Designers: Ted Cheatham and Bruno Faidutti
Publisher: Z-Man Games
3 – 5 Players, 1 hour
Review by: Greg J. Schloesser

There have been two games in which I have been somewhat involved from their inception and through their development, culminating in their ultimate publication. One was my good friend Ty Douds’ Victory and Honor, one of the best trick-taking games in existence. The most recent is Silk Road, which began life many years ago as Valencia. Conceived by my good friend Ted Cheatham, Valencia was originally an abstract in search of a theme. When Ted devised the Valencia theme, my wife Gail actually created the artwork for the prototype. Eventually, Ted collaborated with well-known French designer Bruno Faidutti, and the result was Silk Road, which has been published by Z-Man Games.

As the name suggests, Silk Road is set along the historic Silk Road of the Far East. The caravan travels from city-to-city, beginning its journey in Changan and concluding thousands of miles later in Antioch. With each city visited, players will select one of the action tiles, which will enable them to purchase, swap or sell commodities in various combinations. Players best beware, however, as the dastardly thief can foil one’s plans, while the Grand Vizier can grant great wealth to the player with the greatest quantity of the commodity he seeks.

To begin the game, each player receives three randomly-drawn commodities, as well as an initial treasury of ten pieces of silver. Tiles – one less than the number of players – are placed randomly on each of the 18 cities depicted on the board. The start player receives the caravan leader pawn and a number of turn tokens (one less than the number of players). The caravan then sets-off from mysterious China, and players seek wealth and riches.

The first step of a turn is determining the caravan leader, which isn’t necessarily the player holding the leader pawn. Each player can make one monetary offer to purchase the caravan leader token for the turn. The current caravan leader can either accept the highest bid, receiving the money offered and surrendering the leader and turn tokens, or keep the caravan leader token, paying the high bidder an amount equal to his bid.

The caravan leader now moves the caravan token to one of the next cities along the route, as indicated by the arrows depicted on the board. He then chooses and executes one of the action tiles available at that location. In addition, if there is a pre-printed action listed next to the city, he may also execute that action. These cities are particularly valuable, and often result in elevated bids from the players during the first phase.

After making a selection, the caravan leader keeps one of the turn tokens, and passes the remainder to the player of his choice. That player then chooses a tile and executes its action before passing the remaining tokens onto another player of his choice. This continues until no further turn tokens remain. The one player who did not receive an action tile receives the caravan leader token and begins the next turn. This “choosing the next player” mechanism is highly original, and can help serve as a method to reign in the current leader. There is the potential for one player to be constantly targeted, but in practice, wise players will choose to target the perceived leader rather than constantly abuse one player.

The action tiles are the heart of the game. Some will allow a player to trade one type of commodity for others, sometimes on a favorable 1-for-2 basis, while others will allow a player to sell or purchase commodities. When selling, the first good is sold for 4 silver, while each subsequent good is sold for one less. Purchasing works in the opposite direction. A maximum of four goods can be sold or purchased per tile.

There are also a few special tiles, such as the thief, which allows the player to randomly steal a commodity from behind an opponent’s screen. The Grand Vizier allows the player to choose a particular commodity, and each player simultaneously reveals the amount of that commodity that they possess. Silver is awarded to the top two players.

The game continues until the caravan reaches Antioch. Players then receive victory points as follows:

• 5 points per gold coin
• 1 point per silver coin
• 1 point per goods token
• 2 points for the most tokens in EACH commodity. If tied in a particular commodity, no player receives those points.

Resource management is important, particularly in the timing of the conversion of cash into commodities, and back into cash. Cash is needed early in the game for the acquisition of commodities, but in the second-half of the game, but conservation of cash is more important as the game enters the second half. Whenever a player can sell commodities, or trade one for two, it is a wise course of action.

While the decisions to be made along the way are not often taxing or difficult, one does derive the feeling that your actions are responsible for your ultimate fate, and that wise moves at the right time will spell the difference. Some of a player’s plans can be hindered by the passing of the turn order tokens, and a perceived front-runner will likely be passed-by when passing the turn tokens. However, the clever balancing mechanism of crowning this overlooked player the caravan leader on the following turn appears to be ample compensation.

Silk Road is a game of decisions and resource management that is easy to learn and play. The rules fit easily on the front and back of a single page, and the game plays to completion in just over an hour. While the system includes familiar mechanisms such as quick auctions, it also has some clever and fresh innovations. It is a game that can be played and enjoyed by both families and serious gamers, which is a big plus. I’m happy to see this entertaining game finally published.

Unless playing with children, newbies, casual gamers, vindictive neighbors, ex-girlfriends, wives on PMS, analysis paralysis types, morons in general, gamers who don't want to offend other gamers by choosing or not choosing them, or a mix of any of the above. I personally found this game mechanism the worst aspect of the game, especially with a full compliment of players. I found it slowed the game down needlessly. I'm sure the intent was well placed but in practice I didn't find it a viable method of reigning in the leader unless you could be sure of always giving it to the player in last place somehow.

I think a simple mechanism of passing the start player to the left and just going clockwise would have been a better choice unless everyone at the table is a savy gamer. Other than that, I also thought it was a very good game with interesting choices.

I'm in the same boat as you Walt. I thought it was a clever resource management game but that the turn order mechanism was annoying and out of place. There might be a game where this mechanism works but Silk Road ain't it, I think it's too simple and constrained. Simple and constrained isn't a criticism though, I actually that aspect of the game as it makes for a nice tight filler with interesting decisions. It just doesn't match the free-wheeling nature of the turn order mechanism. That mechanism needs a more wide open negotiation game where player standing can be more readily ascertained.

Here’s my suggestion. Play proceeds clockwise from the start player. Players pay 1 gold to the pot when they take an action. Instead of taking an action a player may take the start marker and all the gold in the pot. If any actions remain they are taken in turn order for free. The player with the start marker then starts the next turn by moving the caravan.

Example in a 5 player game (players A thru E). Player A starts, pays a gold and takes an action. Player B pays a gold and takes an action, Player C pays a gold and takes an action. Now, maybe Player D doesn’t like the final action and he’d like to control where the caravan goes so he takes the start marker and 3 gold. Player E takes the final action for free.

Next turn Player D pays a gold and takes an action and so on for Players E, A, and B. When it comes to player C no actions are left so he takes the start marker and 4 gold and moves the caravan. And so on.

AMEN

That's pretty interesting, my only concern is that at first glance it seems like there might be a lot of times where you sort of luck out with choice... similar to the Railroad Tycoon auction, where you might get a good spot in the turn order just because your right hand neighbor wanted to go first.

On second thought, maybe that's nonsense. I might like to try this variant. I think I had an idea of my own, but I don't recall what it was

- Seth