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Merchants of the Dark Road (Kickstarter – Deluxe)
After half a year of daylight, we must now prepare for the dark season. The roads will be treacherous but they will still need to be braved by a select few in order to keep our cities thriving. In Merchants of the Dark Road, you are one of these brave few merchants that travel the dangerous paths between cities. While the job is perilous, fame and fortune await.
Discover the capital city where most of your actions will take place using a rondel action system. Collect and produce items to add to your caravan, or sell these items to local heroes and hire them to travel with you. Manipulate the market price of items, visit the back alley sellers, or delve a nearby dungeon for magical items to gain the potential for even more coin and notoriety.
Gather lanterns to ease your passage along the dark roads as you guide your caravan to distant villages. Deliver goods and heroes to the best destinations and gain fame for your bravery! Balance the money you earn with the height of your fame because your final score after a number of game rounds will reflect the lowest of these two values.
After all, what good is a purse full of the coin if the people don’t sing songs about you, and what good is a song with an empty mug of ale?
—description from the publisher
The Deluxe Edition contains everything in the Standard Edition, with upgrades in the components, the box, and the insert.
| Ages | 12+ |
|---|---|
| Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
| Play Time | 60m – 120m |
| Designer | Brian Suhre |
| Mechanics | Rondel, Worker Placement with Dice Workers |
| Theme | Dice, Exploration, Fantasy |
| Publisher | Elf Creek Games |
chaos_fluff
After the first couple of turns the game was easy to pick up and I enjoyed trying to balance the prestige and money. The icons are not super intuitive but once you have it figured out its not a problem. And of course, the components are amazing. This is based of one 2p game. I have yet to try solo and 3p
Bubslug
Happy to have added this to my collection, after a long wait. There are a lot of moving parts and small details to keep track of, but the game is beautifully rendered and, with patience, a blast to play. As others have noted, I think three players will be the sweet spot but I'll need more data points before coming to a firm conclusion. I'm looking forward to playing the solo option as it appears to be solid, judging by the play through which features the solo version. Rondels within rondels, with lots of dice and drm options so luck is certainly present but can be mitigated. Having to balance the two main drivers, money and prestige, makes for interesting decisions and there are many, many decision points to ponder. Delicious!!
ajewo
Quite unusual rondell game with interesting, integrated mini-games (dice drafting, grid puzzle) as well as collecting goods for contracts (pick up & deliver). Nice artwork and unusual setting (merchant on a carriage). + Knizia-like scoring: the lowest value of your coins or prestige counts. Coins are secret knowledge, prestige open information. # Gameplay not that intuitive for beginners. # Board game state changes a lot, which can create a feel of randomness. See also: * Great Western Trail