The Guild of Merchant Explorers
Map forgotten lands, establish villages that endure between eras, connect cities and collect treasure in a simultaneous exploration puzzle where most of your progress disappears every round.
The Guild of Merchant Explorers is a 2022 exploration strategy game by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert, published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). Players receive matching maps, reveal a shared series of exploration cards and independently choose how to place cubes. The player earning the most coins after four eras wins.
The defining rule is the era reset: at each era’s end, explorers are removed while established villages, trading posts, discovery towers and treasure markers remain. The real challenge is turning temporary journeys into permanent routes for future eras.
What makes it stand out?
All players see the same exploration cards but make different geographical decisions. A village created in an early era gives you a new permanent starting point; a long expedition that scores well now may vanish before it creates future reach. That combination makes the game approachable yet surprisingly strategic.
Who is it for?
Its simultaneous card prompts make it a good option for groups that enjoy route construction, pattern planning and building efficient networks without direct attacks. It is less suitable for players who primarily want negotiation, combat or unpredictable storytelling.
Game at a Glance
Reveal a Card
Everyone follows the same terrain exploration instruction.
Expand Your Route
Place explorers next to existing starting points or connected explorers.
Bank Progress
Villages, towers, treasures and trading posts survive era resets.
Repeat Four Eras
Clear temporary explorers and continue from stronger foundations.
How to play The Guild of Merchant Explorers
Each player starts with an identical map and their capital as the initial launch point. Reveal the next card from the shared Exploration deck, then everyone simultaneously places explorers on their own map according to the card’s terrain restrictions.
Explorers generally need to connect to the capital, a persistent village or another explorer in the same continuous network. The map offers grassland, desert, mountain and sea terrain; special spaces grant coins, treasure or trade opportunities.
Every era adds access to more powerful Investigate cards, opening fresh routes. When an era ends, remove all ordinary explorer cubes. The permanent features allow new expeditions to begin from farther away next time.
Setup for a first game
- Choose one of the four maps and give every player the matching map. The publisher recommends Avenia for learning.
- Give each player explorer cubes and village tokens of one color.
- Prepare the Exploration board and basic cards, starting with the Era I card.
- Shuffle the Investigate cards separately, and the Treasure deck separately.
- Display three goals selected from those belonging to your map.
- Place coins, trading posts, treasures and discovery towers within reach.
Because all players use the same map and card reveals, there is no need for separate random Exploration decks or independent turn order.
What do the five basic exploration cards do?
| Terrain instruction | Placement allowed | Planning implication |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain | Explore 1 mountain | Make limited mountain placements count |
| Desert | Explore up to 2 desert spaces | Extend in separate directions where permitted |
| Grassland | Explore up to 2 grassland spaces | Fill regions or approach cities |
| Sea | Explore up to 3 sea spaces in a straight connected line | Build coastal access and reach maritime targets |
| Any terrain | Explore up to 2 adjacent spaces of any terrain | Bridge an awkward geographical gap |
The exact placement restrictions are important. For example, the desert and grassland cards do not necessarily require their two placements to be adjacent to one another, but each placement still has to obey the general network rules.
The four-era structure explained
During Era I, the five basic cards and Era I card are revealed in random order. When an era card first appears, players choose between Investigate cards, gaining a distinctive exploration action for later appearances.
In Era II, add Era II to the cards from the previous era; similarly, Era III adds another era card. In Era IV, the combined I/II/III card allows you to reuse one of your existing Investigate actions rather than selecting a fresh one.
At every era end, remove explorer cubes but leave the permanent map features in place. This is why an early village often has more long-term strategic value than a slightly higher one-off coin reward.
How to create a village
A region is a connected collection of a single terrain type. When you completely explore a region during one era, including any city spaces within it, you immediately replace an explorer on an eligible blank space in that region with a village token.
A region can give you only one village. Villages are permanent: they survive between eras and act as additional departure points, allowing future exploration to begin without rebuilding the complete route from your capital.
Village rewards increase in later eras. That does not mean you should always postpone them: building an early village can enable valuable trade routes and discovery towers much sooner.
How city trading routes score
When you connect two cities that do not already have trading posts through an unbroken network of explorers, villages and possibly the capital, you immediately score the product of the cities’ printed values.
For example, connecting a value-3 city to a value-4 city earns 12 coins. You then put a trading post on one of the connected cities according to the rules; a city with a trading post cannot be used for another new trade route.
Trading posts stay on the map when explorers are cleared at an era boundary. They are a permanent marker of a claimed connection, not an extra explorer that creates unrestricted new paths.
Discovery towers and special spaces
Discovery spaces can be explored with any terrain action. When reached, the explorer becomes a discovery tower, which remains for the rest of the game. Discovery tower rewards generally grow with the number you have already found.
Coin spaces provide their printed amount when explored and may be visited again in later eras. Ruins provide Treasure cards on first discovery; a treasure marker prevents taking the same ruin’s treasure again in a future era.
Some Treasure cards have immediate effects, while others are retained for endgame scoring. This makes ruins both a source of tactical surprises and potential future points.
Which map should you play first?
| Map | When to choose it |
|---|---|
| Avenia | Publisher-recommended introductory map |
| Aghon | For a different arrangement of familiar exploration opportunities |
| Cnidaria | For fresh map-specific terrain and planning challenges |
| Kazan | For additional geographical restrictions and unique spatial puzzles |
The maps are printed on double-sided sheets. Each has its own set of six possible goals; three are used in a session. Consult the Explorer’s Almanac for map-specific terrain and special-feature exceptions rather than assuming an unusual space follows the rules of a different map.
How goal cards influence strategy
Three map-specific goal cards are displayed at setup. Their rewards encourage players to pursue particular exploration achievements rather than follow exactly the same route every game.
A useful opening step is to examine whether two goals can be advanced by the same network. If one requires access to a remote area and another rewards a particular map feature nearby, one village may enable both without wasting an additional era on travel.
All major ways to earn coins
| Scoring source | How it works |
|---|---|
| Villages | Receive the era-specific reward when completing a region |
| City trading routes | Multiply the two connected city values |
| Discovery towers | Gain the reward for your next tower |
| Coin spaces | Collect the printed coin value when explored |
| Treasure cards | Receive immediate rewards or retained endgame coins |
| Goal cards | Earn rewards by satisfying displayed map objectives |
After Era IV, all earned coins and applicable stored treasure rewards determine the winner. There is no separate combat phase.
Does The Guild of Merchant Explorers have a solo mode?
Yes. The official base game includes dedicated solo rules and solo-mode era tokens. The main spatial planning engine remains intact, making solo play a natural fit for players who want a compact exploration puzzle.
Solo scoring and progression follow their own rules, so refer to the published solo section rather than treating a multiplayer target score as an official difficulty rating.
Eight strategy tips
- Prioritize early permanent starting points. Villages reduce the amount of territory you must rebuild each era.
- Plan backward from cities. Identify the route that can connect high-value city pairs before filling unrelated spaces.
- Keep flexible frontier options. A position that can expand into several terrains is more resilient to an unpredictable card order.
- Consider the era reset constantly. Unconverted explorer routes disappear, even if they took most of an era to create.
- Make every mountain placement purposeful. Only one mountain exploration is available on each normal mountain card.
- Use Investigate cards to address map weaknesses. Pick powers that cross your current bottleneck or accelerate valuable objectives.
- Do not overlook repeatable coin spaces. They can pay out in several eras if your network can reach them again.
- Connect goals when possible. A route that contributes to two objectives can be worth more than pursuing a single distant bonus.
These suggestions are rules-based analysis and do not imply firsthand review or playtesting.
Is The Guild of Merchant Explorers worth buying?
Consider it if you like spatial strategy, synchronized card prompts and discovering how small changes create different map patterns. The common exploration deck keeps everyone involved, and the reset between eras rewards advance planning without making the rules exceptionally long.
It may be a weaker match for players seeking high-conflict interaction or rich character-driven storytelling. Although the theme concerns expeditions and trading, most decisions revolve around route efficiency and scoring patterns.
The Guild of Merchant Explorers FAQ
Who designed it?
Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert.
How many players?
One to four, including official solo play.
How long does it take?
AEG lists approximately 45 minutes.
How many eras are there?
Four. New era cards expand the shared exploration deck.
Do you remove all explorer cubes between eras?
Yes, but villages, trading posts, treasure markers and discovery towers remain.
How do you get a village?
Explore an entire eligible terrain region in one era and replace one explorer on an eligible blank space with a village.
How do you score a trade route?
Connect two eligible cities with a continuous network and multiply their printed city values.
Can you revisit coin spaces?
Yes. You may explore those spaces again in subsequent eras and collect their rewards.
Does every player receive the same exploration cards?
Yes. The shared deck determines common prompts, but players choose their own placement decisions.
Which map should beginners choose?
AEG recommends Avenia for a first game.
Can you play it online?
The publisher links to online-play resources, and Board Game Arena also hosts an implementation.
Sources and editorial scope
- AEG official product page, resources and online play
- AEG official English base-game rulebook
- Board Game Arena overview and rules summary
Facts reviewed October 10, 2026. Rules are explained in original language and summarized rather than copied wholesale. Strategic advice is editorial interpretation, not a claimed personal playtest. Editorial policy and corrections.
