Thebes FAQ
51 questions players ask · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · Full rulebook
Preparation
- How do you set up the research and exhibition cards in a two-player game?
- How many years is a game of Thebes with 2, 3 or 4 players?
- Where do the time markers start in a game of Thebes?
- How many victory points are small and large exhibition cards worth?
- Can you use the older Jenseits von Theben rules with the Thebes box?
Playing the game
- Is the time marker moved once per turn for movement plus action, or separately for each?
- Can you take an action without moving your archeologist first?
- Can you take more than one action in a single turn?
- Who takes the next turn after a player acts, and how are ties on the time track broken?
- What is the longest single move between two places on the board?
- Can you trade cards or items with other players?
Take a researcher card
- When you take a researcher card, do you pay the card's time on top of travel?
- Can one player hold both Car cards, and do two Cars shorten a trip by two weeks?
- Does the Car card shorten only travel, and only trips of three or more weeks?
- Is the Car researcher card discarded after use?
- How does the Zeppelin researcher card work?
- When the research card supply runs out, what gets reshuffled?
- Can you take several researcher cards from the same city in one turn?
Exchange the 4 cards displayed
Execute an excavation
- Can assistants, or a Rumours and Legends card, alone meet the special-knowledge requirement to start an excavation?
- How many points of special knowledge do assistant cards give?
- Is using a single shovel or assistant on an excavation optional, and when is it discarded?
- Which cards stay in your play area after an excavation and which are discarded?
- How many extra tokens do two, three or more shovels give on a dig?
- Can shovels rescue a dig that shows no tokens, or can you dig for zero tokens?
- Does the first-excavation bonus token count as one of your draws?
- Can general knowledge exceed your special knowledge for a dig?
- Do Rumours and assistants count as special knowledge when limiting general knowledge?
- Do you count books or cards toward knowledge points, and how many does a card with a book token give?
- Does digging use up your whole turn, including travel?
- Can you dig at the same site twice in one year?
- Is there a limit on how many assistants or shovels one player may hold?
- Are artifact values pulled from the bag hidden from other players?
- Must you decide to use your single shovel before drawing tokens, or can you decide after your last pull?
- Must you apply all your knowledge or rumour cards to a dig?
Execute an exhibition
- Can the same artifacts count toward a second exhibition after you have scored one?
- Do you need the exact artifacts shown on an exhibition card, or only enough value?
- Can books found on a dig count toward an exhibition's artifact requirement?
- When you take an exhibition card, do the others move up to fill its slot?
A year is ended
Game end and scoring
- Do rumours, assistants or notes count toward the special-knowledge majority at game end?
- Do books you dig up count toward the end-game majority for special knowledge?
- In the final year, can an action run past week 52, and when does the game end?
- Is there a tie-breaker when two players finish with the same score?
- Can you take a card or dig that costs more weeks than remain in the final year?
- Does a Conference card do anything when you take it?
- Which knowledge symbols count toward the majorities at game end?