Rogue Review- El Dorado

Want some treasure? How about the ultimate treasure of them all, the golden city of El Dorado?

Gameplay- B+

The goal of the game is to be the first player to reach El Dorado. To do this, you have to travel across difficult terrain on several map boards. The maps are made up of three different types of terrain (water, jungle, desert) plus three special types of tiles (mountain, camps, grey spaces). Each tile has a value from one to three which corresponds to the difficulty of the terrain. To move through a tile, you must spend a card that matches the terrain and has a value equal to or greater than the tiles. So, to move onto a two cost green jungle tile, you must spend a green jungle card with a value of two or higher. You can’t spend two cards with a value of one. But you could spend a card with a value of three, move into the tile with two and then into a tile with one. So one card can move you multiple spaces, but multiple cards can’t be combined to move into a single space.

On your turn you have to use your hand to move across the map as well as buy new cards. To buy cards, you must choose to use your cards as money instead of for movement. Cards with the gold symbol (which allow you to move through desert tiles) can be used to purchase one card from the available supply. You can also turn two of any card into one money. Bought cards, along with cards spent for movement, actions or money are put in the discard pile and will be reshuffled into your deck when it runs out. This makes El Dorado primarily a deck building game.

You can only buy cards from the six in the active supply. When a stack runs out, the next person to buy can add any of the unbought cards to the supply. This causes some strategy dilemmas. Do you buy the last of a good card, allowing someone else to pick whatever they want to buy, or do you not and hope you get to do that?

Some cards have a red X on them. These indicate one time use cards.  They are comparatively powerful due to this. Most cards allow movement in one of the three types of terrain. There are also cards that work like wilds, “Jack-of-all-Trades” that allow movement in any of the terrains. Finally the purple cards do special effects beyond being used as just movement or money. The ones that allow you to draw extra cards are especially powerful. The more cards you have, the more things you can do.

Beyond just trying to gather a good deck to allow you to reach El Dorado, there’s some element of strategy in the route you take. The quickest route isn’t always a straight line. If there are several tiles with values of three in a row, this can cause quite a slow down if you don’t have many cards worth that many movement. Sometimes going around the edge and moving a tile or two at a time can be faster.

Placement is also important. Other characters can not move through the tile you occupy. Sometimes stopping in a good roadblock spot can be more advantageous then continuing on an extra space.

Production- B+

The boards and cards are sturdy enough. The player characters are nice wood figures instead of plastic. No complaints there.

Theme- B

The game’s theme has you playing the role of a daring adventurer from a classic movie. The art design enhances this.

The game skirts around the colonialism issue which is baked into the concept. You don’t have to fight hostile natives on your quest to steal their cultural artifacts, so that’s good. There is a card for native guides which is, well, okay. Your opponents are terrain and other adventurers. Your goal is to be the first to reach El Dorado, not necessarily to steal and profit from it. Sanitizing history some maybe but it’s innocuous enough.

Expansions- N/A

None that I am aware.

Conclusion- B+

This is a simple enough to learn, quick to play deck building game. The biggest obstacle is the potential to get into a position and feel stuck as you go several turns without drawing the right kind of card. Part of that’s up to you and how you build your deck. It can also be frustrating if someone is blocking you; deliberately or unintentionally. No game is free from its challenges.