Aguirre, designed by the writer Bryce Journey, is a thematic Euro-style historical game about the last and most infamous Spanish expedition to find El Dorado. During the course of this expedition, Don Lope de Aguirre (later known as The Madman and The Tyrant) assassinated the conquistador leading the expedition and the nobleman he propped up in his stead before taking over the expedition personally. Recognizing that El Dorado was a myth and that the only gold to be found was back in Peru, Aguirre declared himself Prince of Peru and changed the purpose of his expedition to overthrow the Pizzaros and take over the country for himself. Sailing down the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, Aguirre's expedition faced all manner of challenges in the form of disease, privation, navigation, lack of morale, and attacks from the natives, against whom Aguirre committed barbaric atrocities (there are portions of South America where Aguirre's name is still used as a curse today). Members of Aguirre's expedition discovered to their dismay that the most dangerous of all the challenges, however, was Aguirre's growing paranoia. One by one, Aguirre executed his own men when he grew suspicious of them, sometimes with cause, more often without. Ultimately, Aguirre managed to capture a Spanish fort before being besieged by government forces, when he was executed by one of his own men, one of the few survivors of his ill-fated expedition.

In the game, players will take on the role of one of the unfortunate members of Aguirre's expedition. Their goal? To accumulate enough influence to overthrow Aguirre before they are executed in turn. In the end, only one player will survive Aguirre’s paranoia. Only one player will be able to accumulate enough influence to overthrow him. Only one player will emerge from the depths of hell on earth to tell the tale of The Tyrant Aguirre!

The principal game mechanics are role/action selection and set collection. Players will earn Influence (victory) Points through a variety of methods, including influencing prominent members of the expedition (the role/action selection part of the game), purchasing Supply Cards (the set collection part of the game), and overcoming thematic challenges. One of these challenges is the "paranoia phase," in which one of the roles/actions is removed from the game every turn, resulting in a diminishing array of role/actions for players to choose from as the game progresses. The game challenges players to use reactive and adaptive strategy, as players must frequently shift and adjust what they want to do in the game according to the changing conditions of the game.

Aguirre is a fast-paced game for 2-6 players and lasts 30-90 minutes depending on the number of players.

Games