How to Play Corps of Discovery: Expansion 1 – Insecta

Objective of the Game

In Insecta, your crew is under siege by a swarm of giant insects. To survive, you must create Insecticide to clear the path. The ultimate goal is to kill 4 Insects. You must manage your Resources, navigate the map, and deal with the Ranidae—a frog-like monstrosity blocking your return to the ship—to succeed.

Setup

Complete the core game setup, then follow these additional steps:

1. Place the Boat Board near the Map Board and Reference Board.
2. Place the Ranidae token, Ranidae side face up, onto the Boat Board.
3. Start the game with 3 Meat tokens beside your Supply Board (note: Meat is not a Resource).
4. Place the Insect tokens nearby.
5. Players begin exploring on any Path in Column 7 of the Map.

Game Flow

The game progresses through turns where players Explore and perform Free Actions. The Ranidae acts as a global obstacle that prevents the Shuttling of Resources to the boat unless it is Distracted. During the Night phase, the Ranidae token is flipped back to the Ranidae side if it was previously Distracted.

Actions and How to Play

Explore

On your turn, you may Explore by removing a Path Token and activating the Terrain of that Path. When gaining a Resource from Exploring, you may Shuttle it to the Boat Board if the Ranidae is Distracted.

Free Actions

Before or after you Explore, you may perform various Free Actions, including:

• Distract the Ranidae: Discard 1 Meat (or 1 Water if you have no Meat) and guess the next Terrain type before you Explore. If correct, the Ranidae is Distracted until the end of the day, allowing Shuttling.
• Shuttle Resources to the Boat: Place a Resource or Water gained from Exploring directly onto the Boat Board. Once 1 of each Resource and 1 Water are on the board, flip it to the Insecticide side.
• Use Character/Gear/Destiny Cards: Utilize specific abilities provided by your cards.
• Remove a Threat Card: Manage active Threats.

Insect Mechanics

Insect tokens are placed on Unexplored Paths. If you are near an Insect, you must discard 1 Resource or Water before Exploring an adjacent or diagonal Path. You cannot Explore a Path containing an Insect.

End of Game and Scoring

Victory: You win immediately when you kill the 4th Insect. Insects are killed when you create Insecticide (all Insects currently on Explored Paths die) or through specific card effects.

Loss Conditions: You lose if you die of thirst, starvation, run out of Challenge cards, or if it becomes impossible to create Insecticide (e.g., a required Resource is removed from the game or becomes permanently unreachable).

Tips for Winning

• Manage your Terrain: Since some Terrain types are only guaranteed to appear 3 times, be careful not to make required Resources unreachable.
• Time your Exploration: Use the Row Complete reward (moving an Insect to an adjacent Path) strategically to lure Insects onto Explored Paths right before you finish the Insecticide.
• Distraction Timing: Only Shuttle when the Ranidae is Distracted. Once a Resource is in your Backpack, it can no longer be Shuttled to the boat.