Excavation Earth - A Solo Review
Image: Mighty Boards
INTRODUCTION
”You are competing against a powerful corporation that works in the shadows of the artefact industry. The company is made up entirely of clones of the CEO. The company, the CEO, and the clones are collectively known by a single moniker: ‘Zu’. While the clones can identify each other, they are virtually indistinguishable to anyone outside of the company. Zu is everywhere and nowhere; the full extent of its connections are unknown. Its ability to manage its crew and broker trade deals is unmatched, allowing it to bypass the regulations and taxes imposed on the collection and sale of Earth artefacts. Be wary — Zu has many tricks up its sleeves!”
As the old saying goes: one person’s trash is another alien’s treasure. It is time for another solo review of a board game designed by Dávid Turczi, a man who based on his current creative output in the industry embodies the definition of prolific. Designed in collaboration with his partner Wai Yee and featuring development work by Gordon Calleja, what started as an idea of breeding and selling unicorns has evolved into a futuristic game of market manipulation where alien archaeologists scavenge the now-uninhabited Earth in search for precious artefacts to showcase and potentially sell to wealthy extra-terrestrial patrons.
Full disclosure: a review copy of Excavation Earth was kindly provided by publisher Mighty Boards.
COMPONENTS
It is no secret that I hold Mighty Boards in high regard when it comes to producing high-quality board games. From the minimalistic aesthetics of Petrichor to the gritty neo-noir world of Vengeance, you can tell that this is a publisher that emphasises the aesthetic aspects of our hobby. This devotion becomes even more apparent when one examines Excavation Earth, as this might very well be Mighty Boards finest achievement to date in terms of overall component quality. Dual-layered player boards made from the thickest of card stock, screen-printed wooden Explorer tokens, custom shaped meeples denoting the extra-terrestrial patrons, the list goes on and on. It even includes a functional, practical insert to store all of these wonderful and colourful bits and bobs.
And then there is the artwork which quite frankly is out of this world! Yes, I intentionally made that “pun” and I regret nothing. Anyway, similar to what Ian O’Toole did for Black Angel artist Philipp Kruse shows that science-fiction themed board games can expand beyond the tropes of a black and dark blue colour palette as Excavation Earth is nothing short of a visual delight with its predominantly bright hues of pink, teal, and orange. Although I am aware of the subjective nature that concerns quality of art, I still maintain that this is one of the most visually impressive board games to date and I hope to see more of Kruse’s work in the future.
Photo: Fredrik Schulz
GAME PLAY
When solo playing Excavation Earth you will be competing against the clone conglomerate Zu, a powerful interstellar corporation whose influence stretches to the outer rim of the galaxy. For the human player the rules and mechanisms remain unaltered, an expect of any given solo board game design that I personally value and appreciate. At its core this is a game of market manipulation, where you are trying to tilt the interest of potential extra-terrestrial buyers in your favour whilst simultaneously financially kneecapping your competition. Over the course of just three rounds, you will send your Explorers to various regions scattered across the globe, unearthing long lost and mysterious remnants of mankind. Perhaps you will find a stuffed animal toy, a scarab brooch, or if you are lucky an old rusty street sign! These rare and highly sought-after trinkets can then be stored onboard your personal spaceship as part of an exhibition, assigning precious crew cubes to act as essentially security personnel. The more items that are added to your gallery the more space credits you will earn at the end of the game, incentivising you to continuously relocating to new dig sites in order to collect additional artefacts.
Photo: Fredrik Schulz
But travelling across Earth is a time-consuming endeavour and simply collecting artefacts will not make you the most renowned interstellar archaeologist. You will also need to divert your attention to the six markets, each populated by different patrons searching for artefacts of a particular colour which corresponds to the different regions that make up this now uninhabited Earth. Circling back to my previous comment, by adding crew cubes to a market you can manipulate it to your favour by removing or adding buyers of a specific colour that matches what type of artefact you are currently storing in your cargo hold. But this also means that you have fewer staff members at your disposal to guard recovered items in your private exhibit, forcing you to make a choice between diversifying your collecting efforts versus how much manpower you are willing to invest in influencing the marketplace.
In his designer diary, author Dávid Turczi describes the core aspect of Excavation Earth as “a lighter Brass, but market manipulation instead of network building“ in the sense that the game is constructed around players taking two actions per turn, discarding a card for each. This mechanism of multi-use cards in general is one that I tend to favour in board games and is one of the reasons that I find Excavation Earth to be such an enjoyable, highly tactical solo game experience. This mechanism of multi-use cards is one that I tend to favour in board games and Excavation Earth is no exception, as it gives the player plenty of tactical crunchy decisions to mull over without becoming too intellectually taxing whilst doing so. Like any good Euro board game worthy of its salt, once you are familiar with the overall structure more often than not you will have a clear idea as to what you want to achieve but limited tools at your disposal so as to make your plans come to fruition. In the case of Excavation Earth that limitation is time, as the game only lasts a total of three rounds as previously mentioned.
Photo: Fredrik Schulz
Rather than utilising a dice-based system to determine the actions of the solo opponent, in Excavation Earth the actions of Zu are instead decided by a deck of cards or rather three I should say. During setup, you will create three separate decks as instructed by the solo rules. The composition for each deck varies, accentuating certain aspects of the game structure. For example, the card deck for Zu on round one will have an emphasis on collecting artefacts and establishing their presence in the markets. Whereas the final card deck instead focuses on selling said artefacts and assigning crew cubes to the Mothership, an aspect of Excavation Earth that rewards increasing number of end-of-round credits based on area majority. Unlike Anachrony and Tawantinsuyu which I recently reviewed, having a card-based system creates a solo opponent that feels more “unpredictable”. Even though you know beforehand the composition of which number and type of cards that are added to each of the three decks the Zu still feels like a more slippery opponent, as opposed to the previous examples where you can glance at the solo opponent’s board and at the very least have a general inkling as to what they may do on their turn.
In the case of Excavation Earth, I actually prefer this model to determine the actions of the Zu corporation, especially given the fact that each of the card decks reflect the evolving state as the game progresses. Having a solo opponent that focuses more on acquiring artefacts in round one makes sense simply because more likely than not that is what a human opponent would do, resulting in a solo experience that is dynamic but never feels unfair at least in my eyes. That being said, similar to other solo modes designed by Dávid Turczi the one featured in Excavation Earth does require a fair degree of commitment on behalf of the solitaire player in terms of grokking the actions of Zu. To its credit the solo section of the rulebook does an admirable job describing how Zu prioritises its actions, not just in terms of acquiring artefacts but also which markets it favours when selling. By my second play of the game, I was feeling more than confident that I was accurately performing the actions of Zu, only occasionally referring to the rules for very specific details that are equally prevalent when playing Excavation Earth multiplayer.
Photo: Fredrik Schulz
FINAL THOUGHTS
As I am writing this review on a warm Sunday afternoon whilst enjoying Opus 56 by Dustin O’Halloran, I find myself contemplating the very nature of what makes Excavation Earth such an interesting design. Out of all the board games I have had the pleasure of solo playing and reviewing I can honestly say that I cannot think of a single other game that features market manipulation as a core mechanism, certainly not when examining the board games that make up my own private collection. For me, Excavation Earth fills a niche unlike anything else I have played in quite some time and one I was not even aware of prior to this review. I know I keep droning on about Dávid Turczi’s qualities as a (solo) board game designer but that is only because his quote unquote “style” gels so well with my own personal preferences. They are not necessarily the easiest one to grasp, nor are they breezy affairs in terms of play time. But when I want something akin the experience of playing against a human counterpart then his solitaire designs are most definitely my cup of tea, as such I wholeheartedly recommend Excavation Earth purely for solo play.
