Wednesday, February 05, 2020

#31: The Quest for El Dorado (Mark's Top 50 - 2020)


The Quest for El Dorado

  • rank: 210
  • rating: 7.57
Print Status
  • in print
Why It's On The List
  • Reiner Knizia turns his adept design talent to deck-building... and makes a racing game that manages to stay tense throughout, offer a variety of interesting (and clever) tactical decisions, and be enjoyable with both gamers and non-gamers.
Tips & Tricks:
    • Add the caves into the game after your first play - they offer some difficult choices as well as helping deal with overcrowding at choke points.
    • Players often undervalue the usefulness of gold... both for movement through villages and for purchasing higher valued cards that make a big difference in the end game.
    • Learn to look at the board to figure out the "rhythm" of when you'll need various kinds of cards - sections of the board may have a preponderance of one type of terrain and/or high numbered terrain (3s & 4s) that force you to take a different route. Planning ahead will make a difference!
    Extras
    • The Heroes & Hexes expansion is excellent... highly recommended.
    • I'm looking forward to playing the stand-alone game in the series, The Golden Temples. (It will evidently also combine the original game.)
    • There is an excellent set of maps available on BGG.
    • This is the second of four Reiner Knizia games on my top 50 list.
    • Weirdly enough, I graduated from El Dorado High School.

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