Conquistador (game)
Conquistador, originally subtitled "The Age of Exploration: 1495–1600", is a board game published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1976 that simulates the exploration of the New World in the 16th century. Players take on the role of European countries sending expeditions to find gold and establish colonies. Although the design uses the trappings of board wargames such as a hex map, combat is not a major part of the game. Description Conquistador is a game for 1–3 players (SPI edition) or 2–4 players (Avalon Hill edition) where the players vie to accumulate as much wealth, land and exploration as possible. Components The SPI version of the game published in Strategy & Tactics #58 contains: 22" x 32" hex grid game map of North & South America 200 die-cut counters representing soldiers, colonists, missionaries, carracks, caravels, galleon fleets, and gold bars, along with individually named explorers, privateers, and conquistadors. (Assistant designer Greg Costikyan noted that because it was a magazine pull-out, SPI limited the game to only 200 counters, inevitably leading to shortages of certain counters during the game.) 12-page rules booklet The boxed set that SPI released later also contains two six-sided dice. The Avalon Hill edition contains 520