Tabletopper Friday - Merchants & Marauders (2010)

After finally learning the game of Merchants & Marauders (2010) following nearly a year of trying to find the time and folks to play, I got a second chance soon after.  Both players were new.  They play together with me regularly and even play games like Firefly: The Game (2013) where we essentially play a similar game by somewhat different rules.  I'm still loving the map-board and components of this game.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Merchants & Marauders lets you live the life of an influential merchant or a dreaded pirate in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. Seek your fortune through trade, rumor hunting, missions, and of course, plundering. Modify your ship, buy impressive vessels, load deadly special ammunition, and hire specialist crew members. Will your captain gain eternal glory and immense wealth - or find his wet grave under the stormy surface of the Caribbean Sea?

In Merchants and Marauders, players take on the role of a captain of a small vessel in the Caribbean. The goal is to be the first to achieve 10 "glory" points through performing daring deeds (through the completion of missions or rumors), crushing your enemies (through defeating opponents and NPCs in combat), amassing gold, performing an epic plunder or pulling off the trade of a lifetime, and buying a grand ship. While some points earned from performing various tasks are permanent, players earn points for amassing gold, which can be stolen or lost (or at least diminished) if their captain is killed. Points due to gold are hidden so there's some uncertainty about when the game will end.

A big component of the game is whether (or when) to turn "pirate" or remain as a trader or neutral party. Both careers are fraught with danger: pirates are hunted by NPCs (and other players) for their bounty and blocked to certain ports while traders are hunted by non-player pirates as well as their opponents and generally have to sacrifice combat capability for cargo capacity. Although players can kill each other, there is no player elimination as players may draw a new captain (with a penalty) so it's possible to come back from defeat.

Once again, I avoided piracy and acted the full game as merchantly as one can.  Despite my country of origin being at war from nearly the beginning of the game and through most of it, I managed to find plenty of ways to load up my ship and trade in three in-demand trade items almost every time.  I think this game needs to stress that allowing folks to simply merchant their way to victory is something to avoid.  It becomes a race without a lot of tension once you're about two-thirds of the way along.  Next time, I will pirate like it's 1699 and we'll see what that does for me.

Tabletopper Friday on MFWARS.com 

Mostly about card games and board games,
unless they have a decidedly wargamey feel.

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Systems Saturday - Merchants & Marauders (2010)

For quite some time, I've been trying to get a game of Merchants & Marauders (2010) going.  I've got a copy of the game and have explored the rules to some degree but hadn't been able to gather the players until recently.  It's a good looking game with a lot of nice components and a fine map.

The description from Board Game Geek is as follows:

Merchants & Marauders lets you live the life of an influential merchant or a dreaded pirate in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. Seek your fortune through trade, rumor hunting, missions, and of course, plundering. Modify your ship, buy impressive vessels, load deadly special ammunition, and hire specialist crew members. Will your captain gain eternal glory and immense wealth - or find his wet grave under the stormy surface of the Caribbean Sea?

In Merchants and Marauders, players take on the role of a captain of a small vessel in the Caribbean. The goal is to be the first to achieve 10 "glory" points through performing daring deeds (through the completion of missions or rumors), crushing your enemies (through defeating opponents and NPCs in combat), amassing gold, performing an epic plunder or pulling off the trade of a lifetime, and buying a grand ship. While some points earned from performing various tasks are permanent, players earn points for amassing gold, which can be stolen or lost (or at least diminished) if their captain is killed. Points due to gold are hidden so there's some uncertainty about when the game will end.

A big component of the game is whether (or when) to turn "pirate" or remain as a trader or neutral party. Both careers are fraught with danger: pirates are hunted by NPCs (and other players) for their bounty and blocked to certain ports while traders are hunted by non-player pirates as well as their opponents and generally have to sacrifice combat capability for cargo capacity. Although players can kill each other, there is no player elimination as players may draw a new captain (with a penalty) so it's possible to come back from defeat.

One of the things that appealed to me initially about this game was knowing that there were any number of paths to victory.  While it is all about the VP (Glory Points), there are different ways to get them on both sides of the ampersand.  To feel the game out, I took this first time playing to avoid marauding and stick with being a regular merchant.  I did get involved in one big battle with an NPC but it was a pirate frigate and I was spoiling for trouble by steering near to it.  It's well worth keeping an eye on where one can upgrade and repair your ship cheaply or for free.  I don't think it is worth wasting too many actions buying and selling in ones and twos.  Selling three of a kind where they are in demand is so much more lucrative and good for the glory points that holding out until that is possible is worth the wait, or worth setting up to make it happen.  After I get another try at this game, I'll post some more about it with some new insights but that's really all I have so far.

Systems Saturday on MFWARS.com 

A look under the hood of various Games, Rules and Systems.

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Tabletopper Friday - Argent, Sellswords, & Libertalia

Although the video came out at the start of their Kickstarter campaign over a year ago, now that it is available Argent: The Consortium (2015) is one I wanted to learn since some friends are looking to play soon.  Check out this demo from the designer on the David Talton YouTube channel.  Watch and learn.

Also, from Episode 33 of The Dragon's Table, earlier this month they taught us how to play Sellswords (2014).  Enjoy.

Finally, join Wil Wheaton on the Geek & Sundry YouTube channel for is TableTop show while he is joined by Seth Green, Karen Gillan, and Clare Grant to play Libertalia (2012).  Great fun!

Tabletopper Friday on MFWARS.com 

Mostly about card games and board games,
unless they have a decidedly wargamey feel.

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Minis & Modeling Monday - Bits Boxes, Bases and Banners, & Battling Boats

James Wappel, on his Wappellious blog, recently reminded us to "Always eat your leftovers" as he showed us a way to make something from the bits box here.

Also, on the Fencing Frog blog, they treated us to a photo array of "Dark Age Bases and Banner."  See more here.

Finally, on the Monsieur le Rosbif & Johnny Frog blog, there are a boatload of photos from a recent wargaming naval battle from last month's "Against all Flags! - Pirates in September 2014 Event."  See more here.

Minis & Modeling Monday on MFWARS.com 

A look at prepping and painting Miniatures,
crafting buildings and paper Models,
and other non-terrain stuff for the tabletop..

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