A flip and write that does away with the write, consequently catches my ‘cube pushing Euro fan’ eye and reveals itself to be a much better solo experience than multiplayer. The Guild of Merchant Explorers – my new favourite ‘half hour relaxer with a morning coffee’ game.
The Guild of Merchant Explorers
Designers: Matthew Dunstan, Brett J. Gilbert
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Released: 2022
How to play:
Grab one of four maps each with varying layouts, difficulties and unique challenges but all of them consisting of grasslands, deserts, mountains and vast swathes of sea. They also all have a starting city slap bang in the middle of the map from which you will begin placing cubes - your Explorers - who will traverse the map.
The game takes place over four rounds and in each you will randomly flip five cards which let you place a cube adjacent to either your starting city or any cubes you may have already placed. The cards are:
• Mountain: Place a cube on one mountain space
• Desert: Place a cube on two desert spaces
• Grassland: Place a cube on any two grass spaces
• Sea: Place a cube on three sea spaces but they must be in a straight line
• Wild: Place a cube on any two spaces adjacent to each other.
In each round you will also have a corresponding numbered card added into the deck. When these number cards are drawn you get to take two cards from an Investigate deck, keeping one for the remainder of the game and discarding the other. These Investigate cards provide you with amazing and unique powers much stronger than those simpler base cards. They might let you move much further across the sea, or let you move across multiple terrains all in one go, place your cubes in certain shapes or lines etc. Just really strong powers but ones that you won’t know you have until you actually draw, use and keep that Investigate card. In the second round, when you draw that Number 1 card again (it stays in the deck for the rest of the game), take the Number 1 special power again and when you then draw the Number 2 card, grab yourself another two Investigate cards and get yourself a new Investigate power Number 2. Round 3? Buckle up for when cards 1 & 2 come out as its super power 1 and 2 time again and get yourself yet another power when the Number 3 card comes out. In the fourth and final round, rather than gaining a fourth new power you just get to choose a power from the three you already have – in effect getting to take one of your previously gained Investigate powers twice in that final round.
As you traverse the lands using your base cards and Investigate powers, if you block out specific clusters of unique terrain – for example a set of desert or mountain spaces - then you can place a ‘Village’ in that area. Villages are important - not only will they score you points when placed but at the end of each round all of your explorer cubes that you have been using are cleared from the board. During the next round however, not only can you start placing your explorer cubes from your starting city in the middle of the map, you can also now place cubes from any of these permanent villages. So in order to start making your way meaningfully across the map then you really aren’t going to want to always have to start exploring from the very beginning – you are going to want to discover lots of villages from which to set off from instead. So get building them!
Some spaces on the map have coins that can be claimed and coins equal points. Some spaces have trading posts with numbers on them – connect two trading posts together and get points. Some spaces have ‘ruins’ that let you discover treasure – some minor immediate or end game bonuses. Some spaces on the edges of the map let you build Towers which are worth large points given how far you have had to travel in order to build them. Each game also has three randomised objective cards that offer some 'first past the post' points in the multiplayer game or act as win conditions in the solo game.
And that’s pretty much it. Flip a card and place cubes. Flip a numbered card and gain / take a super strong action. Try to build villages to increase your reach, try to fulfil objectives, try to get coins – pick up treasure along the way and build towers. Four rounds = The End. Count up your accrued points and hope you have enough.
General Headlines:
A game outside of my usual comfort zone of ‘deep, strategic mid-heavy euro’, none-the-less the artwork in particular caught my eye along with the ‘exploring maps and building outwards’ theme. A light enough game, I was up and running in absolutely no time. A very quick read of the short, simple to follow rulebook, 5 minutes of a play through video until I quickly reached the ‘oh, ok I get that, its pretty straightforward’ and then I dived into my first game, only checking the rulebook once and even then I didn’t particularly need to. It’s a really easy learn and a quick 30 minute game. And to be honest, there isn’t a huge amount of crunch - just a pretty relaxed, enjoyable play.
That said, its also a really satisfying play. In all the simplicity of ‘flip a card and place cubes’ there are some excellent moments of drama, tension, emotion and joy:
As you already know in advance what the possible options are and can easily see what is left to come after a couple of cards have already been drawn you are going to be delighted when you are really hoping that the next card lets you explore grassland and the luck of the draw brings you the grassland card: “Yeeeessssss”. Equally, you are going to slump when you don’t get the card you were expecting. But not for long – you’ll very quickly get back on the horse, pivot, lick your lips as you scan the map thinking “right, what can I do instead”. It’s really rare, if ever, that you can’t do something; the game is absolutely chocker with pivots and new plans and finding ways. It’s not the depth or heaviness of the decisions here that are great, it’s the frequency of the decisions. The game just keeps you in a permanently light decision space / pivoting space - and that constant element of the unknown of what could happen next keeps you on enjoyable tenterhooks throughout. But you can also plan a little and not just react: “well I can see that the desert card hasn’t come out yet and neither has the sea card so working on the assumption they both get drawn next then I just might be able to do X,Y or Z”
Then there are the moments in the game when you get to choose your unique Investigate cards and what delicious, spectacular power it is going to give you that will now let you do even more in your game. Ok, I’m not quite as excited when they arrive as when I woke up on Christmas morning as a child but I tell you what, I’m not far off. You really look forward to them - what are they going to let you do and how are they going to impact on the game?!? I wouldn’t be half as interested if I had been randomly assigned them at the start of the game and could plan from the get go how I might use them. The fact I gain them throughout the game and incrementally grow stronger is just a superb design decision and I would say the game's USP. And again, even more pivoting; “oooohhhh wow, now I can do THIS and it changes EVERYTHING”. They make what is in essence a repetitive process feel really refreshing and exciting each game…as do the games randomly assigned main objective cards which can focus you with some possible strategies to pursue - but more on these objective cards when I talk about the solo mode later. The four maps also have subtle differences and unique challenges which aid variability and replayability.
I thought there might be a chance that I might not like having to remove all of my explorers and undo the hard work that I had built up at the end of each round. However, I didn’t find it an issue at all, in fact I quite like the tension of wanting and needing to build Villages during each round and viewed each one that I managed to build as a success in anticipation of clearing my map of explorers. Some may see the end of each round as wiping away all of your hard work. I see it as revealing the fruits of your labour.
Solo Headlines:
This is a solo game. I don’t care what the official player count on the box says. Much in the same way that I sometime get frustrated by multiplayer games that claim to be playable solo but the solo mode just all feels a bit tacked on or ‘meh’, this is the total reverse. For me this technically can be played with other people but that doesn't mean it should be. In fact the opposite - this is a much better solo game than it is multiplayer. Indeed after one game of playing this multiplayer with Mrs Headlines from a Solo Player we both agreed that we’d much prefer to instead sit and just play the solo game. Which we both did, and both agreed that we’d enjoyed the solo experience a whole lot more. A couple of reasons why:
Firstly, even though some modern Euros have minimal interaction and can be accused of being multiplayer solitaire (I say ‘accused’ there like I think it’s a bad thing - I don’t), the heavier ones leave me needing a little bit of time in between my turns to fall down an Analysis Paralysis hole or ten. An ideal time then for someone else to be taking their turns. As this game is quite light despite the constant pivoting, it is more than snappy and quick and you can do a few turns very sharply indeed. Now even though this is meant to be a simultaneous game where players take turns at the same time, it rarely works like that and there are inevitable pauses. The waits aren’t huge but regardless, when all you want to do is ‘flip, quick, flip, quick’ the pauses just throw me off my canter and I found it frustrating. There is not a single bit of interaction in the game other than the race to optionally achieve the games shared Objective Cards which could get you some optional bonus points….
…and on the topic of the Objective Cards; in the multiplayer these are optional (but advised) races to complete certain tasks in the game. Much like Honey Buzz, another game I recently reviewed that I preferred solo to multiplayer, in the solo mode here these Objectives are win conditions. If by the end of the game you haven’t met them all then it doesn’t matter how many points you have - you lose. This lifts the whole game brilliantly and just gives it some additional chew. Now the game is no longer about where you might like to go, its about where you absolutely have to go and what you have to do. I have to make sure I build three villages in deserts. I have to make sure that I have reached two discovery towers and I have to make sure that I have to have used enough trading posts. You get the idea. Every turn has the same highs and lows as before but they are amplified now as I chase those objectives and the clock ticks further and further to them running out of sight. They aren’t that tough – I think I have managed them every game so far - but as a fan of strategic games having them in my eyeline at all times adds some focus to the game that is otherwise missing for me. Indeed if I ever did play this game multiplayer again (which is doubtful) then I would insist on house ruling that the objective card win conditions were brought over from the solo mode. They frame each game excellently.
Anything I didn’t like?
A little bit of initial disappointment when I first opened the box. If you are expecting a heavy box full of components then you’ll be disappointed. There is not a huge amount inside and perhaps the box didn’t even need to be as big. Its quite deceiving. The gameplay made up for the disappointment of what was contained within the box but expect to be a little underwhelmed. I do love the art and colour palette though. Similarly the maps themselves aren’t thick boards, they are thick card. They feel laminated and durable enough. My main gripes with them is that I would have liked them to be a little bigger – both aesthetically as I like good table presence with my games but equally placing and removing cubes can be at times a little fiddly.
Neither of those points are deal breakers. They are minor qualms there for what is an excellent, light game of constant pivoting and constant satisfaction. A game firmly staying in the collection and a definite recommendation for solo play.
At a glance:
+ Quick to learn, set up and play
+ The ‘luck of the draw’ doesn’t hobble your game, it instead creates really juicy pivots throughout.
+ You gain massive powers as the game progresses which hit the dopamine spot brilliantly
+ The game is really good played solo
- Box contents are a little underwhelming
- Main boards could be bigger / placing and removing cubes can be a little fiddly
Final Score:
8.5 out of 10. (An especially good game solo - I'd likely drop a point for multiplayer).
Reviewed after 11 plays.
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