Corps of Discovery Board Game Review
- Jim Gamer
- Jun 23
- 11 min read
WBG Score: 8/10
Player Count 1-4
You’ll like this if you like: Figuring out intricate puzzles with big time pressures!
Published by: Off the Page Games
Designed by: Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim
This is a free review copy of the Deluxe version of the game. See our review policy here.
I originally previewed this game in its prototype form and was a huge fan. You can read that here. I now have my hands on a final production copy, and it is a thing of beauty. While the game mechanics remain unchanged, the components, trays, box layout, and game boards have received a beautiful update. Note that this is the Deluxe edition with wooden components and boards. The game is based on the comic book series Manifest Destiny, which tells a revised history of the Lewis and Clark story, but with Minotaur's! This follows publisher Off The Page's style of converting modern graphic novels into master pieces on the table. Such as Harrow County and MGMT. They have all been fantastic so far, does this new game live up to the hype? Let's get it to the table and find out.

How to Set Up Corps of Discovery Board Game
First, you need to select which chapter of the game you wish to play. There are a number in the box; it's best to start with the training mission, but then, you can go with whichever level wherever you like. Each chapter offers different components, rules, and challenges. I will cover the base rules here.
Once chosen, take the map from the selected chapter and slide it into the map board, using the blank white paper to conceal the images on the front of the map from you as you do this. Then cover each of the circular holes with path tokens, so all spaces are covered. You can then slide out the concealer paper and put it back into the box. Check the side of the map to see where the peak of this map is, and place a rock token onto this spot. The map you chose will have am associated Reference board, place this next to the map board.
Each player will now choose their character. Note that not all characters are eligible for the starting missions. If in doubt, pick Lewis and Clark. But in the later chapters, you will have access to more choices. Each character has their own unique power, so this does make a difference. Now, take gear cards based on the number of players: three gear cards for a solo game, two each for two players, and one gear card each for any player count above this. For an easier game, or the first training mission, you can also take the Training gear card.

Now, set up the Supply board. First, shuffle the Destiny cards with the cards specific to your chosen chapter. There are matching symbols on all cards, linked to each chapter. Add these to the base Destiny cards, shuffle them up, and draw two cards. These are placed in the spaces available on the right of the Supply board. Next, find the Approach the Arch Challenge card. You always start with this. Add this to the space on the left of the Supply board. Now shuffle the remaining Challenge cards, again with the chapter-specific cards, and deal two more into the remaining two positions. Place the rest into a face-down deck to the side. Now add eight Water tokens into the Water supply along with the Shelter token. Place all the other tokens in the token container to the side of this.
Finally, create your Threat deck for this chapter. Take the chapter-specific Threat cards. Shuffle them randomly along with two random misfortune Threat cards to form a face-down Threat pile. There may be additional setup for later chapters, but otherwise, you will now be ready to play.

How to Play Corps of Discovery Board Game
Choose a starting player, and now take it in turns, or do it all yourself in solo, to remove one of the path tokens, to reveal and action the symbol below. You will start with one of the spaces to the right of the board, next to the river. Thematically, you are coming off a boat from the river, and exploring into the land. You can pick any space you want from the right most column to start, but then for subsequent turns, you need to build orthogonally from this first space, to form a path. Then, you can build off any other space you have opened. If you come across a rock, then you must go another way. Rocks represent impassable mountains.
When you take the path token, add it to the space on the Supply board above the first Challenge card. Each card will have a number within a sun icon on the top right. This will represent the time you have to complete this challenge. For example, for the first 'Approach the Arch' card, you have five turns to complete this card. This is represented by the path tokens. So, when you remove one, flip it over to show the sun side, and add it to the space above the card. When you add the fifth token, this card must now be finished.
The card will show what is needed to complete it successfully, generally a mix of resources. On the bottom of the card, it will show the consequences of passing or failing the card. Even if you have the right resources, you can choose to fail if you want the resources for other things. If you pass, put the required resources back into the supply and claim the success from passing the card. If you fail, then fulfil the consequences of failing. Generally losing water! But sometimes you have to take a Sample token, which will clog up your backpack.

When a challenge card is concluded, remove it from the board and check to see if you have items in your backpack beyond your limit. If so, you will lose one water a resolve any Monsters that have consequences, if you have any in play at this point. Your limit starts with four items, but you can expand this to six if you have built a shelter. If you have a shelter, you cannot ever become fatigued.
Then, move on to the next card. When you finish the third card, that is the end of your day. There are then some end-of-day processes to run through, namely spending food, if you have one, to feed your troops. If you don't, you lose. That's it. Game over! If you do have food, congratulations, you live to fight another day. Now, check to see if you have a Monster in play. If you do, do nothing. If you don't, reveal one Threat card. Then, refresh any gear or characters you may have used their powers for, and reveal three new challenge cards and move on to the next day.
What you are looking to do each game is fulfil the chosen chapter's missions. This could be to simply fulfil six challenge cards, as in the training mission. Or for later chapters, you may need to find ways to kill monsters, locate giant plants, or other adventures that I won't spoil here.

The way you do this is by exploring the map and finding the right resources to complete each chapter's missions, all the while remembering to get food for each day and completing enough challenge cards so you don't run out of water. This is a mix of resource management, pattern recognition, and cooperative/solo deduction. And what I mean by that is, this adventure is not about luck. You will have clues given to you each game as to where certain things lie. And its your job to work out each maps puzzle.
You will be given a mini map in the extra rules section of each map to help with this. This will show you the layout of certain items on the board. These are items that are always next to each other in a specific formation. Orientated in any way, but always in this manner. You will also have clues on the reference board. These will be in the form of rules, such as Water and Wood are always orthogonally next to each other. So, if you reveal one of those, you will get an idea as to where the other will be. You will also be told how many Wood resources can be found on each row and column, and other clues about various other resources in that chapter. You can use multiple clues, pieced together to form more solid information. Some spaces will even be clues, such as Hills that will tell you how many of a specific thing will be in a row. When you reveal these, they do not count as an action, so you can discard the path token you removed to reveal this and have another turn.
And this is the meat of the game. Working out from the clues you have and the spaces you have revealed so far, where the thing you desperately need may be. And making educated guesses on your subsequent turns. Each turn will be important. You will not have many free goes in this game. You always need one more thing to avoid disaster, or to avoid death in various ways. Do not fail the mission or you will run out of water. Do not forget food, otherwise you will starve at the end of the day. But do not forget the main goal in the chapter, otherwise you will be running around for days without achieving your quest.

There are multiple free actions you can do in and around exploring the map, such as using your gear or characters' power, or the Destiny cards available to you. These will all be pretty much self-explanatory, but ultimately will help you in your quest, giving you the chance to gain extra resources, challenge cards to prepare yourself, or even gain new Destiny cards such as the Gear cards below.
You can also build fires using various resources. Two fires allow you to backtrack. As in, if you see something under a path token you don't like the look of, discard your fire token, put the path token back, and go again! So, good luck! And make every step count!

Is it Fun? Corps of Discovery Board Game Review
The sense of adventure in this game is off the scale! As will the sense of tension and enjoyable discussion. As a two-player cooperative experience, I adore this game. Everything feels important. From turn one, you feel a sense of urgency to get exactly what you need. But you start with minimal information. Where the peak is. That's it. But you will quickly form a picture in your mind of where certain things are, and the discussion to get there is what makes this game special.
As such, as a solo adventure, which is how BGG suggests this game should be played, this game does not work for me. I enjoy it, and I can see some sense to it. I also understand why others would really enjoy it. But the game is elevated so much by the decisions of working out where things are, I miss that too much in solo mode to have fun.

There are a lot of maps in the box, so you won't be in a situation where you start to learn the board. That isn't really possible. And the setup is so well thought out, you won't see anything before you are ready to play. The game has gone to extreme measures to create a strong aesthetic and also functional experience. With the expansion included in this game, there are also a lot more maps and variations of types of games. New challenges will be set. New goals are required to fulfil the requirements of the later maps. And if you do complete them all, start to learn the layout of the aps, well you can access you maps from games website. You can check that out here. Seemingly, the fun in this game will never end!
After I finished with the prototype, I said this:
I cannot wait to see what other people think of this game. But I also want it back on my shelves to play again and again. I want to try the other chapter. [That I did not have with the prototype]. I want to try this with other people. It is a fantastic game and one that will live long in my memory, until I can get my hands on it again!
And now I have it back, I feel exactly the same way. This game feels unique in my collection. It offers things other games come close to, but do not bring to the table in such a clever and well-integrated way at this. The art and theme work perfectly with the original comics, as is always the way with games from this publisher. And as always, I am blown away by the high level of development quality of everything in this box. This is a top notch production. (Again, please note this is the deluxe version!)

There is a huge sense of discovery, both in terms of the game itself and all the new maps to play. The different expansions to try out and the new ways to play this game keep me coming back for more. Each Chapter feels quite different, and each map for each level offers its own new set of challenges. I can see this being a real mainstay in my collection, being played more often than others due to its accessibility, game length, ease of getting to the table, but also, and mainly, due to the fun it delivers when I play.
It is the sort of game I think about a lot after completing it and then want to play again and again, no matter how many times I play. My thirst for this game only increases with more games. I cannot seem to stop thinking about this game or stop wanting to play. Some games can be a little disappointing. If you lose, you can sometimes lose quickly, and then you think, oh, that's a shame. I may never play that map again, and it only lasted for 20 minutes or so. But then you see all the other maps and quickly move on. I may well play them all again. I doubt I will remember the location of everything on every one. So this thought is not true, but ending a game like this quickly with a loss can be disappointing. Not frustrating or annoying. Disappointing. But that is only because you wanted to keep exploring and get a sense of completion from winning.

And as I move through the various chapters, the sense that the game is ramping up with me works so well, in that I feel that every game is incredibly close. When I win, I win narrowly. It ends in a sudden death way where it feels like one wrong turn - and it's game over. But one correct deduction and the right choice, and victory could be ours. The difficulty ramps up perfectly across the maps and chapters with my learning and understanding of the game. So as new challenges are put before me, I seem to be able to stand up to them, but only narrowly. And not all the time. Victories always feel hard-fought and celebrated as a group with great excitement.
Just when you think all is lost, you will see a power on a character, gear, or destiny card that you realise can buy you one more turn. Will that be enough to find the thing you need? 'Well, maybe if I use our two fires, we can actually have two more turns. And if we find this specific resources, we can do that, to do this, and win the game!' Moments like this will be commonplace, and oh so joyous.
I will cherish this game for years to come. Like the other games from Jay and the team at Off the Page Games, it makes me want to read the comics that inspired this. I did that with Harrow County and loved it. It also made the experience of playing the game better as I understood the characters, story, and lore a little better. Here, with the story of Lewis and Clark being more well-known, I can piece together the extra components added by the comics, but I still want to read them all and fully immerse myself into this theme. As that is what this game does to you. It picks you up and draws you in. It says come on an adventure with me, and then play again-and-again. Win or lose, you will have fun. Oh, and check out this new way to play, and have you tried this map? Oh, and did you know you could get even more!? OK! Enough already, I'm sold.