The Quest for El Dorado is a two to four player card game that has the players racing to reach El Dorado. The game comes with a modular board that comes with a list of different ways to setup the difficulty and length of the game. Players are simply trying to reach the end before another player. The board is setup based on the difficulty they have chosen to assemble. Players will take their expedition board and the eight starting cards that match their color: 1 sailor, 3 explorers, and 4 travelers. A preset number of starting cards for the Market Board are set with the other cards placed above it to be added later. The board has images associated to a forest, water, gold, and three special areas. In order to enter a location a player must play a card that matches the location symbol. For an example, a player must spend an explorer card to move into a forest space, a sailor to enter an ocean, and a traveler to enter a gold location. This is modified further by the strength of the space they wish to enter. These spaces range from one to three, and a player is unable to combine cards to create a higher value. A player must purchase a higher value card in order to enter a location like a level three forest. The two special areas for moving into are a remove a card from game space, red space, or discard a card, grey space. These spaces can be moved into by using any card to fulfill the requirements. A last special area is the blockade which is what may be placed in-between two board pieces by the setup chosen. The symbol shown on the blockade must be played for it to be removed from the game like a forest or water symbol. A player's turn consists of playing cards for movement, and/or buying a new card. Movement is simply spending cards that match the symbol they are moving into. To purchase a card, which can be done whether a player moved or not, a player must spend gold, or half a point for the other cards, for the card's worth. There are only three cards of the same kind of card available. When one set is emptied, a player may purchase one of the set aside cards which will be added to Market Board. Only one card may be purchased and it will be placed in their discard pile. At the end of a player's turn, they will discard all cards played above their expedition board. Finally they will draw back up to four cards with the discard pile finally being shuffled when there is not enough of cards to be drawn. When a player has reached El Dorado, the remaining players in the turn will attempt to get to El Dorado. So if the last player reached El Dorado than they simply immediately when the game. If more than one player reaches El Dorado, the player with the most blockades win, but if it is still a tie than the player with the highest blockade number wins. The Quest for El Dorado is a lite racing game that has players trying to build the best deck and take chances to reach the end. Building a deck is required, but someone who is not use to this kind of mechanic will not feel lost. The race is what matters and someone spending their turns trying to build an optimum deck will usually lose the game. Adding to this is the great catch-up mechanic of the Blockade. This little Hindrance is very easy to overcome, but spending an extra card can hurt someone's movement. The variable number of setups for the board is nice for when a more advance play is needed. An addition to the game is a variant that allows cave tokens to be added. These cave tokens can be pickup if a player ends their movement next to a cave on the boards. This game has a great amount variability as what cards that are available to purchased are dictated by what players choose to purchase after a set of cards are emptied. This is a fun game that plays rather quickly and can become a real nail-biter towards the end of it. When teaching the game, recommend making it clear to players that the cards they play are not instantly placed in the discard pile. This will stop players from reshuffling through their deck with cards that allow them to draw more cards.
