Merchants & Marauders Game Review

 Sipping rum from a deep mug, tucking a dagger and a couple of pistols into our belts, we set out to set sails on ships and furrow the seas playing Merchants and Marauders .

GAMEPLAY

 What is this game about? This is a game about sailors who wander between several islands of the Caribbean basin and trade some with honest trade, and some with robbery (caravans) of merchants and colleagues who pass by.

 The essence of the game is very simple: swim, trade, steal, earn 10 glory points and you are the winner. Overlaid on this simple system is a set of rules that specify exactly how this is done. For example, you can trade every time you enter the port, while each city has a "scarce" product for which you can get more money, and by selling 3 pieces at once, you can get a glory point and be one step closer to victory.

 Also, with the money earned, you can buy various minor (but nice!) improvements for your ship, such as sails, guns, hammocks for team members, etc.

 In general, the non-combat part of the game revolves very much around the ports - in addition to trading and buying improvements, in some ports you can get missions (which are more often reduced to swimming somewhere and passing a check of one of the parameters there by rolling one or more dice), even in the city you can get a rumor map (roughly the same as missions, but available in all ports). For both missions and rumors, you also need to check the "influence" parameter of your captain with dice, no dice rolled - no rumor/mission. You can also repair a damaged ship at the port or buy a new one (a glory point is also given for the purchase).

 A player has 3 actions on their turn that they can spend moving to an adjacent sea zone, entering/exiting a port, or trying to find a merchant/other player hanging out in the same zone (by checking the "reconnaissance" option with the dice).

 Here we smoothly approach the description of the combat unit. For attacks on neutral merchants, the combat is quite simple: you get several goods cards (which also indicate the amount of money and the area of the ship in which the merchant's return fire "hits") if none of the parameters of your ship's stability have fallen to zero after the return fire . you successfully rob a merchant, receiving money for drawn goods cards, the opportunity to stuff the goods themselves into the hold, and if you looted 12 or more coins - an additional glory point.

 Ah, yes, completely forgot - after attacking (even unsuccessfully) the first (and all subsequent) merchants, you automatically become a pirate. Each merchant is listed as belonging to one of several nations represented on the table (English, Dutch, French, and Spanish). You gain one search token for that nation and can no longer enter its ports on the field.

 A few words about how bad it is to be a pirate. First, the game has random events that periodically bring neutral MILITARY ships of various nations into the field. Most event cards will also activate ships already on the field and send them off in one direction or another, BUT if you're a pirate and you're hanging around, they'll swim towards you instead and start looking for you (neutral ships and captains have the same set of parameters, as well as players).

 If they discover you, then a fight will begin (another player will play neutral), and you have every chance to go to feed the fish, if you did not prepare for such a meeting in advance. Even if you are sitting in the port, the warship will not sail anywhere, but will wait until you are about to sail out of there, and will try to "hook" you again.

 But that's not all! Since pirates rarely stop at one robbed merchant, the number of search tokens on their ship gradually increases, and if another player sinks the pirate's ship, then for each token he will immediately receive 5 gold coins, and he himself will not be considered a pirate.

 However, in addition to warships, pirate ships also hang around the field, which, on the contrary, do not touch fellow pirates, but curiously begin to circle around the ships of peaceful players.

 And for the sweet - a fight between two players. Here you can evaluate how random the game is. The captains compare the maneuverability parameters of the ships, then roll navigation dice (initiative), whoever has more successes can fire all his guns, whoever has less can only fire from guns equal to the number of successes. Hits lower the ship's parameters (guns, crew, masts/hull, hold), accordingly reducing its combat effectiveness / destroying the cargo being carried / mowing down the crew.

 If it turned out that the crew of the enemy ship is quite ragged, you can try to board it (at the same time, each captain rolls dice for the number of surviving crew members). If you're lucky, you can appropriate an enemy ship with all the goods and improvements. Well, if you're not lucky, welcome to the bottom. (Yes, you can try to flush, but it usually either won't roll at first because any hit "cancels the flush" or won't roll at the end because you're clearly near death and so your chances are, again, very little).

 Well, that's roughly how this yoho-ho-and-a-bottle-of-rum-game goes. =) And now impressions!

IMPRESSION

 I played twice, won once, lost once. I liked the game, but the second time, unlike the first, I complained for a long time about the game balance (in general, I always complain about the balance when I lose, so I often can't understand whether the problem is with the balance or the fact that I don't know how to lose =) ).

WHAT'S GOOD IN THE GAME?

 - Pirate atmosphere, romance of the seas and so on - you wander around the ports in search of profitable goods / errands, rob other ships or, on the contrary, try to wash away from them, the pirates get a headache from the military that cruises around, trying to find them and the eternal "let someone fix the ship" after another fight. In addition, the game is beautifully designed (and the version of the friend we played is designed on 10/15).

 — The feeling of satisfaction from a "spoiled businessman": whether it is a successful sale, a completed mission or a robbed caravan - sailing to the next port, you feel like a "sea wolf", with a sense of fulfilled duty, going "to taverns and brothels" under time for a short rest.

 - Dynamics. Something is constantly happening in the game: warships are sailing, pirates are sailing, a storm is raging somewhere (and the wind must also be taken into account), every turn you get a map of events, it can even start a war between nations on the field. And you should always keep a close eye on the movements of your comrades, because if you are torn apart in a fight, even a peaceful merchant floating by may think: "Why not?"

WHAT DID NOT LIKE

 — The battle between the two ships greatly distorts this very dynamic: while all this commotion with "initiative-shot-hit" is going on, other players make their moves and then, sadly, wait for the resolution and the next round.

 — If your ship was sunk in a fight, you start the game over. Only the accumulated glory points are saved, and in the rest - the new captain, the starting trough and the starting 10 gold. As they say, "technically" you can still win, but I will believe in such miracles only when I see it with my own eyes.

 - Actually, about these troughs. Why such a fatal loss of ship? Because a new ship costs 30-35 gold, which is several ROUNDS of dangling cargo between several ports or looting (while also taking into account repairs and the inability to enter some ports).

 But the balance of ship parameters is very controversial: for 35 coins you can choose a frigate or a galleon. The frigate has all the parameters of 3, the galleon has fatness of 5, the rest have 4 and only maneuverability is 1. But what does maneuverability give so much to raise the parameters of a ship with low maneuverability?

 Each of the captains has a navigation parameter (initiative), which is usually equal to 2. When two ships are fighting, the captain of the more maneuverable one rolls 1(!) additional initiative die. It doesn't matter if you have 4 maneuverability and your opponent has 1, you still roll 1 bonus. a cube However, first of all, an additional dice of maneuverability does not mean a gain in initiative at all, you can not throw a single success on three (well, cubes, you understand). Second, there are captains who have a base navigation value of 3, so your maneuverability will only allow you to match the initiative of a "trucker" commander. And, thirdly, even if a truck hits you once (and, let me remind you, trucks have more guns), it is quite possible that, even if you win the initiative, you will have nothing to shoot at or a second hit will destroy your frigate, in whose all "vital" indicators are lower.

 Well, for the second game I have the feeling that there is practically no sense in the frigate (and if you have a captain with navigation in 3, then none at all).

 - The last, most annoying thing is how much, IMHO, the game is skewed towards trading and peaceful extraction of victory points.

ADVANTAGE OF PIRACY

 — Piracy brings less money on average (and there is a chance to waste the action, because the victim ship still needs to be found with an intelligence check, and if not found, you can search again only when you enter this zone again).

 — Actually, a large part of your money will be eaten up by repairs / constant purchase of improvements in order not to go to the bottom.

 — If you didn't get 12 or more coins from the robbed merchant, you won't get a victory point (glory points) either.

 — You are constantly pinched by warships and are hindered by the impossibility of entering some (and the more you pirate, the more) ports. If the reward for your head will be decent, then other players will not mind sewing your masts.

 — There is a chance to die in a fight and spend the rest of the game as a spectator, because losing a ship will send you back to the Stone Age.

WHAT ABOUT TRADERS?

 — Trade brings victory points AND money (for 3 sold scarce goods + smuggling from dopa).

 - You can get add. victory points for rumors received in the city (for which you have to pay, but you have tons of money) or missions. Of course, you may not pass the inspection to get them (or later confirm), but it's easier for you to do it "on the road", while finding a suitable port for pirates to rest is a separate mini-game (you also need to take routes into account warships).

 — Well, the biggest hole in the balance, IMHO, is that in each player's "home town" there is a chest into which you can put gold from the ship as a separate action;  for every 10 gold "buried" in this way, you get 1 victory point. FOR EVERY 10, CARL! Let me remind you that only 10 points are needed to win these points. And now the question is: who has more money - a merchant who hauls scarce goods between ports or a pirate who spends half of the loot to repair his ship?

 Perhaps it would balance the game that the transport ship could become an easy victim of a more "combat" frigate, but I previously described why everything here is also very doubtful.

 However, even after losing the ship and moving to the audience hall, I like the game because it gives an unusual feeling regardless of how it ended for you. The feeling of a living world where you are not the "hero" like in most games, but just another captain trying to make his way to success through shrewd trading or daring heisting.

 And even a random defeat by another ship is still perceived as a logical end to your "career", not just "thrown the dice and died". Overall, I don't think this game is for everyone, but if you can handle the brutal randomness of battles and the even more brutal consequences of botched battles, then this game will give you a world that I haven't seen in any other game yet. (Aegeus, "Lavka", XIA will be there soon? =))

VERDICT

 A good game that lacks something for everyone. For American fans, there is a lot of calculation, for Euro fans, there is a very large element of randomness. However, I would still play at least twice - once to try out the role of a privateer, and once to play a frozen pirate. By the way, if you want to win in this game, it is unlikely that you will be able to focus on one role - you have to be all of them.