The kingdom’s outdated maps are a real thorn in the Queen’s side. Your job is to travel around the country to find new villages and to connect existing cities with lucrative trade routes (pocketing any profit to be made, of course). As a guild member, however, you are not allowed to move freely but get told which type of landscape you may explore each round. As soon as an area, such as a desert, is mapped completely that means you have automatically discovered a village, which can be used as a starting point for your later expeditions. As you grow in experience, you will develop new individual strengths, so that one player can race over the seas to discover new shores, while another specialises in climbing tall mountains. Additional treasures can be found in ruins and shipwrecks or can be earned by visiting remote discovery towers.

Jury statement

This royal expedition is simple and accessible while retaining a strategic depth. The individual exploration abilities provide plenty of variety and encourage experimentation. The four maps, which represent the different regions of the country, offer additional variation and further incentives through new game mechanics.