Your rating:
In The Guild of Merchant Explorers, each player starts with one city on their personal map board. Shuffle the deck of terrain cards, then reveal most of these cards one by one. Based on the terrain revealed, each player places on their board cubes that are connected to their starting city or other cubes. You want to complete areas on your board, cross the seas to new land, and establish new cities on the board. You can explore capsized ships for treasure — which gives you special placement capabilities — and create linked connections between locations to score bonus points. Common objectives can be completed by all players, with those who complete it first scoring more points. At the end of a round, all cubes are removed from each board, leaving only the cities behind, so if you don't establish new cities, you'll be stuck in the same places. The Guild of Merchant Explorers contains multiple copies of four different maps, and the game is designed so that you can play remotely with one or more copies.
| Year | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Designers | Matthew Dunstan, Brett J. Gilbert |
| Artists | Gerralt Landman |
| Publishers | YOKA Games, Lucky Duck Games, CMON Global Limited, Origames, Alderac Entertainment Group, 株式会社ケンビル (KenBill), Skellig Games, Tabletop KZ, Delirium Games |
| Players | 1–4 |
| Time | 45 min |
| Status | Previously owned |
| BGG Rating | 7.6 |
| Categories | Fantasy, Exploration, Adventure |
| Mechanics | Hidden Victory Points, Chaining, Hexagon Grid, Network and Route Building, Solo / Solitaire Game, Line Drawing, Bingo, Pattern Movement |
| BGG Rank | 363 |
| Complexity | 2.05 / 5 |
| Language | Some necessary text - easily memorized or small crib sheet |
| Date | Location | Duration | Qty | Players | Scores | Winner | |
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2026-01-08 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 112.00 | 112.00 |
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2025-11-12 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 176.00 | 176.00 |
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2025-03-13 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 157.00 | 157.00 |
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2025-03-03 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 137.00 | 137.00 |
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2025-02-13 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 144.00 | 144.00 |
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2025-02-10 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 151.00 | 151.00 |
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2025-02-10 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 104.00 | 104.00 |
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2025-02-10 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 156.00 | 156.00 |
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2025-01-27 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 107.00 | 107.00 |
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2025-01-23 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 151.00 | 151.00 |
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2025-01-22 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 167.00 | 167.00 |
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2025-01-22 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 103.00 | 103.00 |
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2025-01-21 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 136.00 | 136.00 |
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2025-01-20 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 139.00 | 139.00 |
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2025-01-20 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 0.00 | |
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2025-01-15 | Board Game Arena | – | 1 | Yashima | 126.00 | 126.00 |
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2024-06-17
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 145.00 | 145.00 |
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2024-06-17
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 148.00 | 148.00 |
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2024-06-17
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 142.00 | 142.00 |
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2024-06-17
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 102.00 | 102.00 |
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2024-06-15
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 127.00 | 127.00 |
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2024-06-15
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 104.00 | 104.00 |
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2024-06-13
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 116.00 | 116.00 |
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2022-11-08
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 172.00 | 172.00 |
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2022-11-06
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 135.00 | 135.00 |
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2022-11-05
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 180.00 | 180.00 |
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2022-11-05
Details
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At home | – | 1 | Yashima | 89.00 |
My BGG Comment
This game is a descendant of Kingdom Builder and at least one Roll & Write. I've enjoyed my games of it, as it is easily learned and quickly grokked. There is some variety in the box with 4 maps and different abilities. Since everyone plays on their own map it has an excellent and easy solo-mode but it loses the interactivity of a shared map. However, I am deducting a bit from my rating a) it is a bit fiddly (which could be neglected if not for my other niggling) and b) the game is too small for the big square box and the associated price. If it was the size and price of a standard Carcassonne box it would be a far better fit. edit 2024: Trying to reconcile with the Kennerspiel nomination. Verdict: It's fine. I like the feeling of exploration. But it's still basically a fluffed up R&W with added fiddly because you place the little figures instead of just crossing stuff out on a sheet of paper. Also it is quickly getting repetitive. Not keen on anything but solo play. We don't table a lot of light fillers. 2026: After 27 plays. A big square box filled with lots of air. This is basically a very fancy Roll & Write. If it had been in a way smaller box I might have kept it. The game itself is not half bad and since giving away my copy I have played more games of it on BGA than I ever played on my physical copy. For a Roll & Write it would be one of the better ones I have played. But instead you put down fiddly tokens... even if it was not available on BGA anymore, I wouldn't miss it. There are enough Roll & Write games around as it is. But since I know the rules and the BGA implementation is pretty good at automating the game, I keep returning to it every once in a while.
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