Designer:  Reiner Knizia (Amun-Re, Battle Line, Blue Lagoon, Blue Moon City, Carcassonne: The Castle, Colossal Arean, Dream Factory, High Society, Ingenious, The Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, Lost Cities, Medici, Modern Art, The Quest for El Dorado, Samurai, Ra, Schotten Totten, Taj Mahal, Through the Desert, Tigris & Euphrates, Winner’s Circle)

Artists: Jacqui Davis (Colosseum, Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, Ex Libris, Stockpile, Viticulture, Viticulture Essential Edition, Wingspan), Matt Paquette (Call to Adventure, Mystic Vale, Thunderstone Quest, Tiny Towns)

Publisher:  25th Century Games (Christmas Lights: A Card Game, Ra, Space Explorers)

Genre/Mechanisms: abstract strategy, card drafting, modular board, set collection

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Tutankhamun is already fully-funded. Pledges currently total more than the initial funding goal with 5 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 2-6

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About: “Collect artifacts, invoke the power of the gods, and chart your course down the Nile in this family friendly tile game.”

How It Works: “The object of the game is to be the first player to totally expend your wealth. Each player starts with the same wealth; the more players there are, the less wealth each player starts with. Place the Jar markers on the Tomb Wealth Track at the initial wealth number, based on the following player count: 30 at 2 players, 28 at 3 players, 24 at 4 players, 20 at 5 players, and 18 at 6 players.”

Turns progress in clockwise order. Each turn, the active player performs the following steps: “1) Sail their Boat down the Nile to any unclaimed tile in front of them (you can never sail back up the Nile); 2) Resolve the tile they have sailed to. If it’s an artifact, place it in front of them as part of their collection. If it’s a God Idol tile, play it immediately; 3) Resolve any trailing tiles; 4) Score tile sets as they are completed in steps 2 and 3; and 5) When all tiles are resolved, play passes clockwise to the next player.”

“When the last tile of a set is removed from the Nile (whether or not there are tiles of that set in the Underworld), the set is scored. The player who collected the most tiles of the set spends gold by moving their Canopic Jar token down along the Wealth Track by the number listed on the tile (which corresponds to the number of tiles that are in the set: 2, 4, 6, or 8). The player who collected the second most tiles of the set moves their token down along the Wealth Track by the amount of gold equal to half the set’s value (1, 2, 3, or 4). If only one person has collected tiles from that set, no second place gold is deducted. If there is a tie for first place, the player whose Boat marker is furthest upstream on the Nile river will earn first place with the other player taking second. If there is a tie for second, the player furthest back will win the tiebreaker and the other player will not get to spend any gold.”

“There are 10 Scarab Ring tiles in the game (1-point tiles). These are scored differently. When you collect a Scarab Ring tile from the Nile, you immediately spend one gold, reducing your score by 1 on the Wealth Track, and place the tile in front of you. Once the final Scarab has been removed from the Nile, the player with the most Scarab Ring tiles is awarded a 5-point bonus, immediately reducing their gold by 5 on the Wealth Track. If there is a tie in number of Scarab Ring tiles, the player whose Boat is furthest upstream on the Nile is awarded the points.”

“Once a set is scored, collect all of its tiles from players and the Underworld and deposit them in the Tomb of King Tutankhamun (which represents that artifact being placed in the tomb). They will not be used again in the game. When the final Scarab Ring tile is collected from the Nile (or moved to the Underworld), award the 5-point bonus and move all of them to the Tomb as well.”

“The game ends at the end of a turn when a player reaches zero on the Wealth Track (you cannot go below zero; any excess spending is ignored). If there is only one player with zero gold, that player is the winner. If more than one player has reached zero on the Wealth Track, the tie is broken, as always, by whichever player’s Boat marker is furthest upstream on the Nile. If no one reaches zero before all tiles are gone from the Nile, then the player with the least remaining gold wins, with a tie broken as usual.”

Comparisons: The process of winding down a path in a sort of race, and collecting tiles along that path for scoring as well as “take that” opportunities, is reminiscent of both Bites and Deep Sea Adventure. A few other well-regarded and highly-rated light games that pair modular boards with set collection include Blue Moon City, Century: Eastern Wonders / Century Golem Edition: Eastern Mountains, Eight Minute Empire: Legends, Explorers of the North Sea, Forbidden Desert / Forbidden Island, Imhotep, La Isla, Luxor, Parks, Takenoko, and Targi.

What Should I Pledge?:
$29 Standard Edition: includes the base game and the promotional mini-expansion.
$44 Standard Edition + Playmat: includes the base game, the promotional mini-expansion, and a neoprene play mat.
$49 Deluxe Edition: includes the Deluxe game and the Deluxe promotional mini-expansion (the Deluxe game comes with wooden Artifact tiles and God Idol tiles instead of carboard, wooden Guardian Statues instead of cardboard, a neoprene Underworld mat instead of board, and screen-printing on the Canopic Jar Markers and Boat Markers).
$64 Deluxe Edition + Playmat: includes the Deluxe game, the Deluxe promotional mini-expansion, and a neoprene play mat.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives
None.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $64 for the Deluxe Edition + Playmat plus $12 in shipping for a total of $76.

Tutankhamun completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, August 13th and tentatively ships in January 2021.