Unearth

Today's review is of the 2017 release, Unearth.  For 2-4 players, it takes 30-60 minutes.

Overview
Civilization was once glorious, but is now fallen.  Your job is to use your delvers (dice) to claim ruins and unearth your heritage.  On your turn, you:
- can play one or more 'delver' cards (optional)
- name one ruin on the board, choose one of your die to roll, and place the rolled die on that ruin.

If after either step, the combined numerical value of dice on a ruin meets or exceeds the ruins printed value, the person with the largest value die on that ruin claims it.  Those players with di(c)e on the ruin who didn't claim it get to draw X delver cards, where X = the number of dice they have on the card.  A new ruin is drawn and placed in the play area; play continues until all ruins have been claimed.

components; image from here

Rolling high values is nice, as it increases your probability to claim a ruin.  But rolling low is not necessarily bad, either- if you roll a 1, 2, or 3, you get to claim a stone.  Stones are placed on all ruins as they come into play; low-rolling players get to claim a stone from them as they place their die (or from the bag, if all stones are gone on the ruin card).  Players use stones to construct wonders- they create a hexagonal pattern with their stones and, upon completing a ring, can earn a greater wonder (if the stones are all the same color), lesser wonder (no color restrictions), or named wonder (earned by playing stones as indicated on the named wonder card) with special abilities.

game in progress; image from here

When all ruins have been claimed, points are totaled.  As a set collection game, you get points based on the number of ruins of a given color (there are five different colors) you collect.  Then, you get additional points based on your wonders.  Highest total wins!

Review
I really liked this game.  Boardgamegeek calls it a "bend-your-luck game of dice placement and set collection;" it's a good description.  What ultimately appealed to me is the options you have- low rolling can actually be desired in some cases- and you always get something for your efforts.  And between ruin cards and wonders, there are multiple ways to earn points, so even if you're not claiming many ruins, you may be building wonders to keep you in the running.  Delver cards can help a lot and are a nice consolation price for not claiming a ruin.  My only ding is the theme- I love it, but it's pasted on here; I wish it were more integrated somehow.  That aside, though, this one goes on my want list.

Rating: A