Hello, /r/boardgames! I got my copy of the Kickstarter project Dale of Merchants recently, and having played it a couple times I thought I’d post my thoughts, since it’s a neat little game and I haven’t seen much talk of it yet. Also, this is the first time I’ve written up a proper review of a game, so bear with me if there’s too much andor not enough detail.

Premise

Every year, the town of Dale holds a competition for the local merchants, with the winner gaining admission to the prestigious Guild of Merchants. The first merchant to complete a stall of merchandise with eight stacks of goods is the winner.

Gameplay

The game is a lightweight deckbuilder for 2-4 players, coming with just 110 cards consisting of 6 animal decks of 15 cards each, and 20 junk cards. Each deck has a different play style, and when setting up you chose a number of decks to include, based on the number of players plus one deck. The six decks are the snappy scarlet macaws (hand management), the dealing giant pandas (market proficiency), the thieving northern racoons (direct conflict), the hoarding flying squirrels (stall manipulation), the lucky ocelots (luck and gambling), and the adapting veiled chamelons (imitation). Players receive one value 1 card from each deck that they have chosen to play with, plus however many junk cards are needed to bring their deck to 10 cards total. Any remaining value 1 cards are removed from the game, and the remaining animal cards are shuffled together to form the market deck. Players shuffle their decks and draw five cards to their hands.

On their turns, players can do one of any four actions using cards in their hand, most of which are fairly standard deckbuilding actions:

Buy a card from the market, discarding the value of the card to their discard pile, and placing the new card directly into their hand (not their discard pile)
Play a technique card, which is a card that must be used to activate its power (as opposed to passive cards)
Discard any number of cards from their hand, or
Build a stall. Stalls range in value from 1 to 8, and each stall must consist of cards from a single animal deck and exactly equal the value of that stall. Stalls must be built in ascending order, and cannot be built in stages (ie, stall five must equal five when built, you can’t put a three down one turn and a two the next). Cards played to a stall cannot be returned to your hand, they are permanently unavailable to you.

As noted above, the first player to build their eighth stall wins the game.

Thoughts

First of all, I just have to say that the game looks lovely. The art is distinctive and interesting, while keeping the cards clear and easy to read. There’s also some nice flavour text that was added to all the cards as a stretch goal to keep things interesting.

As for the game itself, I was attracted to it because it’s such an atypical deckbuilder, despite using the same basic mechanics. You end up with a super-lean deck because you’re constantly tearing it apart in order to build stalls, and there’s a constant tension between maintaining the flexibility of your hand and keeping up with every other player’s stall.

I also enjoy how much the game can change simply based on which decks you decide to include. The ocelots, for example, can change the game simply by adding an element of randomness and luck into the game (there’s even a custom die specifically to use with those cards) without upsetting the overall balance. The flying squirrels are probably my favourite so far, as they give you a lot of flexibility when it comes to putting together your stall.

I’ve also found that the game works a little better with three players instead of two (haven’t played with four yet) as the extra deck ends up giving you a lot more to chose from and makes it harder to build stalls.

Overall, I’m very happy with how it turned out. The game is easy to teach, and manages to be filler-length (30-40 minutes) while offering a nice variety of depth and decisions while playing. I’m glad I backed it, and I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re looking for a lightweight and flexible card game for your collection.

submitted by Canadave to boardgames
[link] [comment]

Dec

2015

Dale of Merchants: A Quick Review

Premise

Gameplay

On their turns, players can do one of any four actions using cards in their hand, most of which are fairly standard deckbuilding actions:

Buy a card from the market, discarding the value of the card to their discard pile, and placing the new card directly into their hand (not their discard pile)
Play a technique card, which is a card that must be used to activate its power (as opposed to passive cards)
Discard any number of cards from their hand, or
Build a stall. Stalls range in value from 1 to 8, and each stall must consist of cards from a single animal deck and exactly equal the value of that stall. Stalls must be built in ascending order, and cannot be built in stages (ie, stall five must equal five when built, you can’t put a three down one turn and a two the next). Cards played to a stall cannot be returned to your hand, they are permanently unavailable to you.

As noted above, the first player to build their eighth stall wins the game.

Thoughts

submitted by /u/Canadave to /r/boardgames
[link] [1 comment]

Dec

2015

Dale of Merchants: A Quick Review

Premise

Gameplay

On their turns, players can do one of any four actions using cards in their hand, most of which are fairly standard deckbuilding actions:

Buy a card from the market, discarding the value of the card to their discard pile, and placing the new card directly into their hand (not their discard pile)
Play a technique card, which is a card that must be used to activate its power (as opposed to passive cards)
Discard any number of cards from their hand, or
Build a stall. Stalls range in value from 1 to 8, and each stall must consist of cards from a single animal deck and exactly equal the value of that stall. Stalls must be built in ascending order, and cannot be built in stages (ie, stall five must equal five when built, you can’t put a three down one turn and a two the next). Cards played to a stall cannot be returned to your hand, they are permanently unavailable to you.

As noted above, the first player to build their eighth stall wins the game.

Thoughts

submitted by /u/Canadave to /r/boardgames
[link] [1 comment]

Dec

2015

Please explain solo gaming…

So I have recently, within the last 18 month, gotten into board games. I have a decent little collection, but I do not get to play them as often as I like. Friends too busy, not enough time..etc. I keep seeing things about solo gaming. Exactly how does…

Dec

2015