#7/52. A Game with Nonhuman Characters - Merchant of Venus (Classic Version)

Last Saturday (January 9th, 2016), my husband, Mark, my niece, Nicole, and I went to our FLGS¹, Great Escape Games and Comics, for the 1st Saturday of the Month Meet-Up Game Day. A friend of ours, Dave Mitchell, was involved in another game, but had brought his copy of Merchant of Venus (MoV) and wanted to show off his new game box organizer from Daedalus Productions (see picture below...). This will be added to my copy of MoV!

Merchant of Venus is a great pick-up-and-deliver game, but set-up for this game takes quite a bit of time because there are so many pieces to put in place. The Daedalus box organizer is fantastic because you simply pull part of the organizer out and set it next to the board and that part of the game is ready to go. It easily cuts set-up time in HALF.

Once you get MoV set up it's time to play, but first you need to know the story. The Galactic Civilization has collapsed due to an invasion and war. All of the previously established trade routes have disintegrated. Now it's time to rebuild. Four traders from four different species (Humans, Eeepeep, Qossuth, and Whynom) have been tasked with exploring and rediscovering which civilizations are on which planets and then establish trade routes between them. Of course this is also an opportunity for each of the traders to earn a tidy profit as well. The winning conditions are to earn a specific amount of credits and deeds (for factories and space stations). The amount is based on the number of players. (We played to $2500.) The first person to reach that amount is the winner. If there is a tie, you keep playing until the tie is broken.

MoV uses one of my favorite game mechanics, pick-up-and-delivery. I enjoy the strategic aspect of this type of game. Figuring out what you need, where to get it from, and who needs it most and is willing to pay for it. I find these types of games fun and fascinating. Besides MoV, I enjoy playing Firefly - another game that takes quite a bit of time to set up - which is also a pick-up-and-deliver game.

Nicole and I sat down to play MoV with a gaming acquaintance named Marcus. Marcus had played this game several times before. I had played it once before, and Nicole had never even heard of it but was willing to dive right in. About three-and-a-half hours later...Nicole declared victory! I was stunned and so proud of her! She did a great job in learning this game and then blasting into the lead. Marcus was also great about coaching us along and giving us some strategic tips. All-in-all it was a fun time.

¹ FLGS = Friendly Local Game Store