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Lewis and Clark are tasked not only with exploring America, but with ridding the land of numerous invasive monsters that have appeared.
Corps of Discovery: A Game Set in the World of Manifest Destiny is a co-operative deduction game in which players each take the role of one of the crew on the expedition and set out to explore the land. The game board allows for different maps to be inserted into it, so you have many adventures ahead of you.
In addition to finding and killing monsters, you must also complete numerous daily challenges that require specific resources that you can find on the board. You have to use logic and deduction to reason out where the resources you need are located. Ally yourselves with Sacajawea and the indigenous people of the area to help you on your quest.
The game comes with two chapters: Fauna and Flora. Each has new mechanisms, a different goal, and new components to give each chapter a different feel.
—description from the publisher
Manifest Review!
- Two-sided map for replayability
- Multi-use cards add depth and balance
- Deck-building variant improves control and pacing
- Solid component quality (large cubes, nice meeples, good insert)
- Pick-up-and-deliver core is well-executed
- Pirate/attack mechanics can be overly punishing and disruptive
- Visual differentiation of ships/units is weak leading to confusion
- Base game may feel less engaging without the deck-building variant; personal playstyle may differ
- mercantile shipping, cargo and passenger transport, piracy risks
- Roaring 1920s, global shipping routes, ports
- economic, competitive, semi-cooperative with conflict
- base game version without deck-building
- deck-building games in general
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action cards with multiple aspects — Each card provides money, movement, and a bottom ability; cards are multi-use.
- Contract bidding / fulfillment — First-come-first-served for public contracts; players compete for fulfilling contracts.
- Contract fulfillment / route planning — Public and private contracts yield points; deliver goods to locations.
- Deck building — Players gain and customize a personal deck to perform actions.
- deck-building — Players gain and customize a personal deck to perform actions.
- Dual-map board / map variety — Two map sides with different orientation for replayability.
- hand management — Draw up to four cards; balance resources across turns.
- Multi-use cards — Each card provides money, movement, and a bottom ability; cards are multi-use.
- Pirate/attack events — Attack cards and pirate dice inflict loss on cargo or ship, adding risk.
- Resource management — Manage cargo and passenger tokens limited by cargo holds.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the maps so the board had it two sides maps now the routes and everything were the same it was just that the placement of north america was different than the placement
- i love pick up and deliver in games and this did pick up a delivered part of it very very strongly it was great
- the deck building it solved a whole lot of the problems for me it became a much more enjoyable experience
- the attacks were very strong and too strong and in fact it was very destructive to other opponents systems
- i felt like i had more control
- this is still not a game that i'm gonna like choose on like a nightly basis
- definitely jump right into the deck building
- not a game for me