Expeditions: Conquistador is a turn-based tactical RPG where players taken on the role of a Spanish explorer arriving at the island of Hispaniola in the year 1518.

The gameplay is divided into two parts: on the overland maps of Hispaniola or Mexico, the player can ride around the game world, encountering events, assigning tasks, picking up resources and crafting items. Events are text-based and often trigger a battle. Like the overland map, the combat system is turn-based, with the player controlling up to 6 units at a time, typically against a slightly larger group of enemies. Battlefields are hex-based, but unlike many hex-based games of this type, every battlefield is hand-made and always relates to the story of the event that it is part of.