Merchants of Amsterdam (2000)

Players are attempting to be in first or second place majorities in a variety of categories throughout the game. These include commodity markets, trading colonies, and warehouses in Amsterdam.

On a player's turn, that player draws three cards and decides how to resolve them for the turn. A player can either remove the card from the game, keep it for him or herself, or put it up for auction. The cards allow players to advance or place one of their markers in the various categories.

There are also time-marker cards which, when drawn, move the game through various "historical" phases until the last which ends the game. The historical phases follow a period of time in the history of Amsterdam which can range from no effect, to scoring rounds for particular categories, to bonuses, and towards the end of the game to some penalties as wars begin to disrupt business markets.

The unique twist in the game is that the game comes with a spring-driven auction clock to perform the Dutch auctions throughout the game. You start the clock and it ticks down as all of the players hold their hands ready close by. The idea is that as time passes the cost of the card lowers and it is simply an issue of who will pay for it first by slapping down on the clock and thus stopping it at a certain price.

We have found that having the auction clock available for a 'free for all' is not working well. Things get scattered on the table, knocked over, and it's by no means safe from arguments about 'who was first'.
So in our group we delegate one player with good reactions to take charge of the clock, and the first player to yell 'Bid' gets the knockdown on the auction. Consensus about where the knockdown occurred and who was first to pipe up is always reached in seconds.

The stated 'game time' of 60 minutes is optimistic i.m.o. We've spent double that time on one game with 5 players.