The Guild of Merchant Explorers

This brings the 'roll and write' genre full circle back to board games. The nature of this type of game is very multiple solitaire and Guild of Merchant Explorers is no different but it can still be fun and there is so much variability through the different maps and the investigate cards that it creates a great little puzzle. And to me, the fact that you have a real ‘board’ makes it just that little bit more enjoyable than crossing things off on a bit of paper.

Multiplayer solitaire at it's finest. What a great game.

Has a satisfying amount of decision making, largely due to the special power cards and planning around how to maximise their benefits. Would rate higher if it were not for the fiddly components that turns this into a dexterity game.

This could have been an engaging flip-and-write game - the basic premise is tremendously easy to grasp: flip a card each turn, and everyone explores those region hexes on their maps, while maintaining the cardinal rule of never exploring spaces you aren't already adjacent to.

The problems begin when you actually get down to doing it, and the game starts showing its upkeep-heavy side. For a game of this weight, there are actually a significant number of rules to remember as you place your explorer cubes out and while none of these rules are particularly difficult taken in isolation, it isn't easy keeping track of all of them simultaneously.

It's worse when you're trying to teach a group of relative new gamers (which I've had to do and who games of this weight are ostensibly targeted at), and the game required me to handhold and watch them through their moves because of the sheer number of moving parts (literally!) and various considerations.

Which brings me to my second complaint, which is related to the first - the game is fiddly as hell. These explorer cubes are incredibly easy to disturb, and having to move them to place thin disks underneath them is clunky and hard-to-do without messing up the cubes around them. Surely there must have been an easier way to implement this?!

A roll and write without rolling or writing? Yes. I really liked it as it was interesting to know what cards would come out, to plan your path to riches (and points) as well as get some additional clever and powerful abilities unique to yourself. Deserves more plays and may add to my collection.

Really excellent and easy to teach, with lots of variability. My version is French but still a great game. Not a lot to look at however but plays fast.

Includes Queens Special Orders Expansion