From the Publisher:
The expedition to the Western Lands is the kind of honour that comes once in a lifetime for a royal cartographer. But these are dangerous times. War ravages the land, and you are sure to encounter Dragul forces determined to thwart Queen Gimnax’s plans for western expansion.
Fortunately, brave heroes have risen to the defence of Nalos. Chart their deeds alongside the queen's edicts and secure your place in history.
Cartographers Heroes is the sequel to the critically acclaimed map-drawing game Cartographers. It includes all-new map sheets, scoring cards, explore cards, and ambush cards with unique abilities.
Cartographers Heroes can be played on its own or mixed with components from the original game for a greater variety of gameplay possibilities.
I thought I hadn’t played any board games at all this week. Then I remembered I played at least 10 rounds of Cartographers on my phone. The digital nature of Cartographers is a double-edged sword for me.
On the one hand, it’s super quick to jump in and play a round. I can be from unlocking my phone to checking my score within a couple of minutes. This helps make Cartographers an instant ‘one more game’ situation, where I play for at least half an hour.
An interesting start
The downside of Cartographers Heroes is – it’s a great ‘one more game’ design. I don’t record the game score most of the time. It doesn’t matter if I scored super well or poorly – I don’t want to leave the app to record the score. I just want another game. Playing Cartogpraphers Heroes, adding the score between teardown and reset is a break. Digitally, it’s a distraction.
But I have said it about a few games in the past, and I am going to say it again here. If the act of playing a game is so natural that the absence of a round stands out in your memory, the format is a winner. Cartographers Digital definitely fits this description!
December 5th, 2022
It’s another week where I am pretty sure I played about 30 rounds of Cartographers without realising it. At this point, assume the next time I talk about Cartographers it’s to say I didn’t play it that week!
What can I say? I enjoy the puzzle that Cartographers provides. My physical copy of Cartographers Heroes was fun for a few solo rounds, but I have both base games digitally. The setup is instant, and I can keep playing or stop mid-game with ease.
I said I was playing new maps – I didn’t say I was playing them well!
The catch is, I have talked about Cartographers as much as I really can. I enjoy playing it, and it’s all the same game. I have started playing with a couple of the different starter sheets included in the game. So I am maybe a month away from playing out the digital version as much as I can?
Even if I do reach this end of the digital version, I have the physical Cartographers Heroes to fall back on. This includes skill cards (not included in the physical game) and 3 more maps to explore.
I should be good for Cartogprahers goodness for some time to come!
January 30th, 2023
Normally I don’t mention Cartographers as I I don’t record the little gaming rounds on my mobile. But with feeling very bleah this week, It’s good to remind everyone that I play Cartogprahers Digital at least 10 times a week. Wouldn’t take long to burn through my 200 plays challenge at that rate!
I have Cartographers Heroes physically, and playing on the phone is a great way to play solo. If I was going to play multiplayer at all, I would definitely set up a game over playing on the internet. Rabbit even got me some coloured markers that I plan to use next time we play to help with this!
The laminated boards worked pretty well. The blue marker, not so much.
So a little bit of a reminder that Cartographers Digital and Cartographers Heroes still exist and are truly in my normal gaming routine. Not even needing a nap every couple of hours could stop me!
