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Review: Castle Merchants:: The Purge: # 113 Castle Merchants: An odd race game to deliever chits

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by william4192




Conclusion:


This game is an enigma to me. When you look at the game, I don't see much. I almost gave it away without playing. Even after reading the rules, I didn't really want to play it. Then, one day when I was getting rid of it, I decided to play it first. I was pleasantly surprised. With that said, this is not a great game. This won't suddenly be on everyone's must get list, but it is better than it looks and much better than the guy on the box would ever lead you to believe (for some reason I want to punch that guy right in his smug face).

The game is a race game to pick up and deliver goods (i.e. chits). Tiles are played, cards are laid down, pawns are moved, (yawn), and goods are delivered. The game is ugly, yet it brings a little bit of fun to it (more than I thought it would).

Overall, this is not a game I can recommend, but if someone is playing and you are up for a quick game, you could do worse. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, right?



Components:

The components are laughable. Well, mostly those pawns you move around the board. They look like Sorry leftovers. You get some chits that represent goods, but really they are just colors (despite having a shield one, a barrel on another, etc.). You get a six sided dice and a board. Oh, an a deck of cards. Yawn. Nothing is of high quality and nothing will impress you.



Rule Book:

The rules are very basic. For the most part, they are one page (all the rules). There is another page of components/set up and another page that explains a couple of simple concepts. The rules do a good job explaining the game and you can be playing within minutes. The theme is so pasted on, but everything is intuitive. Most of the decisions are pretty obvious.



Flow of the Game:

On your turn, you have a few options:

1. Play a rock slide (block a path).
2. Play a card to put down a path
3. Play a card to move
4. Play 2 cards to remove a path
5. Play 2 cards and roll for a random path

* at end, draw up to 3 cards (no more than 6 total)

Or you can:

1. place a rock slide and/or
2. Draw a card


The idea of the game is to deliver goods to castles. You do this by walking down paths (that you and your opponents place). The first person to deliver to a castle gets the higher VP token and each subsequent delivery gets a smaller (or equal) VP token. First one to 18 VP's wins the game.



Should I buy this game?:

No, I think there are better games with better components. While the game surprised me, it is simple and doesn't really "deliver" (pun intended) much. If someone was playing this while waiting on a longer game to finish, I could see this making it to the table, but honestly even then there are better games. The best thing about this game is the smug guy on the cover (he is the man, yet I want to punch him in the face).

All kidding aside, the game is a simple race to deliver goods. I am going to purge the game and I'd recommend you passing.

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