In the ever-expanding world of board games, finding titles that successfully blend familiar mechanics with fresh innovations is becoming increasingly rare. Explorers of Navoria, the latest release from Dranda Games, manages to do exactly that, delivering an engaging experience that feels both comfortable and novel. After multiple plays with different player counts and groups, we’re ready to share our thoughts on this intriguing new addition to the hobby.
First Impressions and Components
We first saw and also played Explorers of Navoria in the Essen Spiel 2024, we also grabbed some photos for you guys to see. It was very fun to play, we played with other people as well, it was great!
Opening Explorers of Navoria immediately sets the tone of a fantasy board game with its vibrant, whimsical artwork. The game board presents a colorful landscape featuring three distinct exploration tracks – Forest, Desert, and Glacier – each with its own character and strategic implications. The component quality is solid throughout, with thick cardboard tokens and cards that feel built to last.
The game includes:
- A beautifully illustrated main board
- 60 townsfolk cards across four different types (merchant/blue, builder/yellow, soldier/red, and artisan/green)
- 15 action tokens (3 of each type)
- 54 goods tokens (18 each of weapons, minerals, and food)
- Trading post and exploration markers
- Player boards
- Favor tiles and markers
- 1 draw bag
While the cardboard components are perfectly functional, we were particularly impressed with the graphic design that makes the game’s various systems intuitive to track and manage. The iconography is clear and consistent, making it easy to parse information even from across the table.
Gameplay Overview
At its core, Explorers of Navoria is a game about managing resources and opportunities across exactly three rounds of play. Each round follows a strict four phase structure – Recruit, Gather, Income, and Return – creating a satisfying rhythm of decision-making and progression.
The genius of the design lies in how these phases interconnect. During the Recruit phase, players must make crucial decisions about which action tokens to take and where to place them. You can either draw two tokens from the bag (choosing one to use and placing the other in the town center) or take one from the town center if any are available. These early decisions cascade through the rest of the round, affecting your ability to gather resources, generate income, and position yourself for future opportunities.
Our Recent Playthrough
In our most recent four-player game, we witnessed the various strategies the game enables. One memorable moment came in the second round when we were exploring the Glacier territory. Angelina had established an early presence with trading posts, while Alexander pushed hard with adventurer cards to explore deeper into the region. Despite both players building trading posts in the same spaces (which the rules explicitly allow), the tension remained high during the Gather phase when both players were vying for the same action spaces in town.
Angelina had carefully cultivated relationships with the merchant guilds, giving her a steady stream of income through species icon matching, while Alexander’s exploration-heavy strategy meant he was scoring big points from reaching milestone markers and treasure spots on the tracks. Meanwhile, Ivan focused on the artisan cards, efficiently collecting and distributing goods to fulfill orders. Goce pursued a balanced approach that kept her competitive throughout.
The game came down to the wire, with Angelina’s merchant-focused strategy ultimately prevailing by a narrow margin, demonstrating how different approaches can remain viable throughout the game.
What makes Explorers of Navoria particularly engaging is its layered strategic elements:
Action Token Management
The decision between drawing from the bag or taking from the town center creates meaningful tension at every turn. The bag draw offers uncertainty but potential opportunity, while the town center provides guaranteed options but requires at least one token to be present to use this option.
Territory Development
Each of the three territories offers different advantages and scoring opportunities. The trading post system allows multiple players to build in the same spaces, creating an interesting dynamic where players must carefully time their expansion while considering the bonus scoring opportunities from treasures at the end of each track.
Set Collection and Timing
The race to collect sets of species icons adds another compelling dimension to card selection. Timing when to claim favor tiles becomes crucial, as only the first two players to collect five icons of a species can claim its benefits, with different scoring values based on who claims first.
Resource Management
Through careful card selection and placement, players must efficiently collect and distribute goods to their different territory docks. The artisan cards provide opportunities to gather specific resources and complete valuable orders, though this requires careful planning rather than complex engine building.
Player Count Considerations
We’ve tested the game at various player counts, and it scales remarkably well:
- At 2-3 players, each player recruits 4 cards per round, allowing for more strategy
- At 4 players, each player recruits 3 cards per round, creating tighter decisions
- The tension for action spaces and territory development remains engaging at all player counts
The game’s structure naturally adjusts to maintain balanced gameplay across all player counts, with specific rules for exploration rewards at different player counts.
Learning Curve and Teaching
One of Explorers of Navoria’s strengths is its approachability. While multiple systems are at play, they all interact logically, making the game relatively easy to teach to experienced gamers. The clear phase structure – Recruit, Gather, Income, Return – provides a natural framework for teaching the game. So if you’re a beginner, maybe try something easier before this.
In our experience teaching the game to multiple groups, and also learning in the Essen spiel, we’ve found success with this approach:
- Start with an overview of the four phases
- Explain the two options in the Recruit phase (bag draw vs town center)
- Detail each card type and its unique functions
- Emphasize key rules like not refilling displays during recruitment and the importance of the Return phase for repositioning exploration markers
The clear iconography, well-structured player aids, and the round summary page in the rulebook help new players stay oriented throughout their first game. Pretty easy right?
Production Quality and Art Direction
The artwork deserves special mention for how it enhances the gameplay experience. The illustrations strike a balance between being clear and aesthetically pleasing. Each exploration track has its distinct visual identity, making it easy to distinguish different areas of the board at a glance.
The graphic design supports the gameplay remarkably well. Card effects are clearly indicated through consistent iconography, and the various tracks and spaces on the board are intuitive to follow. The use of color coding throughout the components helps players quickly identify the four different card types and their associated actions.
Potential Drawbacks
While Explorers of Navoria is an excellent game overall, there are a few considerations worth noting:
- The first game can feel somewhat overwhelming due to learning the timing of different card effects (immediate, income phase, or end-game scoring)
- At 4 players, downtime between turns can become noticeable, particularly during the Gather phase when players must place tokens in reverse turn order
- Some may find the randomness of the token bag draw frustrating in crucial moments, though the town center option provides a mitigation strategy
- The treasure bonus system, while adding richness to the strategy, can sometimes create significant point swings that might surprise new players
After numerous plays with different groups, we can confidently say that Explorers of Navoria is a strong addition to the medium-weight strategy game genre. It successfully combines worker placement and set collection mechanics with innovative exploration and territory development systems that create a fresh and engaging experience, well done
Dranda Games, we like it.
The game shines by forcing players to constantly adapt their strategies while building toward long-term goals. The interaction between different card types, the race for favorable positions on the exploration tracks, and the tension between immediate rewards and end-game scoring create compelling decisions throughout the game.
For those who enjoy games with multiple paths to victory and interesting strategic decisions, Explorers of Navoria is an easy recommendation. It offers enough depth to reward repeated plays while remaining accessible enough to serve as a step up for those looking to explore more complex games. If you enjoy the randomness in ‘Explorers of Navoria,’ we recommend trying Quacks of Quedlinburg, Both games feature a similar bag-drawing mechanic that adds an element of unpredictability and excitement to the gameplay. For players who enjoy strategic exploration and territory control, Blue Lagoon could be a great choice. While the mechanics differ, both games involve themes of exploration and resource management, offering engaging gameplay in their own unique ways.
The game works particularly well at all supported player counts, with thoughtful scaling mechanisms like adjusted card counts and exploration rewards. The variable setup with randomized favor tiles and the different strategic approaches available through the four card types provide excellent replayability.
Explorers of Navoria earns its place on our shelf through its blend of elegant design, meaningful decisions, and satisfying gameplay. While it may not revolutionize the genre, it refines and combines existing elements in ways that create an engaging and highly replayable experience. Despite its strategy, the clear rulebook, consistent iconography, and well-structured phases make it easy to teach, making it a valuable addition to any gaming collection.
