GUILD OF MERCHANT EXPLORERS, THE (2022)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
1-4	45 mins	Matthew Dunstan Brett J. Gilbert	Alderac Entertainment Group

In this Flip ‘n’ Write (without the writing), players are venturing out from their starting city and travelling across land and sea, discovering ruins, gaining treasure, and building more settlements.

The game is played out on hex maps of which there are four different ones that come with the game. Each map adds mechanics as you work through them to add a little more challenge.

Each round consists of a number of terrain cards being flipped each turn, and each card reveals a type of terrain the players can place their explorer cubes on.

What’s important here is that you need to build new settlements on your journey as at the end of a round all your cubes are removed. In the next round you can only start from your main city again, or a settlement.

So if you don’t build, you’ll be starting right back at the beginning again which will hinder your progress.

Another cool mechanic I really like are the investigation cards. Each era, an Era card is added to the draw deck, and this will correspond with an investigation card that gives a unique explore power to the player.

Or more simply put, over the course of the game each player will become more asymmetric from their opponents.

The Investigate powers can be really strong, and if they show up at the right time they can be a lifeline.

I’ve seen players complain about the art of this game, and while it is a little on the brown/grey side of design, I feel it really fits in with the old times style of cartography while having its own distinct feel.

The game is dictated by luck of the card draw, and there will be turns that your exploration is hindered by the wrong terrain at the wrong time, but some planning can alleviate this.

Simple to teach, and relaxing to play, this is a game where you focus on your own little world and enjoy the challenge of reaching out across the map.