Posted by James (admin) on 25th January 2011
Below are links to reviews of games that will be released in shops this week (in the UK):
Note that my Liberté review is of the original release and not the new Valley Games version; however, the only difference is that the new version has better board colouration (which was an issue with the original game). The Valley Games’ board can be seen here.
Tags: board game news, Board Games, board gaming, Crows, Liberté, Merchants & Marauders
Posted in Board Games, Crows, Liberté, Merchants & Marauders, New Releases | No Comments »
Posted by James (admin) on 22nd November 2010
I played Merchants and Marauders again yesterday and, once again, we all thoroughly enjoyed it. As I mentioned in my review, it contains all the cool pirate actions you could want as well as lots of variety. The naval vessels and non-player pirate ships (NPCs) moved a lot more than our last game which also added more variety and action, especially for me as I had bounties on my head so I spent time avoiding the stronger ships.
Merchants & Marauders really is a first-class game and one I’m really pleased I bought. I know we will play it a lot more too. Below are some further thoughts:
Battles at Sea
The players were still quite pleasant to each other so there were very few player-versus-player combats. I tried but just couldn’t succeed at my scouting roll when it mattered so my “easy prey” human opponent managed to slip by me; however, we did have a couple of fights. First, one player totally destroyed my already very badly damaged ship as I’d just completed a couple of merchant raids. Their seamanship skill of 3 versus my 1 made it an easy win (I couldn’t use my seamanship of 2 because they had a bounty on them). Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: board game news, Board Games, board gaming, Essen, Merchants & Marauders, Spiel 10, Spiel 2010
Posted in Board Games, Essen Spiel 10, Merchants & Marauders, Replay | No Comments »
Posted by James (admin) on 30th October 2010
There have been a lot of pirate-themed games in the past but not many have covered the full pirate experience. To make it worse, the Sid Meyer’s Pirates boardgame never made it to completion. So, when I read the rules to Merchants & Marauders, I was very pleased that a big Pirate game was coming.
THE GAME
The goal of Merchants & Marauders is glory – the first player to score 10 glory points wins. Each time a player gains a glory point, they also receive a glory card too which is a special ability or item, so your captain becomes more accomplished throughout the game. Glory is gained through impressive feats such as defeating a ship in combat, trading large amounts of goods, completing missions, gaining wealth, and more.
The board shows the Caribbean split into sea zones – each zone contains a port, plus has a special rule too making every zone different. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: board game news, Board Games, board gaming, Essen, Merchants & Marauders, Spiel 10, Spiel 2010
Posted in Board Game Review, Board Games, Essen Spiel 10, Merchants & Marauders | 11 Comments »