{"id":3541,"date":"2006-01-18T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-18T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2006\/01\/18\/castlemerchants\/"},"modified":"2006-01-18T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-01-18T11:00:00","slug":"castlemerchants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2006\/01\/18\/castlemerchants\/","title":{"rendered":"Castle\nMerchants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Castle
\nMerchants<\/a><\/h2>\n

reviewed by Moritz Eggert<\/i><\/p>\n

Z-Man-Games have gathered an impressive line-up of games in recent years. From their
\nhumble starts with the card game “Grave Robbers from Outer Space” they have
\ngone to producing the American editions of the wonderful “Il Principe” and
\n“Reef Encounter”, as well as some very nice games of their own making, like
\n“Ideology” and “Camelot Legends”. Their new “big” board
\ngames at Essen were “Parthenon” and “Castle Merchants”, both pretty
\nlushly produced games with big, tightly filled game boxes.<\/p>\n

“Castle Merchants” is basically a racing game, not really a trading game, as
\nthe title suggests. Players compete to sell their wares at various castles placed
\nconveniently around the hexagonal board. These castles are aptly named after the wares
\nthey prefer, which makes one wonder why a castle called Chianti Castle doesn’t
\nproduce the stuff itself but has dubious peddlers sell it to them at cutthroat prices,
\nbut I digress\u2026<\/p>\n

Being the first to sell wares at a castle gives certain advantages, you’ll get
\nmore Gold Pieces for example (they double as VP – as I said, this is NOT a trading game)
\nthan the traders that follow second or third.<\/p>\n

But movement around the board is where the fun starts. The poor castle merchants not
\nonly have to rush to the castles before their opponents do, they also have to create the
\nterrain they travel to as well, and then play cards to actually traverse the terrain
\ntiles. You see, being a medieval trader was anything but easy\u2026<\/p>\n

When it’s your turn you can:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. play a landslide tile to make a formerly played terrain tile impassable,\n<\/li>\n
  2. play a matching card to create a terrain tile,\n<\/li>\n
  3. play a card to traverse a matching terrain tile (as many of this type as you want as
    \nlong as you don’t cross over to another type,<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  4. play two cards and remove a terrain tile or\n<\/li>\n
  5. roll the terrain die and create even more chaos on the board.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"card\"\/<\/p>\n

    When you dare to roll the terrain tile (how dare you!) you roll one of the terrain
    \nsymbols and can then place one of these terrains on the board or move an already existing
    \nterrain tile of this kind to another space or remove a terrain tile of this kind from the
    \nboard. One should also add that it is possible to roll the terrain die for free when you
    \njust sold your junk at a castle – while having a Chianti and cheese with it, I guess.<\/p>\n

    One already can guess that terrain cards of the right kind are in high demand. To get
    \nthem you have to either pass or go to the lawn space in the middle of the board to
    \nregenerate. But passing is what you will mostly have to do, probably 50% of the time –
    \nwhich can become a little boring after a while\u2026<\/p>\n

    \"board\"\/<\/p>\n

    Once you have sold most of your wares you can also return to the warehouse to stock
    \nup, in fact this will usually always be necessary at least once to win the game, as to
    \nearn 18 GP’s means you will have to visit some castles several times.<\/p>\n

    The game plays along at a good pace and is certainly a solid design, but one thing
    \nthat players will realise quickly is that it is much less strategic than it pretends to
    \nbe. You need certain cards to play a certain tile, but then you need the same type of
    \ncard AGAIN to traverse the terrain you just created. Of course you will often travel
    \nthrough terrain created by others later in the game, but especially at the beginning a
    \ngood hand will help you a lot. In our game I had a good start with some lucky matching
    \ncards (I was also the first to move) and could create a headstart that the other players
    \nnever really could overcome. Although it is possible to hinder players with the landslide
    \nor with evil use of the terrain die these actions actually have a kingmaker problem, as
    \nthey won’t really help the perpetrator. In a way this creates the “Who Killed
    \nDoctor Lucky effect”, (players who know this awful game will know what I mean) which
    \nmeans all players play against the current leader until they simply run out of
    \npossibilities to do so, a mechanic which is more than problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Characteristics<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    Playing the game:<\/td>\n90 minutes (four players)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Explaining the rules:<\/td>\n10 minutes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Box:<\/td>\nbig<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Counters\/Tiles:<\/td>\nheavy stock – nice!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Medieval Atmosphere:<\/td>\nnonexistent apart of the title – this is a pure racing game, nothing more, nothing
    \nless<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Diet:<\/td>\nrecommended for the guy on the cover<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Overall:<\/td>\nnot a filler game, not a “heavy” game, something in-between<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

    On the positive side this is a pretty straightforward game that can be taught quickly
    \nand which is neither opaque nor dull. Usually the players will either move clockwise or
    \ncounter-clockwise around the board to visit all the castles, sometimes one player will
    \nrush ahead but then will sit somewhere stocking up on cards again. The game material is
    \nof good quality and the symbols on the tiles and cards are very nicely done, although one
    \ncould question a certain “dark” character that is evoked by some of the images
    \nwhich somehow jars with the light-hearted theme of the game. The suggested playing time
    \nof 30-60 minutes is also a little too short, especially with 4 players this will be a
    \nlonger game, perhaps a bit too long for the content.<\/p>\n

    I don’t think Castle Merchants is a bad game in any way, but there is something
    \nlacklustre about it, something which is missing but hard to describe exactly. That was
    \nour reaction after playing: “nice, but….?”. If you look for a gateway game to
    \nplay with your family this might be the perfect choice, but as a gamer you might be
    \nlooking for something more “meaty” after all.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Castle Merchants reviewed by Moritz Eggert Z-Man-Games have gathered an impressive line-up of games in recent years. From their humble starts with the card game “Grave Robbers from Outer Space” they have gone to producing the American editions of the wonderful “Il Principe” and “Reef Encounter”, as well as some very nice games of their … Castle
    \nMerchants<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":6,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}