Review #29: Age of Discovery

Slideshow Review - BGG Listing

RULES
Components/Setup
Expeditions
- numbered 3-8 (transport limit), in various colors
- each shows point value during first and second scoring round: x/y
- put all of these on display

Trade Missions (Contracts)
- show colors (same as above) and value (gold paid to player for fulfilling contract)
- deal each player 2
- place 4 face up; the rest are nearby face down

Ship cards
- each shows a number (=transport value), a number of coins (the cost of the ship = transport value + 2), and a color (matching expedition colors)
- make 2 rows of 5 face up cards
- shuffle the rest into 3 piles of 6, 2 piles of 7 (face down); shuffle a scoring card into the 3rd and 5th piles, then place these above the 2 rows
- when ships are bought, will replenish market by drawing from face down piles, from left to right.

Gold
- each player gets 6
- rest in bank

Score Board
- place one cube from each player on the score track, and one on the contract track (bottom)

Players each get...
- the rest of the cubes of their color
- 6 gold
- 3 single-use cards: 2 wild cards allow you to play a ship of ANY color, ignoring normal restrictions; 1 card allows you to reserve a ship for one turn (different distribution for diff # players)
- 2 contracts
- 1 random wild ship card; remaining wilds are out of game. These are usable for 2 different colors shown on card, and can count as transport value of 1, 2 or 3
- 1 special mission card


Game Play
You get 2 actions on your turn. There are 4 options (you MAY NOT take the same action twice):
- Take 2 gold
- Buy ship(s)
- Buy ONE trade mission contract
- Send ship(s) on expeditions and/or trade missions (= contracts)

Take 2 Gold
- from bank
- no limit on money

Buy Ship(s)
- the BOTTOM row is the current market; top row is future market.
- when you buy from bottom row, immediately slide the card above it down
- place a ship card in the empty spot by drawing from the leftmost pile of face down cards at the top; if a scoring card is revealed, finish the current turn, then EVERYONE gets one more turn, then scoring occurs
- cost = #coins shown at bottom of card
- add to your hand
- if scoring card is drawn, set aside and draw another ship card; after player finishes turn, there's a final round for EVERYONE to get a turn before scoring occurs.

Buy ONE Contract
- any of the face up cards, or top card from draw pile (immediately replace face up card when purchased)
- cost = 1 gold
- goes to your hand

Send Ship(s) on Expeditions and/or Trade Missions
- Trade Missions
... play contract face up in front of you, along with ship cards of the same color as the contract
... sum of ship transport values must equal contract value
... cost = 1 gold / ship card (or 2 gold if using your wild ship card)
... place a cube on the 1, 2, or 3 space; indicates number of turns to complete, with bigger payoff for longer time
... will advance the time cube one space at the start of each future turn; get paid when cube advances 3-> 2-> 1-> done
... when contract finished, advance your contract counter on Score Board one space and return the ships to your hand

- Expeditions
... play ship card(s) to expedition(s), with 1 cube per ship card
... for any Expedition, all ships must be the same color as first ship played there and the sum of transport values may NOT exceed the transport limit of that expedition
... cost = 1 gold / ship card (or 2 gold if using your wild ship card)
... ships remain till end of game
... Shows 2 sets of x/y numbers. Use first pair in first scoring round, second pair in second. Each ship (cube) gets y VP awarded if ship color matches expedition, or x VP if not

Scoring
- First Scoring: only score cubes on expeditions
- Final Scoring: score expeditions, special mission cards, and get 1 VP per ship NOT on an expedition (trade mission ships DO score)
- Special Mission Cards: multiply these two numbers
... top half of card: shows condition required (at least 1 ship on an expedition; half the ships on expedition; majority of ships on expedition; all ships on expedition) -- # expeditions matching the condition
... bottom half of card: top row of the table shows #s for contracts you've completed; use the multiplier # shown in the row below


COMMENTS
The Good:
- cheap ($20-25)
- fast: plays in about 45 minutes
- well made: could have been a board, but the tiles work pretty well, are reasonably sturdy, and nice to look at
- tough decisions: timing (how long to invest in contracts, when to buy ships, when to go on expeditions, when to anticipate/control the game end, when to use your single-use cards) is important, money management is tough
The Bad:
- balance: It seems as if some Special Mission Cards are significantly harder to achieve than others, with the VP award not appropriately adjusted.
- luck: setup (which ships and contracts come out, which dual color ship and contracts a player is dealt)

Overall, a good game probably worth having although there may be some balance issues (fixable with variants?).

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All images are from www.boardgamegeek.com.