Merchants & Marauders

I will start by saying that my friends and I absolutely love this game. It almost reminds me of a board game version of cid Myers pirates.The game places you in the shoes of a captain in the Caribbean. You want to be a merchant amassing wealth sailing from port to port buying low and selling high? Go for it! Want to find hidden treasures, forgotten ships, and take missions from naval admirals? This game has it. And of course be the curse of the Caribbean and be a pirate! Or any combination of them. See that other player with the completly battered ship from a fight that didn't go his way? the one that has been terrorizing the seas the entire game..why not take up pirate hunting as a temp gig, sail over blow them out of the water and collect a cool cash bounty.The game comes with beautiful components and the board is wonderful. It has 4 different types of ships for each player, player treasure chests, plus NPC ships, custom dice, tons of cards and tokens, a concise rulebook great player cheat sheets that have all major rules.The game will seem like it has ALOT of rules at first. However after an intro play through you will find that the rules are actually very simple, it's just that there is so much you can do it will seem like a lot to take in. Don't get me wrong though, the first play through is a blast.Merchants spend there times sailing from port to port buying goods that are in surplus and selling items that are in demand. The board has 12 ports that each have randomly assigned and changing goods that are in demand. These items sell for double price (6 gold). When buying goods you are given 6 cards, each having a random good on it. Every item costs 3 gold, but if there are any pairs of items (like 2 barrels of rum) they only cost 2 gold a piece. 3 or more of the same items will only cost you 1 gold a piece. Simulating the market of the town.Players can go into ports to buy and sell goods, repair and buy upgrades for their ships, and go to the tavern to recruit crew and try to find out about rumors.Pirates can spend their time raiding npc merchant ships and fighting npc naval captains, or turn on their friends and hunt them from port to port. But be careful! When you attack an innocent captain the nation places a bounty on you and you are no longer allowed in their ports. There are 4 nations so it's ok to anger a few, but you don't want the whole Caribbean angry with you, unless you are just that sorta person in which case go for it!Ship to ship combat consists of players choosing an action (shoot cannons, try to board, and try to flee), each player rolls his captains seamanship to see who maneuvers his ship most advantageously. Each player rolls the dice, they are 6 sided dice where the 5s & 6s have been replaced with skull and crossbones. Throughout the game on most rolls these are what you want to roll. So if you rolled more skulls than your opponent and you were shooting you would hit them with all your ships cannons. WOOP! You then roll a die for every cannon your ship has, each number corresponds to a hit location of your ship(masts, hull, cargo, cannons) and skulls are wild.There are different upgrade items that can be used to transfer damage (such as chain shot to target masts) and other permanent ship upgrades such as improved rigging for better maneuverability.Like I said there is just a lot of potential stuff to do in this game and I wanted to just touch on a few of the neat aspects of the game. I'd like to close with some general tips and some pointers on alleviating the longer aspects of the game.1. Expect your first play though to be several hours. This just has to deal with everyone getting the general aspect of the game and sailing around mindlessly for a bit trying to get their bearings. Don't rush people on their first play but with second time players encourage them to think out their moves during other players turns. In the end there isn't a ton that will change your "next turn strategy" and already having a general plan will help avoid the 5 minutes of thinking while everyone waits.2. I like to have 6 item cards set aside so that when players port the cards are already ready to go.this may seem silly and trivial, but almost every player port action has the captain at least looking what's for sell (why not window shop, you might find a great deal) this cuts down on having to count out six cards when requested.3. You need to play with someone to do this first, but if anyone has played with you before, have them set up the board while you explain all the game mechanics. The game takes about 15 minutes to set up and that is GREAT time to ease new comers into the game.4. For people who have played less than 3 games strongly encourage the use of the cheat sheets. I still use them. They have a list of all sea zone special abilities,what all items do, player turn layout, and basically everything that you need. These are the most under used and under appreciated parts of the game in my opinion. CHEAT SHEETS ARE YOUR FRIEND. Tell people to glace through them while they aren't doing anything, look at the sea zones they are going into, check for any conditions etc.5. For npc battles (operate the same as player vs player except one person is rolling and deciding for npr) encourage people to cut loose. This is a ship that you can drive into the ground without consequence. This is the best way for new players to experience PvP combat without having to risk their ships.And a general tip: the biggest contribution to your play strategy should be the captain that you draw. All captains have several stats (leadership, charisma,seamanship etc. Use this as a cue to how you should , play. If your captain really sucks at scouting for ships perhaps being a pirate isn't for him. If he has great charisma why not try being an adventuring merchant running the game on quests and rumors.main point is don't play against your captains abilities.

Merchants & Marauders (M&M) is a fun game. Even a very fun game! M&M allows up to 4 players to move miniature ships across a colorfully interpreted map of the Caribbean, as either a merchant or a pirate. You win the game by acquiring 10 glory points. These points are earned throughout the game by completing various tasks, thus providing different roads to victory. Whether fighting (or avoiding) pirates, verifying rumors, plundering merchants, dealing with "non-player” naval ships, or buying and selling trade goods, M&M offers variety, opportunity and chance. Dice provide the main mechanism for decisions and outcomes, making fate (or luck) another fact of life you have to deal with. Players start out in small ships, but can purchase bigger and more powerful ships when they have earned enough gold. One feature I like is that you can start out as a merchant and decide to switch to pirating, if you believe that will be a more lucrative and faster path to victory. But it is also possible to switch from pirate back to merchant, though not as easily. In that sense, it provides a reasonable facsimile of how easy it was to become a pirate and how difficult it was to turn back.The ships, counters and mounted map board are very well-made, and -designed. The board is approx. 22 x 25 1/4", but you'll also need room for the 4 player mats (9- 3/4 x 7") and the 6 stacks of game cards. So your regular card table might be a tight fit. The colorful rulebook is large-sized and handsomely supported with lots of images. You can download the actual rulebook by browsing over to the Z-Man web page [...].M&M is not a game geared to younger kids. Teenagers should grasp it quickly enough, though the largest audience is probably adult gamers. The rules are not overly complex, but it will take a few games to become comfortable with them and the game flow; but the time invested will pay off if you enjoy pirate games. This isn’t as simple as “Monopoly”, of course, but it is certainly nowhere near as complex as GMT’s “Blackbeard”. Some people criticize the game because other players have nothing to do when it is another player’s turn. In truth, this is not a “cooperative” style game of players working together for a common cause. Pirates were in it for themselves and merchants were focused on getting the best deals while avoiding the pirates.Criticisms: I wish the game was designed to allow up to 5 players. I don't particularly care for the "secret" nature of some rules, such as a player not having to reveal how much gold is being stashed, but claiming a Glory Point by claiming it was at least 10 gold coins. I wish the designers had included a "convoy" opportunity so a merchant could travel as part of a convoy for protection.When I was thinking of buying this game, I read many reviews here and at several other sites. Most all of them were positive. I’m happy to say that I agree with them!

De lo más chingon que se puede jugar un buen juego de piratas al estilo GTA la verdad compra asegurada

Hands down the best pirate themed game out there. Huge sandbox to play however you wish. Combat can take a while to wrap your head around it, but it's quite good. This game is awesome because you can kill your friends and take all their stuff....be aware of that.The expansion adds so much more depth to it (and you can pick and choose which elements to add) but honestly if you're only casually playing there's MORE THAN ENOUGH in the main game (but the expansion really is amazing)Only complaint - the board should be about 40% bigger to accommodate all the npc's and 4 players and all the pieces (and expansion elements) - I can get pretty crowded 4-5 rounds in. Z-Man - if you ever make an aftermarket bigger board, I'll buy it without hesitation.

All hands on deck! A very exciting and engaging game for the family and friends!

Es un juego muy divertido y entretenido.

Very good game. Nice components, very nice visually. Good strategy game-play, fun and fairly easy to play once you've learned the rules. It does take very very long time to play though, think Game of Thrones Board Game long. Also only 4 players, unfortunately. Do not play it with anyone too touchy, it is a friendship wrecker.Overall a good addition to any game library.