The Guild of Merchant Explorers Review

Who knew putting cubes on a map could be so fun?

The Guild of Merchant Explorers from AEG has players exploring a map and collecting treasures and building new villages along the way. Each turn of the round, a card is flipped over showing a different type of terrain. Players will place their cubes on the map based on the patterns and then the next card will be flipped over. Every round, there is a card added that will allow you to "break" the system. This can allow you to cross over multiple terrains or go further than normal. These cards are added to the game for the rest of the game and new ones will come out each round. If you fill an entire region with cubes, you place a village somewhere on there. This counts as a permanent starting area. If you cover a treasure, you'll take a treasure card which can grant end game scoring points. The goal of the game is to have the most coins at the end of the game from your exploration. After 4 rounds, players will tally up their coins and whoever has the most wins.

The Good: There are so many different options throughout the whole game. Players can decide to branch off in totally different directions in order to maximize their scores by collecting treasures, or maybe you want to try and get all of the towers in the corner. Lofty goals, but doable. There are 4 different maps in the game for lots of replay value and the solo mode plays perfectly. You simply cover up some scoring values each round if you didn't get them in time.

The Okay: There are lots of bits to this game. A surprising amount of bits. Each player has their cubes but there's also the villages, treasures, and some unique pieces for the other maps. That doesn't include the coins of different values that you need to sift through to find the value you need. It's not unmanageable but it's pretty annoying.

The Not so Good: The game is great, but the theme is very dry. You're going to probably struggle to get this to the table with a lot of people. Putting cubes on a map isn't the easiest sell in the world. If you're someone like me who's incredibly boring, it sounds like a treat but most people in my groups want some action.

Final Thoughts: The Guild of Merchant Explorers came out of nowhere and blew me away. It's such a simple game but it's extremely difficult to do well in. Because you can get distracted by shiny things next to you, you may veer away from your initial plan but it could wind up being the right play in the end. It's not the most exciting game in the world, but it's such a smooth playing game that is full of choices. I couldn't recommend this enough, especially if you're looking for a solo game. The solo mode is terrific.

Thanks to AEG for providing me with a review copy.