Cartographers

Cartographers is a popular roll-and-write game. Every round a card is drawn, and everyone must fill their own player board following the instructions on the card. You will draw a certain shape of a certain terrain type. The game is played over four seasons, and you do scoring at the end of each season. You don't know exactly how many cards will be drawn per season. It depends on the cards being drawn. The cards trigger the countdown at different rates. 

There will be four different scoring criteria every game. They are randomly set up before the game starts. You will have variability because of this. At the end of spring season, you score points based on criteria A and B. Summer is B + C, autumn is C + D, and finally winter is D + A. Let's look at these in the screenshot above. Criteria A means every row and column that has at least one forest scores 1 point. B means every isolated single blank space scores 1 point. C means every farm and lake not touching the border or one another scores 3 points. D means the second largest town scores 2 points per square. 

You have some mountain squares on your player board. Whenever you manage to surround a mountain, you will earn one gold coin. Gold coins are good. Each gold coin scores you 1 point at the end of every season. If you earn one before the end of spring, you'll eventually get 4 points out of it. Sometimes when you flip over a card, you get to choose between two shapes, and the smaller one comes with a coin or two. This is another way you earn coins. 

The ruins icons on your board doesn't stop you from using those spaces. However you probably want to save some of them. Some cards will require that the shape to be drawn on a ruins space. If you don't have any more unused ruins, you can't draw the full shape and can only draw a single square. That may not always be bad, but I think more often it is. 

Many cards dictate the exact shape you must draw, but you get to choose the terrain type between two options. 

One unusual and interesting terrain type is the monsters (purple). You don't fill these on your own board. You fill these on an opponent's board. This is unusual for roll-and-write games. You get to attack your opponents. Monsters make you lose points. Every empty space next to a monster space forces you to lose 1 point when the time comes for scoring. You want to surround the monsters as soon as possible, before the season ends. 

The play experience of Cartographers is about doing your best to fulfil the scoring criteria. You normally prioritise the criteria which will be scored soon. If a criterion has been scored twice, you will ignore it. Deciding how to fill your board, in addition to trying to fulfil the scoring criteria, is usually based on wanting to keep your options open as much as possible. You want to ensure it will continue to be easy to fill your board and to be able to score more points no matter what card is drawn next. There is no guarantee, of course, but you do your best. Usually when you decide on a particular way of drawing in a shape, you are forgoing certain opportunities and at the same time hoping for something that fits your board to turn up next. 

I did a 2-player game with Han. Although eventually our player boards turned out to look rather different, I have a feeling we were doing generally the same thing. Every season our scores were about the same. I wonder whether this is normal. Maybe it is because in this game we share the same scoring criteria, and also it is feasible to try to fulfil most if not all of them. Thus our strategies are similar. In The Guild of Merchant Explorers, there are also multiple scoring criteria, but it is impossible to try to do everything, and you must choose. Players thus tend to diverge more. 

My player board

Han's player board

This is a relaxing game. Although you do send monsters to your opponent's domain, generally this is a peaceful, solitaire-like game. You do your own thing and there is little direct competition. If you are looking for something friendly and comforting, this is a good choice.