Bayon Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Object of the Game
• Setup
• Course of a Turn
  • Hiring an Explorer
  • Having Explorers Perform Actions
    • A. Travel to a Continent and Gather Information
    • B. Carry Out an Expedition
    • C. Move the Interpreter Card
  • End of a Turn
• End of the Game

Components

• 17 explorers;
• 1 interpreter card (with a setup diagram on its reverse side);
• 30 sites divided over 5 continents (identified by the continent on their reverse side);
• 18 gold cards;
• 1 rulebook.

Object of the Game

Each expedition leader tries to recruit the best explorers into their team. Thanks to their exceptional abilities, these explorers can explore sites properly and dig up treasures.

The most successful expedition leader wins the game.

Setup

See the reverse side of the interpreter card for the setup.

• First, the cards are separated into explorers, sites and gold.

• The explorers numbered 1 to 6 are shuffled face down and each player receives one explorer. The remaining explorers are returned to the explorer deck. Each player places their explorer face up in front of them.

• From the explorer deck, depending on the number of players, the following explorers are removed from the game and returned to the box:

  • with 2 players, numbers 10 to 17;
  • with 3 players, numbers 14 to 17;
  • with 4 players, none.

  The remaining explorers are shuffled well and placed as a face-down draw stack. The top two cards are placed face up next to this stack. These two cards together with the draw stack form the basecamp.

• The sites are sorted by the continent shown on their reverse side. They are shuffled well by stack and placed as 5 face-down stacks in the middle of the table.

• The interpreter card is placed on Australia.

• The gold cards are sorted by value and the two stacks are placed as the bank. Each player takes 15 gold pieces into their hand.

• The oldest player begins.

Course of a Turn

On their turn, the active player has one of the following options:

1. They collect 5 gold pieces from the bank for further actions. Their turn immediately ends. This choice is only possible as long as there are gold pieces in the bank.
2. They hire a new explorer and/or have their explorers perform actions.

Hiring an Explorer

If the player chooses the second option, they may, at any moment during their turn (but not during an expedition, which is explained later), hire a maximum of 1 explorer. The explorer may be taken either from the basecamp or from another player.

If the player hires an explorer from the basecamp, they may choose one of the two face-up explorers, or take the top face-down explorer from the stack. The player may of course not look at the face-down explorer first.

If a face-up explorer from the basecamp was chosen, the top card of the face-down explorers is turned face up into the vacated place.

Tip: if there are fewer than 3 explorers in the basecamp, there is no face-down stack any more.

Hiring an explorer from the basecamp costs 5 gold pieces. The player pays the amount with a gold card to the bank and receives change if applicable.

If an explorer belonging to another player is hired, 10 gold pieces must be paid to the owner of that explorer. An explorer cannot be taken from a player who has only one explorer.

The player places the new explorer face up with their other explorers, in a horizontal row on the table in front of them.

A player may never have more than 4 explorers in their possession. As soon as a player hires a fifth explorer, they must give up one of their explorers. They place this explorer face down under the basecamp stack. If there are fewer than 2 explorers in the basecamp, they place the explorer face up in the basecamp instead.

Having Explorers Perform Actions

A player may have each of their explorers perform exactly one of the following actions. This also applies to an explorer the player has hired in this round.

• A. Travel to a continent and gather information.
• B. Carry out an expedition.
• C. Move the interpreter card.

Tip: to make clear which explorer is performing an action, that explorer is slid slightly out of the row.

A. Travel to a Continent and Gather Information

A continent can only be travelled to if it is not blocked by the interpreter card.

The player first names the explorer and then the continent to which they want to travel. The player looks at the top card of that continent's stack in secret. In this way they collect data and information about which abilities an explorer must have on this continent in order to carry out a successful expedition.

Several explorers may travel to the same continent. If an explorer travels to the same continent where another of this player's explorers has already travelled in the same round, the player may look at the card beneath the top card instead.

It is very important that the order of the cards is not changed.

B. Carry Out an Expedition

The player determines the continent where they want to carry out their expedition. This may also be the continent where one of their other explorers has already gathered information in the same round.

The continent blocked by the interpreter card may never be the target of an expedition.

The player pays the cost of the expedition. The cost is shown on the shield of the continent.

The player has the following options for paying:

• they pay with gold cards to the bank;

• they pay with sites they have already acquired in previous rounds. The value of a site is shown by the number of gold pieces in one of the upper corners of the site card. The site cards used to make a payment are slid face down under the corresponding stack of that continent.

  If the value of a site card is insufficient, the player must make up the difference with gold cards.

  Important: unlike payments to the bank, when paying with sites any surplus money is not returned.

Note: sites may only be used to pay for an expedition and never to hire an explorer.

As soon as the necessary costs of the expedition have been paid, the top card of that continent's stack is turned face up by the player so that all players can see it. The card shows which abilities of the explorer team are needed to explore this site properly.

The player now tries to assemble a research team that reaches or exceeds the 3 required values with its abilities. The research team consists of one or more of their explorers. Note that only those explorers may be deployed who have not yet performed an action in this turn.

The value of each symbol is added up separately and compared with the value of the site. If all 3 values are reached or exceeded, the expedition is successful. If even one value is not reached, the expedition has failed. In this case it is not permitted to quickly hire an explorer in order to assemble a successful team afterwards.

If the expedition is successful, the player takes the site card into their hand. After a successful expedition, one of the explorers must withdraw. The player places this explorer face down under the basecamp stack. If several explorers took part in this successful expedition, they may not perform any further action in this round and are marked as such (slid out of the row).

Note: if an expedition has been carried out successfully, no additional weaker explorer may be added to the team in order to leave them behind later in the basecamp.

If the expedition has failed, the site card is slid face down under the stack of the relevant continent. The player must also give up one of the explorers who took part in the expedition and place them face down under the basecamp stack. After that, their turn immediately ends, which means that none of their explorers may perform any further action.

Regardless of the success of an expedition, the interpreter card is placed on the continent that was explored.

Example of a possible turn:

The player has explorers 5 and 13. As their first action, they gather information about the pyramids in Africa with explorer 13. To carry out a successful expedition, the player needs the following abilities and values: card 3, shovel 1 and microscope 1.

Explorer 5 cannot accomplish the task alone. Explorer 13 has already gathered information and can therefore no longer be deployed in the expedition.

A look at the basecamp tells the player that they may hire explorer 14. With this explorer they can indeed start a successful expedition, since this explorer together with explorer 5 reaches or exceeds the necessary values.

The player therefore hires explorer 14 and pays 5 gold pieces to the bank. The player carries out a successful expedition and pays 10 gold pieces.

Since one of the participating explorers must return to the basecamp, the player decides that explorer 14 is placed back in the basecamp.

Finally, they also move the interpreter card to Africa.

Since all of their explorers have now performed an action, their turn has ended.

C. Move the Interpreter Card

The player may, with one action of their explorer, place the interpreter card on any continent.

End of a Turn

A turn ends when:

• 5 gold pieces are taken from the bank in order to perform actions later; or
• all explorers of a player have performed an action; or
• a player forgoes possible actions of their explorers; or
• an expedition has failed.

After that, all of the player's explorers are neatly slid back into the row and the next player clockwise takes their turn.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as a player has obtained a predetermined number of gold pieces:

• with 2 players, 250 gold pieces;
• with 3 players, 225 gold pieces;
• with 4 players, 200 gold pieces.

Both the value of the gold pieces and the value of the sites that a player owns are counted.

To lengthen or shorten the playing time, the required amount of money may be raised or lowered.