Miami Dice - Episode 78 - Thebes 

LOVE this game. 8/10 for family, casual fun

Still one of my favorite family style games.

I own this game and I enjoy it evertime I play it. I would say it depends on who you play it with and how competitive you are. I always aim to win, but I don't get frustrated if I don't and those that do will hate this game. I've played it with many of my non-gamer friends and they all loved it. I would say this is an excellent intro level game on par with Ticket to Ride in my experience.

hahaha I liked the way Sam and you argue about a game. And in this instance it was even better with the final raspberry from Sam! :D

I guess it comes down to people who enjoy surprise and theme, vs. people who want certainty and little luck.

in the beginning of the game there is also a 1 point "treasure" on every dig location for the first player that digs there, to reward "the first" there i guess :)

I would be interested to know how it plays differently if you only put half the empties back in the bag. It sounds like Sam's problem is a diminishing returns aspect that allows lucky players to get ahead. Ideally you would want the game to become MORE exciting over time, but this doesn't. As stuff is drawn your options become less appealing and more like gambling. Adding a treasure that always goes back in the bag and only adding half (rounding up) of the dirt would keep it more exciting.

Archaeology is a hit or miss business! :-)

Heaven forbid a game adds a realistic mechanic.

Man, Tom REALLY got hammered by Sam's arguments here! I really liked seeing them disagree so much for once. I completely understand Sam's concerns, but there's still people that will find it fun. It's kinda like Carcassonne, before you introduce some of the expansions. It's really luck-based, and anyone can win without being too good at it. And for a lot of people, that's okay! But for those who want a little more strategy, some expansions with added depth are needed.

It's a fun, random and causal game. Good for kids also. ;)

It happened to me. I pulled nothing from the bag in a dig before, I had like 6 knowledge and spent 6 weeks.

I do agree with Sam. I do like realism in games, but it still has to be fun. The whole point of a game is to get something out of it.

Red November also has a time track like that.

I am literally watching this whilst packing for an Archaeology dig...

I can believe the luck mechanism is realistic for archaeologists in 1903, but not today. So kudos to the designers, but then, they might just be going off of the iconic image of archaeologists. I want to had the mechanism, but as an archaeologist, I can't hate an archaeology board game.

I love this game ! And I find this video quite funny at the end ! The reason why it is funny is the reason why this game is good ! lol

Well, in Carcassonne when you draw a tile there is still something on a tile (pasture, road, anything), not just "Hey, you just pulled a blank tile, better luck next time!" reminds me of a lottery :)

Based on your description, I would probably agree with Sam here. The luck factor just seems way too high to me. The differing opinions and viewpoints are one of the reasons I really like this show.

Sometime luck is just too thematic to leave out. The skill of the game is resource (time) management. The fact that good management has to meld with good luck IS the whole idea of the game. This is not a mechanistic Euro game with a theme pasted on. If that's what you want, I really don't have anything to say to you, because I feel such games are an insult to their themes. Instead, it is one of those adventure games that tries to capture the excitement of its real world theme. The excitement of digging in the dessert is based on combining knowledge with luck. I don't think you can make a good game based closely on the theme of archaeology without the mystery and luck of the draw being a core part of it.

Having played the game multiple times and got draws with no points many times I can say this game is fundamentally flawed.