Nile Artifacts Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setup
• Game Rounds
  • Round Setup
  • Navigation
  • Offerings
    • Offering Conditions
  • Example Offering Phase
  • Rewards
• End of the Game

Goal of the Game

Travel up and down the Nile, collect Artifacts and leave them as offerings in the various temples of the gods to earn their favor for yourself.

The player with the most Divine Favor points at the end of the game wins.

Components

• 1 Nile board
• 1 Divine Favor board
• 54 Artifact cards
• 18 Monument cards
• 30 Coin tokens
• 1 First Player token
• 4 Boats
• 20 Worshiper meeples
• 4 Player tokens
• 4 Scoring tokens

Setup

Put the Nile board in the middle of the table leaving space above and below it. Put the Divine Favor board near it. Put a stock of Coin tokens near the boards.

Shuffle the Artifact cards and put them in a pile face down next to the Nile board.

Shuffle the Monument cards, remove 6, and put those six back in the box without looking at them. Turn over 5 Monument cards, put them above the Nile board, and put the remaining pile next to them.

Each player takes the game pieces in their color and then:

• puts their Player token in front of them
• puts their Boat on the Port space on the far left of the Nile board pointing toward the right of the board
• puts their Score token on the 0 space on the Divine Favor board
• puts a Worshiper meeple in their color on the bottom of each visible Monument card

The player who has most recently helped build a building will be the first player and puts the First Player token in front of them.

Game Rounds

Each round consists of 4 stages:

1. Round Setup
2. Navigation: Travel up and down the Nile with your boat to collect Artifacts and Coins.
3. Offerings: Give Artifacts to the gods to earn their favor.
4. Rewards: Earn Divine Favor points whenever a monument is completed.

Round Setup

Draw the amount of Artifact cards indicated for the number of players:

• 8 cards for 2 players
• 9 cards for 3 players
• 12 cards for 4 players

Put these cards under the Nile board in the spaces indicated at the top of each card.

Note: All the cards drawn must be placed under the board, even if previous Artifact cards are still in place. In this case, there will be more Artifact cards to collect during the round.

Navigation

Each player navigates the Nile in turn, starting with the first player and rotating clockwise.

To navigate, move your Boat forward in the direction it is facing (toward the right or left of the Nile board) as many spaces as you like. Your destination space must have at least one Artifact under it or be a Port space (these are the spaces at the far edges of the board). Each space may contain several Boats.

If you move your Boat to a space with one or more Artifact cards under it, choose one of these cards and put it face up in front of you. In addition, if you move your Boat to a space with at least one Artifact card under it and that shows a Coin, take one card from under that space and one Coin from the stock. If you move your Boat to a Port, take one Coin. Your turn ends and the player on your left plays their turn.

Coins may be spent to do two things:

• Turn around: Before navigating, you may spend 3 Coins to turn your Boat around and navigate in the other direction.
• Buy an Artifact: Before navigating, you may spend 3 Coins to buy the Artifact card on the top of the draw pile. Put it in front of you face up. You may do this several times if you have enough Coins.

When you reach a Port, your boat turns around and you can no longer navigate during the current stage. If you are in a Port at the start of your turn, you earn one Coin instead of playing your turn.

Once all the players have reached a Port, the current stage ends immediately.

Important: Any Artifact cards that were not collected remain in place for the next navigation stage.

Offerings

Each player makes an offering in turn, starting with the first player and rotating clockwise.

To do so, choose any of the Artifact cards in front of you and push them forward to form your offering. As in the navigation stage, you may buy an Artifact before making your offering, paying 3 Coins for each Artifact card you buy.

When you play a Artifact card in an offering, choose an Artifact type of your choice. For this offering, consider that the card produces 1 Artifact of the chosen type.

When a player makes their offering, verify whether the offering meets the condition for moving up to the next level for each Monument. If so, the player moves the Worshiper meeple in their color up one level. Each player can move up only one level per Monument during each offering phase.

Once the offerings have been completed, discard the Artifact cards that you used in the offering by putting them next to the draw pile. (Artifact cards that you did not use for the offering stay in front of you and are available for future rounds.)

Offering Conditions

Symbols in the condition column (as printed, by appearance):

• Artifact types: purple eye, orange-red bird-headed statue, blue cat statue, green figure, yellow bird, cyan ankh.
• Regions: blue wave region (the Nile), orange region (desert), green region (fields).
• A diamond with a question mark stands for an Artifact card of any type chosen by the player.

Condition	The offering must contain at least
2 Artifacts of the indicated type (one of: purple eye / orange-red bird-headed statue / blue cat statue / green figure / yellow bird)	2 Artifacts of the indicated type
2 Artifacts matching the 2 indicated types: cyan ankh + purple eye, or orange-red bird-headed statue + blue cat statue, or green figure + yellow bird	2/3/4 Artifacts matching the 2 indicated types (you may mix both types of Artifacts in the offering)
Two or more Artifacts of the same type (2, 3 or 4 diamonds joined by "=")	2/3/4 Artifacts of the same type
Two or more Artifacts of different types (2, 3 or 4 diamonds joined by "≠")	2/3/4 Artifacts of different types
2 Artifact cards from the blue wave region, or 2 from the orange region, or 2 from the green region	2 Artifact cards from the indicated region
1 Artifact card from each of the indicated regions: blue wave + orange, or blue wave + green, or green + orange, or blue wave + orange + green	1 Artifact card from each of the indicated regions
1 Artifact card from each of the 2 indicated regions and a third Artifact card from one of those two regions: blue wave + orange (third from blue wave or orange), or blue wave + green (third from blue wave or green), or green + orange (third from green or orange)	1 Artifact card from each of the 2 indicated regions and a third Artifact card from one of those two regions

Note: Some cards from the green region provide 2 Artifacts. However, they only count as 1 Artifact card for the green region symbol.

Example Offering Phase

The red and black players choose their Artifact cards for the offering phase. These cards let them each move up a level on 3 Monuments.

Note: The red player played only 3 cards from their hand. They keep the fourth card for the offering phase in the next round.

Rewards

For each Monument, check whether at least one player has reached the maximum offering by reaching the Monument's top level with their Worshiper meeple. For each Monument that has been completed in this way, each player earns Divine Favor points based on their offering level for that Monument.

Regardless of Monument type, each player earns:

• 10 points at level 3 of the Monument
• 5 points at level 2 of the Monument
• 2 points at level 1 of the Monument
• 0 points at level 0 of the Monument

Completed Monument cards are discarded. Replace them with cards from the Monument pile until 5 Monuments are again visible, or until the pile is empty. Put a Worshiper meeple for each player on the bottom of the new Monument cards. Finally, the player with the First Player token gives it to the player on their left.

End of the Game

Turning over the last card in the Monument pile triggers the end of the game. You play one last round and then count points.

After the last round's reward phase, points are counted for Monuments that have not been completed. For each Worshiper meeple of your color on an incomplete Monument, earn 5 points if the meeple is at level 2, or 2 points if the meeple is at level 1.

The player with the most Divine Favor points wins the game. In the event of a tie, the player with the most Artifact cards in front of them wins.