Spotlight on Games > Translations
English Translation
Mon Aug 4 12:42:27 PDT 2003
Expedition
... Adventure into the Unknown

for 2-6 players 10 and up

Contents:

1. Goal of the Game

2. Setting Up and Components

2.1 Game board
2.2 Research Missions
2.3 Chips
2.4 Arrows
2.5 Travel Vouchers

3. Research Missions

3.1 Your own Research Missions
3.2 Placing chips
3.3 Open Research Missions

4. Expeditions

4.1 Continuing Expeditions
4.2 Reaching an Expedition Goal
4.3 An Expedition forms a loop
4.4 All Arrows are expended

5. Travel Vouchers

6. End of the Game

7. Advanced Variants

7.1 Variant A
7.2 Variant B

8. Appendix

9. Brief Rules (Basic Game)

Author: ....... Wolfgang Kramer.
Graphics: ....... Joachim Hartwig
Production: ....... Bernd Dietrich
[Translation by Rick Heli. All editorial additions in square brackets.]

Components:

EXPEDITION includes:

Article-Nr.: 6005
Printed in Germany
© Copyright 1995, 1996 by
QUEEN ~ CARROMS Spielwaren GmbH,
53842 Troisdorf, Germany.
All rights reserved.

1. Goal of the Game

Each player receives a number of research cards at the start of the game. These cards are research missions for particular places in the world. They show the same picture as is shown on the board at the corresponding location.

Three independent, neutral expeditions are undertaken by the players on the map of the world. If an expedition reaches a location for which the player has a research mission, the card is laid down and the player receives a point for it. Whoever has the most points at the end wins the game.

2. Setting Up and Components

2.1 Game Board

The game board is put in the middle of the table. One recognizes the continents of our earth. Many different colored dots are connected together via a route network (of black lines).

All board locations having a picture are possible research-destinations for which a player may hold an expedition card. The dot of the destination has the same color as the background of the card. When an expedition reaches such a place, all players check the research missions in their hands. If anyone has a matching card he may lay it down even if it is not his move.

The green and red stations enable special actions for the players as soon as an expedition reaches such a station.

Whoever leads an expedition to a green dot may immediately place another arrow at the end of the expedition of his choice.

Whoever leads an expedition to a red dot gets a travel voucher from the bank.

At the right and left game board sides there are three red stations marked with white arrows. At these locations a connection to the opposite game board side exists.

2.2 Research Missions

The deck of cards is shuffled and each player receives: 12 cards - with 2-3 players,
9 cards - with 4-6 players.
The cards represent private research missions. Each player takes his missions in hand, arranges them according to their background colors and hides them from the curious gazes of his fellow players.

Furthermore six cards are put openly alongside the game board. These are public research missions that may be fulfilled by any player and earn an additional dot in the scoring at the end of the game. Each of these public research missions must be at least three spaces from the starting dot. If this is not the case, new cards are drawn until all six missions fulfill this condition. The discarded cards are placed under the deck. The deck is placed next to the board.

How does one find his own and open research goals?

All players first look for their research destinations on the game board, which they must seek in the course of the game. The colors will help in this.

The colors of the dots on a continent are identical to those of the background colors of the matching research missions. Thus, for example, all of the reserach goals in North America are violet and all research missions in North American have the same violet as the background color.

Whoever has a card containing a violet background looks over all of the violet dots in North America and matches the picture on his card with the picture on the map. Both pictures show the same theme. In this way one can quickly find the locations one must visit.

North America is colored Violet, Europa -- Blue, Asia -- Light Green, South America -- Orange, Africa -- Yellow, Australia -- Pink.

2.3 Game Chips

Each player receives four chips of his color. With them he must mark as especially important four of his research missions which he particularly wants to reach during the game. If he succeeds in this, he receives one additional point for each research destination with chips. Each chip that is not reached, however, is minus one point at the end of the game. Furthermore one should consider that the locations marked with chips are known by all other players!

2.4 Arrows

The arrows are sorted by colors and put beside the game board for all to reach. Each player may, when it is his turn, take the arrow of his choice and place it between two dots, i.e. on a black line.

All arrows of an expedition have the same color. Each of the three expeditions goes out from the starting point and form a protracted route over the course of the game.

2.5 Travel Vouchers

A player is chosen as banker and distributes to each player at the start of the game three travel vouchers. By turning in these vouchers, players can execute additional actions during their turn. At some points on the game board players can receive new coupons from the bank. Inspite of this one should manage his travel vouchers carefully.

3. Research Missions

3.1 Your Own Research Missions

The cards that each player received at the outset are his own research missions. He should ensure that the expeditions travel, preferably quickly, to the locations for which he possesses a card.

No matter whether the expedition arrives at a location via his own move or that of another player, in either case, the mission in question is settled immediately and the card placed face up before him.

The research missions of a player are in principle secret; only when the mission is fulfilled is the card revealed. The lone exception is the missions that have been marked by a colored chip of the player on the world map.

3.2 Game Chip Interpretations

At the outset of the game all players mark with chips of their color four locations, for which they naturally must have a research mission.

The oldest player begins and places one chip. He is followed by all other players in clockwise order. This process is repeated until all players have marked four locations.

One should consider that with the selection of the places, by their markings, the missions are no longer secret.

Marked research destinations must be at least two spaces away from the starting space.

3.3 Public Research Missions

The public research missions are available for each player. Whoever leads an expedition to the destination of such a mission takes the corresponding card and lays it in front of him. It provides an additional point at the end of the game.

Afterwards the public research mission stock is again expanded to six. The card that is uncovered is always valid, no matter how far it is from the starting point and even if an expedition has already traveled to this location.

4. Expeditions

4.1 Leading Expeditions

The expeditions are neutral. They do not "belong to" any player and their color serves only for separation into three distinct expeditions.

Plays proceeds in clockwise order. One may place one arrow per turn. The arrows must always be placed on a line between two points.

The oldest player starts. He takes one arrow of the color of his choice and puts it on the starting point along one of the six lines. The arrowhead always points from the origin to the next station.

Then it is the next player's turn. He now has the choice of continuing the expedition in the same color or beginning a new expedition with a different color.

If he starts a new expedition, he takes a different colored arrow and puts it on an unoccupied line from the starting point. Each new expedition starts at the starting point, and there may never be more than three expeditions.

Otherwise the players always have the free choice of which expedition they want to continue in their turn and which direction they want to take. But players can always only build further from the end of an expedition route.

Branches are not allowed except immediately after the construction of a loop. Also a turnabout by 180 degrees may not be placed. Arrows of one color may never lie parallel on the same line. Different-colored expeditions are allowed to be placed parallel to another route, i.e. they may use the same line.

Illustration 1: Not allowed: branches off! (Only allowed in the case of a loop!)   Not allowed: a turnabout, or a parallel construction in the same color.

Illustration 2: Allowed: parallel construction between different colored expeditions.

Should a player be allowed, by use of travel vouchers or by reaching a green dot, to place more arrows, it is allowed to split them among different expeditions.

If an expedition reaches the left or right game board side (at the stations 1, 2 or 3), the expedition may continue on the opposite side. You must however continue from the station with the same number.

4.2 Reaching an Expedition Destination

Each player tries to steer the expeditions so that they reach the places for which he possesses research missions. If an arrow reaches such a destination the player may reveal the corresponding card and lay it face up. This mission counts for one point at the end of the game. Furthermore if he has a chip on this place, he removes it and places it before himself. Each such counts as one point at the end of the game.

Also, if a location is reached during another player's turn, a player may lay down a matching mission card and collect his chip if one is there. One should therefore pay attention to the moves of the other players!

If a player realizes only later that he could have laid down an expedition card, he may catch up on this only if the expedition is still at this place. If the expedition is already further along, he may no longer lay down this card. He must try rather to guide the route of an expedition to this place again before he can fulfill this mission.

4.3 An Expedition Forms a Loop

When an expedition leads back to its own route, i.e. a loop forms, the current player then must add another arrow to this expedition, in fact at the point of his choice on this route. Only in this situation is a branch allowed!
Illustration 3: Example of a loop.

The new exit point for the additional arrow may be chosen freely. But it must be a point that the expedition was already at, i.e. a like-colored arrowhead must be present on this point. The arrowhead of the new location is as of now the end of the route. Here the expedition continues.

A player may in his turn form only one loop per expedition!

The meaning of the point at which a loop comes about naturally stays the same. At a green point e.g., the player may place two more arrows - one for the establishment of the loop (an arrow of the same color) and one for the green point (an arrow in any color).

Please note: A loop can also form from the removal of an arrow! (See: 5. Travel Vouchers)

4.4 All Arrows Have Been Spent

An expedition has finished if no arrows of this color are available. In this event only the remaining expeditions can continue.

5. Travel Vouchers

A player may use a maximum of two travel vouchers per turn to execute additional actions at the beginning, during or at the end of his game turn.

The following additional actions are possible by handing over one travel voucher:

We recommend: Whoever spends a travel voucher places it first of all on the word "EXPEDITION" on the game board and pays it to the bank only at the end of his turn. In this way one can ensure that a player hasn't used more than two travel vouchers per turn.

An example of the use of travel vouchers: An expedition is at Marib (Yemen, Asia). The next player puts an arrow to the red dot. Therefore he receives a travel voucher from the bank and puts with his others. Now he decides to use a travel voucher. He takes one from his supply and puts it on the game board. Next he takes an arrow (in our example, from the same expedition) and places it to reach the green station. He therefore immediately again places an arrow and leads this expedition further to the red station. He again takes a travel voucher from the bank. As he may immediately use this one, he also places it on the game board and places one more arrow to the green dot. For it he again places an arrow and thereby reaches Borobudur. He has now altogether used two travel vouchers and thus hhas ended his turn. The coupons are now given to the bank.
If a player uses a travel voucher to remove an arrow, he leads the expedition to its last point back.

If this is a research destination, players now have a new opportunity to lay aside the corresponding research mission, if one has neglected this previously. If this leads the expedition back to a red or green station, then the corresponding rules (2.1) apply. [Translator's note: The intent is that the player gets the benefit of the red or green dots when an arrow is removed and the expedition in effect backtracks to one of those positions.]

Example of removal of an arrow: The expedition finds itself in Borobudur. The next player pays a travel voucher and removes the last arrow that leads to Borobudur. The expedition is now at a green station, therefore the player may place one additional arrow. He places this arrow to Angkor and with own turn leads the expedition towards Tschangan (Chang An). Although he could use one more travel voucher, he ends his turn.
The last possible use of travel vouchers is to Exchange a Research Mission. The player spending a travel voucher turns in one of his research cards, puts it beneath the stack and receives instead two new cards from the stack (provided there are still some available). He chooses one of the cards and takes it into his hand, the other is again concealed beneath the stack.

[According to email from designer Wolfgang Kramer: you are not allowed to exchange expedition cards that have chips placed on their location.]

6. End of the Game

When a player lays down his last expedition card, each player who has not yet moved in this round, gets one more turn. Then the game has finished.

The game ends immediately however when no more arrows can be played.

The research missions and game chips are now tabulated:

All points are added. The winner is the player with the most points.

7. Advanced Variants

7.1 Variant A

All rules apply from the basic game except for the following additions.

At the start of the game players receive all chips of their color. Each may decide now to place as many game chips as they would like. Decisions on where the chips are placed must agree with the basic rules. Whoever no longer wishes place chips passes and puts the unused chips back into the box.

Also in this variant: each collected game chip counts one plus point, each chip that remains on the game board at the end counts one minus point.

Whoever forms a loop, may only place the additional arrow on a dot of the loop and not, as in the basic game, at any dot in the expedition.

Three points to note:

  1. One may place only on the dots of the last formed loop of the expedition.

    (The examples in the following illustrations demonstrate the course of the last loop. The numbers specify the order of play).

    Illustration 4: The expedition may be built further only at the dots 2, 3, 9 and 10.

  2. In the cases where several loops of one expedition criss-cross itself and the exact course of the last loop is not obvious at first glance, the directions of the arrows should denote the last built loop.

    Illustration 5: The expedition is built further here to the stations 11, 12, 13 and 14, and it has closed one more loop. If one looks at the last dot of this new loop (station: 14) the course the arrows follows becomes clear, that the new loop includes the following stations: 14, 7, 8, 3, 9, 10, 2, 11, 12, 13. From these dots the expedition may now proceed further.

  3. In the cases when placing an arrow establishes several loops, the smallest loop expedition is always considered to be the last built. And only from this end may more be built.

    Illustration 6: Here the expedition has continued to stations 15 and 16, and again a loop was closed. One realizes that there are now two possibilities to determine the last loop. Going out from the last dot of the loop at station 16 the first possible loop travels over the dots 16, 10, 2, 3, 9 and again to 15. The second possible loop travels over 16, 10, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14, 7, 8, 3, 9 and 15. Should there be, as in this case two possibilities, it is always the shorter loop that counts.

7.2 Variant B

Variant B can be added to the rules of the basic game or the rules of Variant A. The following rules are added:

For this game the chips are used as follows::

The winner in this variant is the one player who first collects all of his game chips. If no one succeeds in this, then the winner is the one with the most chips. If this is a tie, then the spaces are counted to the completion of the missions still on the board. The winner then is the player who would take the fewest possible moves to reach the remaining missions. If there is a tie here too, then the game is a draw.

8. Appendix

The Author

Wolfgang Kramer, born 1942 in Stuttgart, management expert, worked for 25 years in the field of organization and data processing. In parallel since 1974 he has invented games -- at first as a hobby, since 1989 as a main occupation.

As a game author has published over 60 games with a total output of more than 5 million copies. Many of his games have been excellent. Thus he has earned the "Spiel des Jahres" [Game of the Year] prize twice, the "Kinderspiel des Jahres" [Children's Game of the Year] prize once and the "Deutschen Spielepreis" [German Game Prize ] once. Several times he has appeared on the short list for the "Spiel des Jahres". There have been other prizes in France, Belgium and Holland.

The Story of the Origin of EXPEDITION

If we want to dig up the roots of EXPEDITION we must turn back the calendar. In 1972 I developed my second game. It was for children and one placed little sticks on a game board. This game was published in 1974 as "Legemax". The game was no great success. Accordingly it also soon disappeared from the shelves of the game stores. However, I pursued the main principle of the game and thus arose "Fahrradtour" [Bicycle Tour] (1982) and "Abenteuer Tierwelt" [Wildlife Adventure] (1985).

Abenteuer Tierwelt was very successful. In Germany it earned the "Essener Feather" [Essen Quill] and in France under the title "Grand Safari" the distinction "game of the year" (Prix du Jouet 1985). It sold in total more than 300,000 copies; a very considerable success. It would not be long before the game would be again re-published. From Abenteuer Tierwelt came EXPEDITION. Animals became important, mysterious locations. The Abenteuer Tierwelt game system was largely employed, although with EXPEDITION there are a few important changes.

In order to find all of the mysterious and enigmatic places, the publisher and I searched through more than 60 books. In the Mediterranean, in the west and southern part of Asia as well as in the homes of the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans there are numerous such legendary places, which could not all be included in the game.

I needed more than 3 months for the work on the game board alone. The route network with its locations was continually varied and altered. In the course of development there were more than 15 different game boards. What you see here I have resolved after many playtests.

Despite the considerable time needed, work on the game always made for a lot of fun. The rummaging around in books, the search for mysterious places, the optimization of the game board and the many test plays were for me more pleasure than work.

Now, after the conclusion of all of the work, I have only one wish, that the game please you just as much as it does me!

Yours

(signature of Wolfgang Kramer)

9. Brief Rules (Basic Game)

1. Set Up

The banker gives each player: 3 travel vouchers
4 game chips
12 research mission cards (with 2-3 players)
9 research mission cards (with 4-6 players)
Six open research missions are revealed. Each of these missions must be at least 3 segments from the starting point, otherwise new cards must be drawn.

2. Course of the Game

Played clockwise, the oldest player beginning. He places a chip on a research goal for which he has a card in hand (at least 2 segments away from the start). Then all the others follow in order until each has placed his four chips.

The start player now places the first arrow on one of the six segments that lead out from the starting point. The following players have the choice of starting a new expedition or continuing an existing one.

Building Rules

Each turn an arrow is placed.
A further arrow may be placed if one has built a loop, or if one pays a travel voucher.
One may spend two travel vouchers per turn. The additional actions they afford are printed on each voucher.

Each arrow must continue an expedition, therefore no gaps may exist. Two arrows of the same color may never be placed on the same segment. Branching is only allowed at the moment a loop is closed. In this case the same expedition may be branched from any point.

Upon arrival of the board dots:
Green Station Dot - one may immediately place another arrow
Red Station Dot - one receives a travel voucher from the bank
Research Goal - the player with the corresponding mission lays it down, even if not his turn.

An open mission may only be claimed by the player whose turn it is. Following this a new open research mission is drawn from the deck.

3. Game End and Scoring

The game ends
when a player has fulfilled all of his research missions (upon which all the players who have not yet had a turn in this round take a last turn),
or if all of the arrows are used up (then the game ends immediately).

There is a plus point for:

There is a minus point for:

The player with the highest total points wins the game.

We wish you much Vergnügen


spotlightongames.com