game was far less satisfying, but I've only played once each way. It just felt more like solitaire, because most of the time we could both get whatever we needed, and it came down to luck. (Plenty of shovels and assistants, for example.)
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David K.
United States
Pflugerville
Texas
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I'll double check my rule book. I was probably reading my PDF copy, but perhaps they've changed the printed copy. There were like 4 or 5 rule books in different languages included in the box.
We have only played with two players one time. It was a learning experience, so we need to play again now that we have the rules and the ebb and flow of the game down.
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