First, a disclaimer: this is my first review for Board Game Geek.

Second, another disclaimer: I am not the biggest fan of cards in strategy games. Don't get me wrong - I play and really enjoy all sorts of strategy games with cards. In general, though, I prefer to play strategy games with limited card use and to keep my card gaming a bit more traditional (like bridge).

Why is this? One reason I don't usually prefer games that heavily rely on cards is that there is often a bit of a learning curve for new players. "Torres" and "El Grande" are fantastic games, for example, but it's hard to be good at them until you learn what cards are available, read them all, and then learn how to use them. The second reason is reserved for card games with multi-purposed cards - "San Juan" and "Race For the Galaxy" being two prime examples. Something about the fact that a card can be money and a "good" and an "Alien Robot Sentry" just limits my immersion in the game's theme. "San Juan" and "Race For the Galaxy" are both great games that I own and enjoy, but somehow I prefer to keep my goods and my Alien Robot Sentries a bit more separate. "Traders of Carthage", like those two games, is both a card game and a game with multi-purposed cards - and still I think it's highly entertaining and well worth a purchase.

To begin with, let's discuss the components: to me, they feel, well, "rich". The board is tiny but unexpectedly beautiful. It's sturdy and has a great finish and fantastic artwork. Even the box for this game is really, really attractive. Plus, the game has wooden ship bits that actually look like ships. Nothing pleasantly distracts me from the fact that I'm playing a card game about suit promotion like a beautiful board and cool wooden bits. In a game where the theme could feel just a tad tacked-on, excellent production values really help.

The cards are nicely-sized and fairly sturdy, with the same stellar artwork. They come in four suits and three denominations, and play a variety of roles. Cards can be goods (face up in front of you), money or "goods storage" (in your hand), or victory points (face down in your victory point pile). What streamlines things a bit is that no detailed reading is really necessary, as the cards don't represent specialty actions or include any tiny text. One quick glance at a card tells you what it's all about. The card's "suit" only matters when it's behaving as a good or storage, and its value only matters when it's used as goods or money. Neither matters for victory points. The whole mechanism of promoting suits and then cashing them as victory points reminds me a bit of "Bohnanza", but I find the theme and gameplay in "Carthage" a lot more compelling.

Every turn you have only three real options. The first is to use your reservation token to reserve a card in the market or farm. Cards in the market are available for immediate use, and cards in the farm are available after the current market is essentially sold out. The whole "farm" concept is a bit reminiscent of the futures market for power plants in "Power Grid", and the fact that the farm represents at most 60% of what's going to show up in the next market adds just the right amount of chance into the mix. Figuring out which card you want to reserve and what you eventually intend to use it for is important. Whether or not to reserve a card is also important, because reserving a card means you only have two options left on future turns, and you may not even be able to afford take a certain one of the two that are available. Since this is the case, it's sometimes possible to squeeze other players into doing something they wouldn't ordinarily want to do.

The second option is to take a card from the market into your hand, and use it as currency. This presents an interesting dilemma, because the natural inclination is to take the high-value "5" cards. Doing this makes it a lot easier for other players to afford to buy the contents of the market, though, because when you buy goods (the third option) you have to buy every card in the market that is not reserved by another player. Since buying goods is the only way to get victory points, making it easier for other players to buy out the market isn't always a great idea - especially if it means they get to sell a load of valuable goods and you end up having to dump yours.

"Traders of Carthage" is really all about suit promotion, which is represented by the position of the ships. Buying goods in the market moves the corresponding ships closer to Carthage, though there are limits on that movement. Ships that make it to Carthage allow all players to sell their goods of that type and cash them into victory points. Selling a type of goods also provides a player with a token that serves as an additional multiplier for future sales of those goods. (In a somewhat elegant mechanic, these tokens also determine the length of the game.) When one or more ships land in Carthage, pirates raid the ships that almost (but don't quite) make it. Players who own goods carried by raided ships are forced to dump or store their goods, both of which can be expensive propositions.

In the end, "Traders of Carthage" is a "game of deltas", and ship position is the key. You'll win if you sell more goods in Carthage and if you have fewer goods that you have to dump or store. I've heard both "San Juan" and "Race For the Galaxy" criticized for lack of player interaction, and even heard them compared to multiplayer solitaire. "Traders of Carthage" surpasses both of those games in this regard, because it's extremely important to keep track of the goods owned by other players and also the funds they likely have available. When choosing a card as currency, for example, it can be important to choose cards that you don't want to see other players buy as goods. These are usually goods in which you yourself are not heavily invested. When buying out the market, it's likewise important to realize the impact on ship position and the results (sales and raids) this will have for other players. It's extremely satisfying to land a ship in Carthage that earns you a rich haul of victory points and simultaneously forces all of the other players to dump their own valuable goods. By the time you factor in ship positions, the goods owned by yourself and the other players, the amount of money you have, the composition of the market and the future opportunities available in the farm, each turn really provides a lot to think about.

PROS:

-Streamlined play but with some deep tactical considerations
-Easy to learn and quick to play
-Excellent production values
-Relatively inexpensive
-Plays well with any number of players (2-4)

CONS:

-Some could consider the theme a tad "tacked-on" (though I really like it)
-Math for converting goods to VP's initially seems a little alien
-We found a couple small parts of the manual a little ambiguous, but soon sorted things out

CONCLUSION:

This game may not be currently ranked quite as highly as "San Juan" or "Race For the Galaxy", but it's an excellent game that's easy to recommend, and in my gaming group it's currently getting more plays than either of those fine games.