Today I went to Andys Battlequestgames evening and ended up playing Nigel Woods Merchants & Marauders - a massive game of trading, pirates and naval warfare. The premise of the game is to either act as a Merchant, as Julian did in our game, as a Pirate, as Nigel did, or a mixture of the two, like me - although I had to be the most sorrowful pirate on record. The idea is that scattered through out the Caribbean there are various ports to trade (marked by counters) at and also to collect improvements for ships. Also in your home port is your Chest. You can put gold you have won or made into your chest so that it can be counted up later.
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| Game start |
With your starting ship you sail throughout the islands looking to make money and sell goods to the highest bidder. You can also make money completing missions and taking on special events and cards. Pirate ships also roam the seas and wars can break out between nations, so your sailor who may be of one nation may be blocked from entering a port because his home nation is at war with its owner. Home nation warships can also come looking for pirates and woe-betide anyone who goes up against them!
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A players ship sheet showing the players sailor top left, any specialists on board,
mission and rumour cards, plus the actual ship bottom left with its
abilities in the centre. Gold is on the right. |
The game progressed smoothly with little interaction between players but with lots going on. Then war broke out between France (my home country) and England, leaving me with several important ports blocked off. This started to change our strategies - Julian was an extremely wealthy trader and I was just making it by. Nigel was scrapping about but making good headway.
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| Just about to start rocking the boat as it were with Julian! |
I decided to pounce (after a LOT of prodding by Nigel lol) on Julians well laden ship with my own ship bristling with guns and weapons of war. It didn't seem fair as he didn't have much protection - he was quickly destroyed but his sailor got away. I got a lot of booty and gold. But this marked me as a Pirate and Man O'Wars would be after me! Nigel too also started a campaign of violence and just as three Man O'Wars showed up, I slipped into a French port, sold all my booty and my old ship, used a card to get rid of the bounty on my head and bought a trading ship! I slipped away whilst Nigels little sloop was suddenly the focus of three enormous Man O'Wars.
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Nigels blue sloop is about to be pounded for indiscreet actions whilst I slip away
into the night with my shiny new green merchant ship! |
Unfortunately for Nigel, I got to throw the dice for the AI attacking ships against his sloop....I have a knack for good rolls!
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| Skulls mean hits - sorry Nigel! You got a few too many of these! |
Nigels ship was utterly destroyed by the impact from three warships - crime doesn't pay unless you can pay to get a new ship before the Law comes!
The game ended with Julian getting the maximum points after building up his trading ship again and still scoring it big time trading. This was a very long but great game. It has lots of things to do that you can do or choose not to do which is what I like in a game. The length was a bit of a downer, but it was a great game.
