Ilium
Ilium Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Object of the Game
Strategically place your teams of archaeologists to connect the dig sites and acquire the most valuable artifacts.
Contents
- 1 Board
- 50 Artifact Tokens
- 10 each depicting Coins, Horses, Armbands, Bottles, and Helmets.
- Each artifact type has two tokens valued at 1, three tokens valued at 2, three tokens valued at 3, one token valued at 4 and one token valued at 5.
- 180 Archaeologist Tokens
- 45 each of red, yellow, green and blue.
- 108 Archaeologist Assignment Cards
- 27 each of red, yellow, green and blue depicting teams of archaeologists.
- Each color Assignment Card consists of 12 cards valued at 1, 12 cards valued at 2, and three cards valued at 3.
- 12 Supplies Cubes (three each of red, yellow, green and blue)
- 4 Scoring Cubes (one each of red, yellow, green and blue)
- 5 Historian Cards (one for each type of artifact)
- 3 Closed Markers
Set Up
For three and four players: Lay out the board. It shows 13 Dig Sites connected by stone pathways. Shuffle the Artifact Tokens and randomly place them face up onto the Dig Sites. Place a number of Artifact Tokens on each Dig Site equal to the Roman numeral listed on each Dig Site. Each site should contain one Artifact Token for each site directly connected to it by a path. For example, if a Dig Site has four paths connected to it, it should contain four Artifact Tokens.
Once the Artifact Tokens are placed on each Dig Site, arrange them in value from lowest to highest (in any direction). This makes the values easier to spot.
Each player then chooses a color and takes the matching 45 Archaeologist Tokens, three Supplies Cubes, 27 Archaeologist Assignment Cards and one Scoring Cube of that color.
Each player shuffles and places their Archaeologist Assignment Cards face down on the table in front of them. This forms each player's Assignment Deck.
Note: In a four-player game, each player removes eight of their Archaeologist Assignment Cards from play: four each of their cards valued at 1 and 2. Place the removed cards back in the box.
The Historian Cards are shuffled and one is dealt face down to each player. Remove the remaining Historian Cards from play without looking at them. Each player looks at their own Historian Card, but does not reveal it to the other players. The Historian Card (as well as the Artifact Token colors) has no color relation to player colors. The Historian Cards will only be revealed at the end of the game (see Making a Donation).
Randomly decide who goes first. Play will progress clockwise.
Set Up for two players: Set up is the same as above, however, for each type of artifact, remove one Artifact Token valued at 1, one valued at 2 and one valued at 3. Shuffle these 15 tokens, and place one at random back with the other Artifact Tokens. The other 14 tokens are removed from the game. During game play, the three Dig Sites on the far left side of the board are not used, and the stone pathways to them are ignored. Place the Closed Markers over these sites.
Game Play
Assign Archaeologists - Each player, on their turn, reveals the top Assignment Card from their Assignment Deck. That player then takes an amount of their wooden Archaeologist Tokens equal to the value of that Assignment Card and places them on any single empty space in a stone pathway of their choice. The entire group of Archaeologists shown on the card must be placed together on one space. Once Archaeologist Tokens are placed, they cannot be moved.
Use Supplies - A player may also choose to place one or more of their Supplies Cubes in addition to placing their Archaeologist Tokens, but they must be placed onto the same pathway. A player may not complete a pathway with a Supplies Cube without placing their Archaeologist Tokens on the same pathway. If there is no room to place the Archaeologist Tokens on the pathway, the player simply may not place the Supplies Cube.
Note: It is important that you reveal your Archaeologist Assignment Card to all of the players at the start of your turn, so they can see its value. If you want to plan your next turn in advance, you may secretly look at the next card in your Assignment Deck at any time but may only reveal it at the start of your next turn.
Excavating Artifacts
When a stone pathway is completely filled with Archaeologist Tokens and/or Supplies Cubes, artifacts are excavated and claimed using the following rules:
The player with the most Archaeologist Tokens on that stone pathway chooses from either of the two Dig Sites connected by that path. That player then takes the Artifact Token with the lowest value from the chosen site.
If there is another player with Archaeologist Tokens on the same path, the player with the second-highest total value of Archaeologist Tokens on that path has at least half the value of the player with the majority of Archaeologist Tokens, they qualify to take the lowest valued Artifact Token from the other connected Dig Site.
If the player with the second-highest total does not have at least half the number of Archaeologist Tokens as the player with the majority, then they do not qualify, and the player with the most Archaeologist Tokens on that path excavates the lowest valued Artifact Tokens from both Dig Sites.
Example: Emily has the most Archaeologist Tokens on the connecting pathway. She chooses to take the token marked by (A). If Joe qualifies, he may take the token marked by (B).
Remember, when excavating an Artifact Token from a Dig Site, the player must always take the Artifact Token with the lowest value. Players must display their accumulated Artifact Tokens face up in front of them, so that everybody can see how many artifacts they have of each type.
Ties: If more than one player has the same number of Archaeologist Tokens on the path, the tie is broken in favor of the player whose Archaeologist Token is on, or closest to, the space marked with a shovel symbol at one end of the stone pathway. The same is true if there is a tie for the player with the second-most Archaeologist Tokens on the path. Therefore, it is advisable to always start placing Archaeologist Tokens from that end of the stone pathway.
End of Game
At the end of a player's turn, that player may choose to end the game if all five of the Artifact Tokens with a value of 4 (depicted by an alternate background) have been excavated. Otherwise, the game ends when all of the Archaeologist Tokens have been placed on the board. Once a player decides that the game continues, play only ends when all Archaeologist Tokens are on the board.
Making a Donation
Each player now reveals their Historian Card and the artifact the card depicts. Each player then discards their Artifact Token with the most artifacts of the type indicated on the card.
Scoring
Each player determines their score by counting the number of Artifact Tokens they have excavated for each of the five artifact types: Coins, Horses, Armbands, Bottles, and Helmets.
The player with the most Artifact Tokens of each artifact type scores 10 points, regardless of the amount of artifacts shown on the tokens. If there is a tie for the most Artifact Tokens of a particular type, the tied players each score 5 points.
Example: It is the end of the game and both Emily and Joe have made their donations.
Emily's Tokens / Emily's Score:
- Bottles: one token (worth 2 bottles) — 0 points
- Horses: two tokens (worth 1 and 2 horses) — 10 points
- Helmets: one token (worth 3 helmets) — 5 points
- Armbands: three tokens (worth 3, 1 and 2 armbands) — 10 points
- Coins: two tokens (worth 1 and 2 coins) — 5 points
- Total: 30 points
Joe's Tokens / Joe's Score:
- Bottles: two tokens (worth 1 bottle each) — 10 points
- Horses: one token (worth 4 horses) — 0 points
- Helmets: one token (worth 3 helmets) — 5 points
- Armbands: two tokens (worth 4 and 1 armbands) — 0 points
- Coins: two tokens (worth 1 and 3 coins) — 5 points
- Total: 20 points
Each player also scores 10 points for each complete set of all five types of artifacts.
Emily's Sets: There are two complete sets of artifacts and Emily is rewarded an additional (2) x 10 = 20 points.
Emily's total score is (30) + (20) = 50 points!
Each player moves their Scoring Cube around the scoring track on the board, one space for each five points earned. The player with the most points wins the game. In case of a tie, the tied player with the highest total number of artifacts wins.
Variant Games
Strategic Expeditions
Each player represents an Archaeological Institute using specially funded teams of archaeologists with the sole mission of being the first to discover the lost artifacts of the ancient city of Ilium. In this variant, players may choose which value of Assignment Card to play, thus choosing how many Archaeologist Tokens to deploy on each turn. Once a card is used, it is removed from the player's deck for the rest of the game.
Burial Vaults
Each Dig Site represents an ancient burial vault and artifacts there are arranged specifically in hidden chambers and secret passages. During the initial placement of the Artifact Tokens, arrange the tokens in numerical order as normal. However, if there is more than one Artifact Token with the same number of artifacts on them, then shuffle the Artifact Tokens and place them one at a time on the Dig Site. Once the Artifact Tokens are placed, this is the order in which they must be taken when play begins. This variant contradicts the rule that the lowest valued artifact is always taken by the player excavating artifacts at this specific Dig Site.