Stats:
No. of players: 2-6
Amount of time to play: 30-60 min
Age requirements: 14+
Set-up time: minimal

Artificium is a resource management and conversion card game. You gain points for turning resources into higher quality goods. But your opponents can take your resources and your cards so beware.

Artificium Rules Description:

Artificium takes place over four turns. You start with five cards and five coins. You have a player board that tracks what resources you have and tells you what resources can be converted into.

There are two types of cards in the game, Buildings and Actions. Buildings can get you tier 1 resources or convert a lower tier resource into a higher tier resource. When Buildings are used you gain VPs based on the tier resource you gain. If you don’t have the resources required to use a Building you can buy them. Or you can sell resources on your board that you don’t need. Action cards let you steal cards or lower tier resources from your opponents, gain coins or take played cards back into your hand.

The two top tier Building cards are the Wizard’s Tower and the Castle. These buildings grant you a special effect as soon as they are built. The Wizard’s Tower lets you draw five cards and discard three cards from your new hand. The Castle lets you move an opponent’s marker back four spaces on the Score board.

You start each turn by flipping six cards face-up to form a card market. Starting with the first player and going clockwise each player may swap a card their hand with one in the market. The first time you do this it’s free. After that it costs you two coins. You also may swap your entire hand for five new cards, but this counts as your free swap. Once you decline swapping cards you can no longer swap them that turn. Once all players have passed you discard any cards in the market.

Next all players secretly choose a card to play and place it face down on the table. Once all players have selected a card you flip them over. In player order you resolve all Action cards and then Building Cards. If you don’t have the resources to resolve a card (and can’t afford or don’t want to buy them) then you may discard it and stay in the round or take it back and pass the rest of the round. This continues until all players have passed or played all their cards. Then you may discard any cards, sell any goods and draw back up to five cards. A new turn begins with the player with the lowest VPs as the new first player.

As you move along the score track you gain resources when you land or pass over certain spaces. And once four turns are done the game ends. To calculate your final score you sell are resources remaining on your board and gain one VP for every four coins you have.

Quick Review of Artificium:

Artificium is a streamlined resource conversion card game. The mechanics are straightforward and make the game easy to teach and learn.

The components for this game are fine and well-made. The boards and cards are good quality, and so is the art. The rules are easy to grasp but could be written more clearly. A few situations came up that we just house-ruled. Like, do you get resources on the Score board after going over them a second time due to the Castle? We said yes. How about at the end of the game? Do you gain resources during the final scoring? We said no.

The way cards can chain together is a nice mechanic. If you can manage to link all five of your cards in one turn you should be doing well.

There is a good bit of take that in the game. A few of the Action cards let you mess with your opponents as well as the Castle. The Action cards can really help you get ahead while slowing down and opponent. But the Castle seemed less desirable then the Wizard’s Tower. It does score you eight points and let you slow down one opponent, but the Wizard’s Tower does that and gives you the opportunity to get ahead of everyone.

Also know the random factor is pretty high in this card game. You have a couple options so luck isn’t such a factor (like the card market swap or discarding your entire hand). But it seems like getting a better hand makes it a lot easier to win.

Artificium is fun, but fell a bit flat with the groups I played it with. It just seemed a bit dry and too random. No one hated the game but no one was dying to play it again either. If your group likes “take that” or resource management games they might enjoy this one. But I think this is a try before you buy.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 3 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 3 out of 6
Overall 3 out of 6