Arrrgh. The sea can be a cruel mistress.
Here’s how my first game played out.
The journey started at Port Royal aboard our trusty sloop. We caught favorable winds and headed east to the colony at Petite Goave where we stopped to trade food from our cargo hold. We managed some profitable trades, and spent our earnings to upgrade the small sloop. We added some long guns and improved our cargo hold in preparation for our long trip to the island of St. John, far to the east. As we sailed, we had to evade a pirate off the coast of Santa Domingo by ducking into port. We managed to avoid a major storm as we spent some time in the port.
Upon leaving Santa Domingo, We once again saw the sails of the pirate frigate on the horizon. If we had a larger ship, that pirate might have been able to spot us. Our luck held as we sailed further east towards San Juan.
While the crew enjoyed the hospitality of San Juan, a war had erupted. All the ships in port had to move out to sea to avoid the hostilities. Unfortunately, the pirate frigate from Santa Domingo must have been following us as its sails appeared on the horizon. Our highly maneuverable sloop managed to get into position and attack the pirate with its long guns. The attack disabled almost all of the pirate’s canons. Joy filled the crew as we savored the chance to capture the pirate’s ship. It was in that moment of joy, that a tactical blunder allowed the pirate crew to board our ship. They killed my crew and sent me to my watery grave.
The end.
The above story highlights the great storytelling that Merchants and Marauders can provide. I added some minor flavor, but the story is pretty much exactly what happened to my captain during a recent game. This game manages to incorporate its theme so effectively, the game feels like more than just a collection of mechanics.
The other thing that my story illustrates is that the game can be extremely punishing if a few key rolls happen to go the wrong direction. The penalty for dying in the game is very steep, and I suspect that unless you die in the first turn or two, you will probably not be able to catch up to the other players.
Here’s my ratings for the game:
Fun: 6/10
I was really enjoying the game up until the point where my captain died and I had to restart my career. I had to resist the urge to flip the board, a feeling that I haven’t had since being 10 years old playing Monopoly against the kids in the neighborhood. I struggle to give this game a very low rating for fun, as I really believe many aspects of this game are very fun and enjoyable…until it’s not.
Strategy: 4/10
This game has a good selection of tactical and strategic decisions to make. Luck can play a heavy role on the success or failure of your strategy.
Theme: 10/10
I love the theme. Best implemented pirate-themed game I have seen to date. The mechanics are extremely supportive of the theme. The mechanics of the game do a great job of making the game really feel like a pirate\merchant adventure.
Components: 8/10
The plastic ships are very nicely designed. I found the game board, player aid, and cards all had very thoughtful graphic design, making it easy to understand how to play.
Mechanics: 9/10
The mechanics for this game really do a wonderful job supporting the theme, and are not overly complex given the wide range of options that players can take. The only nit to pick is that some player turns might be just moving a few spaces on the board, not undertaking any real actions.
Conclusion:
I love and hate this game.
A few bad rolls can completely destroy a game where you have managed to work all game on building up to a powerful ship. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the theme and how players can make the decision to be a pirate, or just trade goods.
If this game was only an hour long, I suspect I could forgive the harshness of a captain dying to poor dice luck. Unfortunately this game will likely run close to 3 hours, which is simply much too long for a player to have to sit by and watch while the other players head towards victory. This is one game where just having the player eliminated would be more merciful that having them restart from a poor position.
If none of these pitfalls is a deal breaker for you, give this game a try. For me, I’ll be looking to trade my copy for something a little less frustrating.
So I gave a little more thought to how I feel about Merchants and Marauders, since I really wanted to like, and I DO enjoy the theme and many of the mechanics. But here’s my real issue. There’s just not that much game there. If you choose to go Merchant (the smarter choice from all accounts), your actions are dictated almost entirely by the luck of the cargo draw. Get the best deal you can and the most goods of one kind you can, go to the port that wants them, sell, and repeat. The Rumors and Missions are bits of window dressing that might (if you get a luck draw) let you get points faster without having to go out of your way. But the merchant game really just seems to boil down almost entirely to buying and selling.
And since Rumors aren’t actually a viable *reliable* winning strategy (there’s the very real possibility you get saddled with rumors that are impossible to complete, no matter how good your scouting or influence) I can’t see any reason you shouldn’t just take the captain with the highest seamanship. As a merchant, it seems like every other stat is completely irrelavant. All you want is to make sure you have a shot at getting away (or out-gunning your opponent) if you’re forced into unwanted combat. If Dave had one of the captains with 4 seamanship, I don’t think it would have changed the rest of his game one bit, and in the final battle he most likely would have come out on top.
The Marauder game is a little more fun to me, and can be quite a bit more varied, but that ultimately boils down to a HUGE risk/reward fest, and the penalties for getting caught can be so severe as to make it almost not worth it. Though I do suspect that with a well-executed pirate strategy you can recover pretty quickly from losing your ship, since even the basic Sloop is very good at taking on merchants.
All that said, there’s not 3-4 hours worth of game in there. I love the merchant raid mechanic, and the supply-demand mechanic is interesting in concept (though not as much fun in execution). I think there could be a good game in there if it were stripped down and distilled to a 30-45 minute experience. But there are enough other games on the market that I’ll leave that exercise to someone else. Ultimately, Merchants and Marauders is a pass.
Our group has played quite a number of games of this and after about 2 games or so we came to the conclusion: Captain’s Die. From then on our strategies were able to evolve around that concept and what exactly happens when you lose a ship.
It basically meant: bank your gold. All of it. As often as possible. As it keeps you in the game tremendously. Losing your captain doesn’t hurt that much in the long run as if you began your career as a highly profitable merchant, a quick and dirty pirate method of grabbing goods can place you back into the game fast, and accruing a few bounties on your head is fairly manageable.
Really the game demands you to be fluid. You can’t step into the game and say “I will go merchant this game!” you have to adjust to the captains you have, your board position and other ships on the board.
So far we’ve enjoyed just about every game we’ve played. and they’ve all been real close nail-biters.