The Games
The Artifact
Designers: Roberto Corbelli, Alessandro Mongelli
Publisher: daVinci Games
Type: Board
Status: Free
BGG entry:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10959
Available at:
http://www.davincigames.com/page_eng.cfm?sez=03&gioco=artefatto
The Artifact takes us in a fantasy world far away, where humans, magical and evil creatures can be easily found walking around, just as in any Tolken-inspired game. Players take up the role of one of these heroes (a Human, a Dwarf, an Elf and a Hobbit, indeed) and must recover their weapon, which is proved to be the only mean to destroy a powerful Artifact that is trying to put under its control the whole world. The path to the Mountain of Fate, the place where the Artifact is giving out its will, is full of dangerous creatures such as Trolls, Orcs and the mighty Black Knight. During his turn, the player rolls two different coloured six-sided dice, thus determining both his hero movement and which of the evil character will be moved by the player sitting to his right. You got it: players are trying both to advantage their heroes and to stop the other players' ones at the same time. And if it's not your lucky day, you may even change the outcome you have rolled, but are you ready to pay its price, giving your opponents a free move? The game gets even more interesting because each evil character has its own special ability, and the map represents different types of terrains: each heroes has a favoured type of terrain (e.g. woods for the Elf) where he can peacefully rest and plan his next moves. Last but not least, there is also the possibility of casting a powerful spell and bend evil characters' wills to yours...