Ancient

It is the early 20th Century, and the great museums of Europe and America compete for artifacts from around the world in order to fill their museums with the most prestigious exhibitions. In Artifact, players are archaeologists researching sites around the globe to search for artifacts, which are then shipped back to the museums in order to produce exhibitions that increase funding for future digs and earn prestige to win the game. Actions and funds are limited, however, and competition is fierce. Sometimes it is even necessary to deal on the black market in order to generate extra income or to acquire the one artifact that will complete a valuable exhibition.

The player who earns the most prestige points through producing exhibitions and managing his budget best wins the game.

Artifact is a rich gaming experience that provides players with many options to think about. In order to make it easier to learn the game, the rules have been separated into the Base Game, followed by rules for the two expansions that, when added, make up the Complete Game. The game can be played and enjoyed as the base game or by including any one of the expansions, but the complete game is highly recommended for experienced players.

Regarded by many as Reiner Knizia's masterpiece, Tigris & Euphrates is set in the ancient fertile crescent with players building civilizations through tile placement. Players are given four different leaders: farming, trading, religion, and government. The leaders are used to collect victory points in these same categories. However, your score at the end of the game is the number of points in your weakest category, which encourages players not to get overly specialized. Conflict arises when civilizations connect on the board, i.e., external conflicts, with only one leader of each type surviving such a conflict. Leaders can also be replaced within a civilization through internal conflicts.

Part of what is considered Reiner Knizia's tile-laying trilogy.

Excerpted from publisher's blurb:

"The Age of the Locust is at hand. Foreboding shadows arise form the desert of endless storms. Dark magics stir in the silent streets, and words of ancient prophecy have come true; the Scarab Lords have come forth to wage war in the Heavens and on the Earth."

Set in a gorgeous fantasy Egypt, this clever card game depicts the battle of dominance between two mythical Scarab Lords. To win, power must be gained in the areas of religion, military, and economics. Powerful sorcerers, mythical beasts, epic monuments, and grand armies all play key roles in the Scarab Lords card game.

The non-collectible card game features two beautifully illustrated 30 card decks which players must customize to best fit their strategies.

Sequel: Minotaur Lords

Mythic Greece. As an upstart demigod, you want to earn the favor of the Olympians and become a figure of legend yourself. Gather heroes and powerful artifacts, please the gods and bear their power to write your own epic tale.

Let your allies achieve their destiny and enter the Elysium, home of the glorious and the brave. Once the stories are written, only one demigod will be chosen to stand at the side of Zeus.
Elysium is a game of set collecting and combinations in which players recruit cards representing heroes, items, powers and gods. These cards have many different powers and you can create powerful combination to earn gold (the help of the gods) and victory points (the favor of the gods). Each card belongs to one of the eight Olympians gods (a family), and shows a level (1 to 3).

During the five turns of the game, players will try to transfer their cards to the Elysium and write their own Legends, which are series of cards from the same family or from different families of the same level. The more epic the Legends, the more favor from the gods they’ll earn. But as they go to Elysium, most cards lose their power and players will therefore have to renounce some of their combinations !

A game of balance and opportunity with simple action, but constant dilemmas and complex strategies.

Antike II is a challenging strategy game about evolution and competition among ancient civilizations. Ancient nations create cities, build temples, sail the seas, and discover new principles of science and technology. Their legions and galleys open new settlements and defend their people against attacks from their enemies. Two scenarios can be chosen as the game board is two-sided.

Every nation tries to win ancient kings, scholars, generals, citizens, and navigators for themselves. The nation that acquires a specified number (depending on the number of players) of ancient personalities first wins the game!

Lead one of these nations to victory—but watch out for your enemies as they will want to conquer your cities to destroy your temples. The game depends not on the luck of dice or cards, but on thoughtful plans and skillful diplomacy.

Antike II differs from the 2005 Antike in several ways, according to designer Mac Gerdts. To start, players now own city tokens, which allows them some degree of choice as to which resource a newly founded city shall produce. Military units have become more expensive, and the rules for the conquest of cities are considerably easier. The scientific progresses were altered as well. Neutral temples now exist, which may be destroyed, gaining VPs of a general, without harming other players. The game features two new maps in a new graphical design, and a new card named "BELLONA" (the ancient Roman goddess of war) has been introduced to counter the starting player's advantage.

Gerdts notes that the main goal of all of these changes was to make the rules for a conquest of cities easier, while also opening more possibilities to win the game without the need to attack other players.