The Dice Tower Contributor And Gaming Journalist Try To Cancel "Corps Of Discovery" Board Game
The board game industry has a pattern of cancel culture that’s all about pushing its leftist agenda and canceling any theme or game that runs afoul of it. Now, a Dice Tower contributor, Ella Ampogan, and a board game journalist and woke activist, Scott Woods, are on a campaign to cancel the board game “Corps of Discovery” because of it being based on a comic book, “Manifest Destiny,” which they take exception with.
Corps of Discovery has been out for a year, and shouldn’t be a hot topic in 2026. It’s a basic co-op deduction and survival game, a genre that’s had a lot of popularity in board games in the last decade, and most reviewers rate the game very highly. However, the setting is one that can’t be tolerated by the modern left.
Manifest Destiny is a comic book about Lewis & Clark’s expedition, but taking an alternative history where they discover real monsters in the wild in the 1800s. The frontier is portrayed as a grim, hostile landscape where natural history, folklore, and body‑horror creatures coexist with early U.S. expansion and encounters with Native Americans.
It sounds like an interesting concept, and taking the idea and using it for a board game makes sense because the comic book provides art for the game, making it easy to produce.
The term “manifest destiny” itself triggers the extreme left, even though it’s a historically accurate representation of the expansion west. While the board game company is likely left as well, it’s not enough for the inquisition.
Board game journalist Scott Woods, known for his extreme political hot takes, decided to make a point of it on Facebook:
While he’s ranting about ICE, it’s not clear how this even remotely applies to the board game.
Dice Tower contributor and reviewer Ella Ampogan had much the same rant on BlueSky a couple of days later, seeming to draw from Woods’ idea as the left loves to get in on group think:
These influencers are sure worked up over a year-old game based on a comic book about Lewis & Clark fighting monsters. Ella Ampongan must have missed that her employer actually gave the game a “seal of excellence” when they reviewed the game:
Her comments didn’t seem to matter much when it came to gameplay, theme, and fun factor.
The game currently sits with a healthy 7.8/10 rating on Board Game Geek with nearly 1,000 ratings.
What do you think about this meager cancel attempt by board game influencers?
Scott and Ella need to check their privilege and learn history.
I guess I need to buy a copy on general principle.