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Writer's pictureChris Cormier | Geeky Goodies

The Artemis Project Board Game Review

Updated: Apr 15, 2019


The Artemis Project

A couple of weekends ago, I attended my fourth Breakout convention, and it was an amazing weekend! I played a lot of new games and caught up with many old friends. I don’t make a lot of plans at conventions, as I find it’s easier to bump into people and sit down for a game instead of scheduling. However, the one exception I made at Breakout was to play The Artemis Project.


The game immediately caught my eye as I’m a fan of dice-placement games.

I saw a pre-production copy at GenCon 2018 and we played a quick sample round at the booth. The game immediately caught my eye as I’m a fan of dice-placement games, and I wanted to play more. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts at GenCon I wasn’t able to sit down for a proper game. However, one of the co-designers, Daniel Rocchi is from Toronto, and I knew that another opportunity would come soon. Daniel was kind enough to sit down with our group on Sunday to teach us The Artemis Project and play a full game.


The Artemis Project Box Cover | Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.

The premise of the game is that we are the head of a team of Stabilizers, competing to build the most successful colony during the course of the game. We will be harvesting resources, constructing buildings, and recruiting colonists to staff the colony and lead expeditions. At the end of the game, each colony will be evaluated based on how well they achieved each of the above tasks.


The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.

As Daniel began setting up the game, I got a chance to look over the beautiful board illustrated by Dominik Mayer. I remember seeing some of the artwork during the Kickstarter campaign, and it looked just as fantastic in-person.



Player boards from The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
Player boards from The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
I appreciate the extra effort from the publisher to keep components sorted during gameplay so that knocking the table won’t cause components to mix together.

Another component that quickly caught my eye was the indented player boards. I appreciate the extra effort from the publisher to keep components sorted during gameplay so that knocking the table won’t cause components to mix together. During setup, I also took the opportunity to examine the other components as well. The energy, mineral, and toolkit tokens both look and feel great, and I like the thick cardstock on the building tiles as well. At first, I thought the colonist markers were a little small, but they would hide too much of the artwork if they were any bigger and I never had any issues grabbing them during the game.



The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.

The Rules

At the beginning of each round, a number of resources (energy, minerals, colonists) and buildings are placed on the board. New expeditions are also made available to all of the players. Lastly, an event card is revealed each round which will affect gameplay. The card will indicate its effect, as well as when the card triggers. During the course of each round, players will take turns placing one of their dice on the board. Players will also be able to spend toolkits (green resource) while placing dice to alter their value. Each toolkit spent can increase or decrease the die value by one. Once all of the dice have been placed, everything is resolved starting from region 1, working its way around the board to region 6.

The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.

 

From the Box The Artemis Project 1–5 Players, ages 13+

Playing Time: 60 - 75 minutes

Designers: Daryl Chow and Daniel Rocchi

Artists: Josh Cappel and Dominik Mayer

Published by: Grand Gamers Guild

 

The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.

Region 1 is the basecamp where the colony will attempt to complete expeditions. Players can choose to place their die on any of the available expeditions. In addition, players can also send colonists in their shelter alongside their die. Each type of colonist will provide a different effect during the expedition.


During the dice resolution phase, if the combined total of all the player dice exceeds the expedition difficulty on the top right of the card, the expedition is successful. The player with the highest combined value of their own dice gains an expedition badge, and chooses one of the two rewards on the bottom of the card. The player with the second highest combined value also gains an expedition badge, and receives the remaining reward on the card.



Region 2 and 3 are the Vents and Quarry. Both function the same way, but provide different resources; the Vents provide energy to gain colonists, while the Quarry provides minerals to acquire buildings. When placing dice in these regions, the die will be placed to the right of all existing dice that are equal to or lower than your die value, referred to in the game as the exposure mechanism. This will result in a queue of dice ordered from smallest to largest, and dice with the same values will be queued in the order they were played from left to right. When resolving the dice in these regions, resolve the dice from left to right, with the die owner taking resources from the pool equal to the die’s value. If there aren’t enough resources left on the board, the player only receives what’s available. Any remaining dice won’t receive anything at all.


The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.

Region 4 is the Gantry, where players will bid to construct building tiles. When placing a die in this region, place the die on top of the building you would like to build. The die’s value has to be greater than all existing dice currently placed on the building. The die’s face value represents the amount of minerals it will cost you to construct it. During the resolution phase, the buildings with dice on it are resolved separately. For each resolving building, the player with the highest-value single die has the option to spend that much in minerals to purchase and construct that building. If they choose not to, the option goes to the player with the next highest value, and so on. When gaining a new building, you may immediately move any colonists in your shelter onto that building, following the type restrictions that the buildings have. During the first 3 rounds, Ocean tiles are revealed. These tiles will generally grant you resources or abilities when fully-staffed. In the last 3 rounds, Surface tiles are revealed. These tiles will all score victory points if fully-staffed.



The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.

Region 5 is the doorstep, where players will recruit new colonists to their colony. Dice placement in this region will follow the exposure mechanism outlined in the Vents and Quarry. When resolving each die, the face value will dictate the number of colonists the player can recruit, but each colonist will cost 2 energy. Similar to the Vents and Quarry, if there aren’t enough resources left on the board, the player only receives what’s available, and any remaining dice won’t receive anything.

The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.
The Artemis Project. Photo by Michael Chang. Used with permission.

Region 6 is the Academy, where players can train their colonists and upgrade them. This is the only location which has limited spaces to place your die. When placing a die, also place the colonist you intend to upgrade. During the resolution phase, discard your colonist and gain a new colonist from the academy supply based on the die value.