Review: Trailblazers

Introduction & Overview

Trailblazers are those brave souls who blaze trails and venture into the wilderness. Whether on foot, by bike, or in a kayak, these tenacious travelers seek to quench their insatiable thirst for adventure. With a breathtaking natural landscape always ahead and a freshly blazed trail hot on their heels, they must not forget to return to camp. Because there are always new environments to explore, more expeditions to undertake, and more trails to blaze.

This is how Trailblazers is presented to us, a design by Ryan Courtney (Pipeline, Curious Cargo). First published in 2023 by Bitewing Games in two English editions: a standard version and a travel version. The artwork is done by Seth Lucas, marking his first experience in the board game world.

It is published in Spain in its travel edition by Devir (the game has a slight language dependency on the goal cards, in addition to the rulebook). It allows for player counts of 1 to 4 players, with a suggested minimum age of 8 years old and an approximate duration of 30 minutes. The MSRP is €27. For this review, a copy of the Spanish travel edition by Devir was used, which the publisher itself kindly provided as a review copy.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a cardboard tuck box, we find a rigid zippered case measuring 14×14×6 cm (a box similar in size to Dobble Disney 100th Anniversary), containing the following components:

• 25 Square Cards (70×70 mm):
  • 12 Campsite Cards (4 of each type)
  • 12 Goal Cards (6 of each type)
  • Solo Mode Card
• 151 Rectangular Cards (35×70 mm):
  • 135 Trail Cards
  • 16 Player Cards (4 for each player)
• 60 Animal Tokens (10 of each type) (cardboard)
• Rulebook
• Solo Mode Rulebook

How to Play

Trailblazers is a simultaneous card game where players compete to build the most efficient hiking, biking, and kayaking loops from their respective base campsites. Across four rounds, participants receive a hand of trail cards and must secretly and simultaneously select them to subsequently place a campsite—during the first turn of the first three rounds—and pairs of trail cards in their personal area before passing the rest of their hand to the adjacent player. Cards can be placed adjacently or overlapped on top of one another to shape the routes, always with the restriction that no campsite can be covered. At the end of each turn, players check if they have fulfilled any of the shared, immediate goals of the game, which award decreasing points based on the order in which they are achieved. Once the fourth round concludes, end-of-game goals are evaluated, and final scoring takes place. Each player adds up the points from completed missions and their successfully closed loops, which award one point for each trail element (such as bridges, banked turns, or tunnels) that forms part of the closed circuit that starts and ends at its corresponding campsite. The player with the highest total score is declared the winner.

Key Concepts

Let’s start with the Trail Cards. These feature different trail segments of three distinct types differentiated by their illustrations and colors: hiking, biking, and kayaking. They are two-space polyominoes, meaning each card will have six exits connected to each other via three trails, and each trail can be of a different type. Each space occupied by a trail will show a trail marker (bridges, banked turns, rapids, mud, rocks, and tunnels) that will be taken into account during the final scoring. During the game, players must select and connect these cards in their playing area to try to structure and shape the routes.

Let’s move on to the Campsite Cards. These are square cards (equivalent to two horizontally connected trail cards) that come in three different colors, each associated with a specific type of activity and indicating a starting base campsite. They serve as the central starting point and mandatory return point for the loops that players develop; for a route to be valid and score, it must begin at the corresponding campsite and close by returning to it. Trails starting or ending at campsites of a different type will not be valid. At the end of the game, each correctly formed loop will provide points based on its length.

In addition to the loops, players will earn points from the Goal Cards. These present objectives to be met either during the course of the game or at the end of it (depending on the type). The mid-game goals introduce a race dynamic, while the end-of-game goals will be evaluated during the final scoring, establishing a relative ranking among the players. For both types of goals, players will have Player Cards to place on the sides of the goal cards, which display various amounts of victory points.

Finally, we have the Animal Tokens. These are illustrated directly on the surface of the central (longest) trail of the trail cards, showing wildlife species such as bears or elks integrated into the natural environments of the routes. When placing a card, the player may place one of these tokens on the card and will score at the end of the game if the trail it is on is completed, although once a token is placed, no cards can overlap it later.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Each player takes 3 campsite cards, making sure to receive one of each type, and 4 player cards of the same type.
2. Shuffle the mid-game goal cards and the end-of-game goal cards separately. Draw and place 2 cards of each of these two types face up in the center of the play area. Return the rest to the box.
3. Shuffle the trail cards and place this deck in the center of the play area.
4. Form a general supply with the animal tokens.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Trailblazers is played over 4 rounds, each consisting of three turns.

At the beginning of each round, a hand of 8 trail cards is dealt to each player. Once players have reviewed their cards, they simultaneously choose and place a campsite from their personal supply (except in the fourth round, where no new campsite is added).

After this, the three turns of the round are resolved as follows:

1. Select and place cards. All players simultaneously choose 2 trail cards from their hand and add them to their play area, respecting the placement rules. If the card shows an animal on its long trail, the player may place a corresponding animal token on that trail. The following rules must be followed:
   • Any campsite or trail card must be placed so that it is orthogonally adjacent to or overlapping (partially or fully) a card already present in the player’s area (except for the first campsite).
   • A trail card is not allowed to overlap a campsite.
   • It is not allowed to overlap cards that have animal tokens on them.
   • It is allowed to overlap trail cards with each other (even completely).
   • There is no obligation to connect matching trail types between cards.
2. Pass the hand. The remaining cards in hand are passed to the player on the left during rounds 1 and 3, and to the player on the right during rounds 2 and 4.

After completing the third turn of the round, players discard the 2 cards remaining in their hand, bringing the current round to a close and starting a new round.

At the end of any turn, if a player meets the requirements of either of the two Race Goal cards in the center, they can place their player card on the highest-valued empty space of that card. If multiple players fulfill the goal in the same turn, they all place their cards on the highest available empty space. Once all spaces on a goal have been filled, no other player can score for it. The milestone is permanent, even if the player breaks the required loop in subsequent turns.

Game End

The game ends at the conclusion of the fourth round. Proceeding to the final scoring, each player records:

• One victory point for each unit of loop length, determined by counting the trail markers (bridges, banked turns, rapids, mud, rocks, and tunnels) along the route. If a loop crosses itself, the marker at that intersection is counted twice.
• The points accumulated from the race goal cards achieved during the course of the game, based on the position where the player card was placed.
• The points awarded by the goal cards evaluated at the end of the game after checking the relative ranking among players.
• 1/3/6/10/15/21 points for each scored loop that contains 1/2/3/4/5/6 distinct animal tokens.

The player with the most points will be the winner. In case of a tie for the highest score, the player who has completed a greater number of goals (both mid-game and end-of-game, meaning the one who placed the most player cards) will be the winner. If the tie persists, the tied players share the victory.

Variants

No Animals. No animals are placed on the cards, and they are not scored at the end of the game.

Solo Mode. The player faces a campaign structured into three difficulty levels, where the main objective is to reach a minimum score threshold by creating closed trail loops. The main change is that, on each turn, the player draws 8 cards, places 2 of them, and discards the rest. Depending on the difficulty, goal cards are incorporated and must be evaluated either at the start of the fourth round or at the end of the game. Failing to meet a goal results in an automatic defeat. At the end of the fourth round, the final score is calculated based solely on the length of the completed loops, omitting the points from typical multiplayer goal cards.

Personal Opinion

The subgenre of games that rely on the mechanical triad of drafting (in any of its variants), tile placement, and pattern building is massive. As I have mentioned on numerous occasions, this type of game is very convenient for publishers because, generally speaking, they deliver on their promise and target a wide spectrum within the hobby.

After all, who doesn’t like developing a personal puzzle where the optimal solution is uncertain due to the interference of others? They are the kind of games that, on one hand, are very friendly to the player, as they have just the right level of interaction—which usually boils down to opponents eliminating options turn by turn and, on the other hand, the presence of some element that creates a race dynamic (usually goals).

This gives rise to relaxed designs with a tight duration that, whether you win or lose (because often this depends more on luck than anything else), leave a pleasant taste in your mouth, giving you the feeling of having made a good handful of decisions that resulted in something you built yourself.

Today we are going to analyze another game that falls into this category. Let’s see how this Trailblazers behaves on the table, a work by the designer behind Pipeline (here is its tocho-review) or Curious Cargo (here is its tocho-review), something you will detect simply by looking at the photos. But first, it is time to thank Devir for providing the review copy that makes this long text possible.

In Trailblazers, players become modern adventurers, the kind who like to lace up their trekking shoes to traverse trails, paddle their kayaks down rivers, or hop around on their mountain bikes along paths that require a bit of technique to avoid biting the dust.

The game is structured into four rounds, in each of which every player will add six cards to their play area for a total of twenty-four. These cards always show three trails connecting the sides of the card, which is rectangular, meaning it has two long sides with two connections and two short sides with one connection. Each trail can be one of the three mentioned types: hiking, biking, or kayaking.

Players must connect these cards, with the only requirement being to form a set of cards interconnected orthogonally and/or overlapped with each other, being allowed to connect trails of different types (although this is not recommended). The idea is to try to form closed loops around the three campsites that will also be placed at the beginning of each of the first three rounds.

Card selection is carried out via a simultaneous closed drafting system with hand swapping, in the style of 7 Wonders (here is its tocho-review). On each turn, the player chooses two cards from their hand to deploy in their personal area and passes the rest to a neighboring player (which will change from one round to the next).

At the end of the game, each completed loop of a type that begins and ends at the corresponding campsite will provide one point for each “space” it occupies (a small trail marker appears on each trail segment to keep score). To these points, we must add a series of common goals of two types.

On one hand, goals with a race dynamic, where players will compete to complete them as quickly as possible, since the reward will decrease as players place their indicator cards on them. On the other hand, end-of-game goals where, given a certain criterion, a relative ranking will be made among the players based on how well they fulfill it.

And as the last scoring element, we have the animals. Many of the cards show an animal symbol out of six possible types on the long trail that crosses them. If the player sees fit, they can place a token of the corresponding animal type on the card, so that at the end of the game, if that trail is scored (it starts and ends at the campsite of its color and the entire route is of that color), the player will obtain victory points based on the variety of animals.

With this, you have more than enough context to talk about the impressions and dynamics of Trailblazers. And the first thing to say is that it is clear that the author is the one responsible for games like Pipeline or Curious Cargo, as the game we are looking at today inherits the same “colored pipes” system from those previous titles.

The important difference is that here we simply want to complete loops, whereas in the aforementioned designs, the completed connections were a means to produce resources. But as far as the puzzle is concerned, we run into the same headaches. Because, yes, Trailblazers, behind that relaxed appearance, hides a complex puzzle where choosing optimally is by no means trivial.

Every time it’s our turn to choose cards, we will be continuously rotating cards looking for connections that fit well, because the trails that appear on them never line up the way we would like. Sometimes because trails of different types cross each other, other times because the curves turn towards the side we don’t want, or simply because we don’t have cards in hand with the type of trail we need.

It is a game that generates a relatively high level of frustration, as you have the feeling of continuously choosing the least bad option. Only on rare occasions does the right card appear at the right moment. But, as I say, those are specific situations, and the norm will be to boost some routes to the detriment of others.

Another striking aspect is that it is a game in which we will feel that it is impossible to do everything proposed in a match—that is, making loops of different types, making them long, full of different animals, and also completing the four goals. It is a game that requires a tactical approach, focusing completely on one of the two race goals while maximizing everything else.

Just because I have mentioned frustration does not mean the game is bad. I enjoy these kinds of designs that make the player feel uncomfortable, like wearing a tight wool sweater that itches in the middle of summer. It is highly likely that many of you will not want to go through a similar situation, since, as I have already commented on this type of game, most people look for a relaxed experience. And Trailblazers is not one. But if you are looking for a design that, even while seeming like more of the same, tightens the screws on you, it can be an interesting option, just as Curious Cargo was.

Obviously, the impact of luck is high because, even though there is a hand draft to minimize its influence, the truth is that we often depend on the initial deal of each round, and if no cards appear there that allow us to complete loops, the stress level will skyrocket. It is true that a player will rarely keep a card just because it benefits their neighbor. But the usual thing will be that those cards simply do not come around.

One of the virtues of this type of game is that they scale perfectly. And in this case, the number of players really only impacts the distribution of rewards. With more players, there is more competition for goals, both those that generate a race dynamic and those at the end of the game. But it is also true that at two players there is greater control, being able to evaluate what we are leaving for our opponent and where their focus lies. But in terms of what matters, it is indifferent how many players are at the table since it is a game where turns are resolved simultaneously.

As for replayability, in addition to a huge deck of trail cards, we have a good set of goal cards that ensure enough variability for many games. And since the game is quite challenging, if it fits the group, it can hit the table quite frequently, as games do not reach half an hour. Furthermore, this travel edition is very portable, although it is true that the game takes up a lot of space when deployed on the table.

As I have already said, within this category of games, I see it as an option for those looking for demanding challenges, such as Miyabi (here is its tocho-review). But if you prefer a more relaxed development, it might not suit you as well as designs like Cascadia (here is its tocho-review) or Under the Leaves (here is its tocho-review) would.

Let’s move on to the production. We find a rigid case that looks like a miniature suitcase where the different card decks are compacted—featuring good thickness, linen finish, and magnificent snap—along with the animal tokens, which present an adequate thickness and punch (they already come pre-punched). The rulebook is well-structured and leaves no room for doubt.

As for the artwork, we find a minimalist and flat style with retro inspiration, evoking the classic maps and illustrations of natural parks from the mid-20th century, with which the game achieves a clean, fresh, and modern visual identity. The illustrations use thick, schematic lines, doing away with complex textures or realistic volumes; the trails, rivers, and activity icons are instantly identifiable. Elements like the trees, animals, and dot-simulated textures add a charming, adventurous, and lighthearted touch, ideal for immersing the player in an outdoor exploration experience.

And let’s wrap this up. Trailblazers is a demanding design that relies on the combination of drafting with tile placement (cards in this case) for the construction of patterns and optimal loops. Behind its lighthearted appearance hides a complex connection puzzle where decision-making is by no means trivial. The race dynamic for the shared goals raises the tension at the table, forcing players to maintain a strictly tactical focus under constant frustration because there is almost never a clear choice. Its greatest virtue lies in how it manages to squeeze your brain on every turn, forcing you to prioritize the development of certain paths and to accept that it is impossible to cover everything. On the negative side, that persistent feeling of continuously choosing the least bad option might get stuck in the throats of those expecting light entertainment. A title that truly tightens the screws and will leave a good taste in the mouth of those who enjoy feeling cornered by their own puzzle. For all this, I give it a…