Hello all! I'm back to talk about one of my family's favorite games at the moment, The Guild of Merchant Explorers. This game resembles a roll and write game in that cards are revealed one at a time that feature different regions, and players all place a cube on the revealed region on their board, similar to the way in which players draw a piece of highway or railroad in Railroad Ink, which I've reviewed here. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to play, and is highly replayable thanks to the inclusion of four different maps to explore.
Here is the game's cover, which features its Rennaissance-era ships and buildings.
In The Guild of Merchant Explorers, all players take their turn simultaneously. The top card of the deck is flipped up, and players must place a cube on a hex in a region matching the one shown on the card: either a mountain, grassland, desert, or ocean. They must either place their cube next to a cube which they have already played or next to the starting space. Once they have done so, the next card is flipped up, and so players can begin to make their way to the farthest corners of their map.
Here is a game of The Guild of Merchant Explorers in progress.
However, once all of the cards have been flipped up, the round is over, and players must remove their cubes and start afresh. In order to avoid having to start from the starting space every round, players can place cubes in all of the adjacent spaces which make up one region, for example a set of four desert spaces which touch and are surrounded by spaces which belong to other regions. They can then build a village on one of the spaces in that region. In the next round, they may either place cubes next to cubes they have played that round, next to the starting space, or next to a village. A village is also worth a number of coins equal to the current round number.
In The Guild of Merchant Explorers, players are trying to collect as much money as possible in six ways. First, if they place a cube on a space with one or more coins printed on it, they can take that many coins, which are equal to points. Second, when they build a village, they score coins equal to the current round number. Third, they can connect two cities on the board with cubes and multiply the values on those cities together. If they do so, they receive that many coins. One of the two cities is then covered with a "trading post" to show that it cannot be connected to another city later in the game. Fourth, when players reach a "discovery tower", they receive coins according to how many discovery towers they have visited. With each new tower, each subsequent tower becomes worth more points. Fifth, they can complete the objectives at the center of the table, which are things like "Connect two towns which give you a value of 12 coins." The first person to accomplish an objective receives ten coins, and each subsequent person gets five. Finally, players can place cubes on ruin spaces, which allows them to take a random card from the ruin deck. This may give them coins, allow them to place another cube, or allow them to score coins at the end of the game for each of certain features, like towers or villages, they have built or for each of the amphora cards they received from the ruin deck.
This is the center of the table in a game of The Guild of Merchant Explorers. The board at the top shows players which cards have already been flipped up by placing those cards on the board and leaving the symbols from the other cards uncovered. Below it are the three objective cards for that game.
Those are almost all of the rules, so this game can be taught in about five minutes, but it is a delight to play, because of each of the strategic decisions which players must make as they decide where to place their cubes. Although all players have the same map in front of them, and are placing a cube on a hex in a region of the same type, they will all make different decisions. But there is one key feature which I haven't yet mentioned, which always gets players excited when playing this game.
Once per round, players will be given two cards with unique powers on them, and get to choose which one they would like to keep. They then place that card on the roman numeral corresponding to that round (i.e. I for round 1, II for round 2, etc.). Every time a card is drawn with that roman numeral on it, players get to use that power. This is a delightful element, because players have agency over which card they will choose, and the card they choose will always be very powerful.
And those are all of the rules! If you would like more maps than the four that are included in the game, there is a $10 expansion which you can buy from the publisher, AEG's website. The pictures included here are taken of the first of the two maps in that expansion, North Proylia. They are great maps, and are definitely worth the ten extra dollars.
And there you have it! What kind of game would you like to see reviewed next? A true roll and write, or more of a party game? Let me know in the comments below and I'll see you in the next review!
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