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Amoena aka a girl likes games
Finland
Espoo
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Our friend Ossi visited us after I hinted him that we have not just one, but six new board games he still hasn't played with us. And that the new games include cool things like ghosts, monsters, investigators, pirates... Who could resist? Ossi is not exactly a board game enthusiast, but he always agrees to play with us, and lately he has seemed to be pretty excited by the games we have played. I guess he's slowly becoming brainwashed!
This Friday we decided to play Merchants & Marauders even though it was slightly against our regular policy; Ossi is our only gaming buddy, so we want him to have the best possible gaming experience with us. Usually that means no games we haven't test played yet, as we usually miss a thing or two with the first play, or play something completely wrong. That might be too disappointing for a non-gamer. Luckily my boyfriend had some time to read the rules in advance, so it was easier for him to explain the rules to me and Ossi. The learning process was definitely not as bad as I had feared, and Ossi didn't seem to mind it either.
Before I babble something about the actual game play, I want to say couple words about the game itself. First of all: pretty. I really like the graphics of this game, everything supports the theme so greatly. And I was happy to see there were three female captains in the captain deck, and they were all hotter than Vasquez:
There was basically only one thing I didn't like: the cheapish vessels. I think they're too light and too plastic-y, and two of them were actually broken. Amoena is not impressed. Besides, they remind me of the horrible toys I got from the dentist when I was a kid! I think I would have liked them more if they were some kind of a rubber material, kinda like the pieces in Ghost Stories. They just need some weight. Strangely the vessels look decent in pictures:
I think there are enough good reviews written about Merchants & Marauders, but there are couple things I would like to highlight myself. This game is basically a dice rolling game. And at the same time, it's not a dice rolling game. I think it's brilliant! My boyfriend is into dice rolling, but I find it confusing. I struggle counting how many dice I need to roll and when. I guess it has something to do with the fact that I'm really, really terrible at math. But in this game you can choose to be a pirate who needs to roll dice all the time, or you can become a merchant and you hardly have to roll dice at all - only when someone else is attacking you. So guess what role I like to play? You guessed it right, I want to be the non-rolling merchant.
And trading seems to be a successful strategy. In our first game I was basically the only merchant, and I was the first one with the chance of winning. The boys noticed this and begged me not to end the game. They wanted to go on with their pirating career. I didn't win that particular game - but only because I wanted to do them a favor. In our second game, the one I played together with my boyfriend, I didn't have to please anyone, so I ended the game as soon as I had enough gold stashed in order to win.
And that, I think, needs some house rules. I don't like the way the game can be ended so suddenly and so easily. I think there are other aspects as well that need a little bit fixing, but this is the thing I think we'll focus on first. I just wonder... Does the need of house rules make a bad game? Should a game be perfectly playable without house rules too? What is your opinion about this?
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