Expedition Luxor Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game components & Set-up
• Playing the game
  • Place 1, 2 or 3 tiles
  • Size of the game display
  • Placing a camp
  • Moving adventurers
• Game End and Scoring
• Expansion: new adventures
  • 1) Additional components
  • 2) Set-up Changes
  • 3) Changes in game play
  • 4) The effects of action tiles

Game components & Set-up

• 96 Terrain tiles
• 120 Adventurers
• 1 Rules booklet

For each player: 24 terrain tiles, divided thusly:

• 1 lake, 2 mountains, 3 deserts
• 6 camps, 3 temples, 3 pyramids in the desert
• 2 camps, 3 temples, 1 pyramid inside an oasis
• Rear sides of the terrain tiles are in the player's color, and numbered 1-5
• 30 adventurers in the player's color

1. Each player takes 24 terrain tiles and 30 adventurers of their chosen player color. The adventurers make up each player's supply. Each player sorts their terrain tiles by the numbers on the rear side and mixes each set separately. Then, each player stacks all their terrain tiles face down and in order of the numbers, with "5" at the bottom, and "1" on the top.
2. Each player takes the top four tiles of their stack (number "1") to their hand, and chooses the camp and any one other tile to keep as their hand tiles. Each player's remaining two tiles are placed face down in the center of the playing area, collectively forming the starting display.
3. The starting display is composed using the tiles in the center of the playing area, according to the appropriate illustration (2-, 3- and 4-player set-up illustrations in the rulebook). Then, the tiles are flipped face up. The arrangement of colors does not matter.
4. The youngest player is the first player.

Playing the game

Expedition Luxor is played over a series of game rounds. During each game round, the first player starts, with the other players following in a clockwise direction.

Place 1, 2 or 3 tiles

The active player chooses one of the two tiles in their hand and adds it to the display. Tiles must be placed adjacent to at least one other tile that is already in the display, edge to edge. Then, the player draws the top tile from their stack into their hand.

The active player may perform this procedure up to three times during their turn. Placing one tile is mandatory, placing the two others is optional.

Example: At least one edge must touch another edge; tiles may not be placed diagonally (corner to corner only).

Size of the game display

The size of the game display is limited, depending on the number of players:

• 2 players: A maximum of 7 tiles per row and per column. (7 x 7)
• 3 players: A maximum of 9 tiles per row and per column. (9 x 9)
• 4 players: A maximum of 10 tiles per row and per column. (10 x 10)

Placing a camp

When adding a camp to the display, you must place one adventurer from your supply on it if the camp is in the desert, or two adventurers, if the camp is inside an oasis.

You may add more adventurers to the camp from your supply, up to a maximum of 5 (total) on the camp.

Note: In case you have no adventurers left in your supply, you simply do not place any adventurers when adding a camp.

Example: Player Gray must place one adventurer on the camp in the desert. He decides to also place three additional adventurers there.

Moving adventurers

The players may now move any of the additional adventurers they placed on a camp away from the camp to other tiles.

Movement rules:

• The adventurers move, in a straight line without deviation, from tile to tile without skipping a tile or a gap.
• In order to enter a tile, you must lay a sufficient number of adventurers on that tile, depending on the type of terrain:
  • Desert tile: at least 1 adventurer
  • Oasis tile: at least 2 adventurers
  • Mountain tile: at least 3 adventurers
  • Adventurers cannot move onto lakes
• You may enter a tile with more adventurers than required. Then, you decide for every one of these extra adventurers, and only these, if it stays on the tile, or is used to enter the next tile.
• You may not move onto a tile if there are more than 4 adventurers on the tile at the end of that turn.
• Adventurers can only be moved immediately after they are placed. Subsequently, they hold their positions until the end of the game.
• When entering a tile that already contains one or more of the player's own adventurers, or some belonging to other players, the new adventurers are placed on top of those that were already there.

Example: The gray player places 5 adventurers onto the camp he has played. He decides to move 4 of them to the temple on the next tile. At last, he moves his 2 extra adventurers onto the pyramid. Consequently, nobody can enter the temple or the pyramid, since there are now 4 adventurers present on each tile.

Game End and Scoring

The game ends after all of the players have played all of their tiles. If a player has no tiles left to place, their turn is skipped until the end of the game. After all of the tiles have been played, the players proceed to the final scoring.

The players score points for their adventurers on temples, pyramids, and camps. Only the player whose adventurer is on top of a stack will score the points.

• 1 point for a camp.
• 2 points for a temple.
• 3 points for a pyramid.

All other tiles (those without any structure on them) will generate no points.

The player with the most points is the winner of the game! In the case of a tie for the most points, the tied player having the most adventurers left in their supply is the winner. If the tie persists, the tied players share the victory.

Expansion: new adventures

Experienced players will find some new tactical options when playing with this expansion module, which may affect the outcome of the game.

1) Additional components

32 Action tiles - 8 for each player: 2 boat, 2 snakes, 2 caravan, 2 sandstorm. Rear sides in player colors.

2) Set-up Changes

All players take the 8 action tiles of their chosen color, mix them and stack them face down in front of them. Then, each player draws 3 of their action tiles, keeping them secret from the other players.

3) Changes in game play

After you have placed 1 to 3 terrain tiles during your turn, you may use 1 of your 3 action tiles. You can do this only if at least 1 of your own adventurers is on a mountain tile. After you have used your action tile, you draw a new one from your stack, if possible.

4) The effects of action tiles

Boat: The player who plays the boat returns 1 of his own adventurers from a mountain tile back to his supply. Then, he places the boat tile on any unoccupied lake tile. At the end of the game, the player who played the boat gains 1 point for each camp site, temple tile, and pyramid horizontally or vertically adjacent to the boat.

Snakes: The player who placed the snakes returns 1 of his own adventurers from a mountain tile to his supply. Then, he places the snake tile on any unoccupied terrain tile. This tile is off-limits to adventurers until the end of the game.

Sandstorm: The player who plays the sandstorm moves 1 of his own adventurers from a mountain tile onto any tile where he currently holds the majority of adventurers. He then takes any adventurers belonging to other players from that tile (if there are any) and puts them in front of himself. Finally, put the sandstorm tile back into the game box. At the end of the game, each player will gain 1 point for each adventurer they have of another player's color.

Example: The black player moves his adventurer from the mountain to the temple, where he currently has a majority of adventurers. He takes, and keeps, the adventures belonging to the orange and gray players that were on the top of the stack on the tile.

Caravan: The player playing the caravan moves 1 of his own adventurers from a mountain tile to a tile that is horizontally or vertically adjacent. That tile must not be a lake, must not be covered by a snake tile, and must not be already occupied by 4 adventurers. Put the caravan tile back in the game box.