In honor of “Talk Like a Pirate Day” and our first Movin’ Meeples live event on Sunday, September 19th, 2021. It only seems fitting that I introuduce you to, what I feel is the best Pirate game ever made, Merchants and Marauders! This game has every element you can want, hoarding treasure, plundering merchants, facing off against the nations of the world’s navies, and solving rumors all the while selling your off your booty to make yourself a mighty fortune. It’s all here just waiting for you, so get a ship and come explore what treasures await in the Caribbean during the great age of sail!
YOUR SHIP AWAITS CAPTAIN
Merchants and Marauders is a 2-4 player game designed by Christian Marcussen and Kasper Aagaard and published by Z-Man Games. Players take action to earn glory points, and the first player to reach 10 glory points wins. To play, set out the game board, and place the cargo demand tokens, merchant tokens, and upgrade tokens on the board as indicated in the rules. Shuffle the Cargo, Rumour, Mission, Glory, and Event decks placing them next to the board. Draw two mission cards and place them on the board based on the card’s instructions. Set the brown cubes, brown naval vessels, and pirate ships aside. Each player takes a player board, set of ships, and cubes in their color. Randomly give each player a Captain card 10 gold pieces, and a glory card to start. Players can choose from two starting ships; a sloop or a flute. Each ship has designs based on whether you choose to play as a scurvy pirate or well-intentioned merchant. Place the cubes on the player mat matching your ship’s stats. Take one cube and place it on the zero space of the glory track on the board. Place your chosen ship in your home port, based on your captain’s card and you are ready to go.
HOIST THE MAINSAIL AND SET ABOUT
The game is played in a series of turns; drawing an event card and player actions. Events indicate if the pirates and navy ships move, a naval vessel or pirate enters the board, nations are at war, and if any changes affect gameplay. For example, if storms are about, players’ actions may change or their ship could take damage. Players then take 3 actions on their turn; move, scout or port. Players move their ships from port to port selling and buying cargo or just sail about looking for an innocent merchant to pounce upon. A move action allows a player to move their ship one space, either in or out of a port or at sea. A scout action allows players to search for merchants and other players to attack and plunder. A port action is where players can buy and sell cargo, upgrade or repair their ship, hire crew and add special weapons. Each port has a good in-demand token and an upgrade token for sale.
Players buy goods by drawing six cargo cards, choosing what they want to buy; they can buy cargo up to the cargo limit of their ship. Players can sell any good, but the port offers a better price for the good in demand. Players can test their influence and see if they can acquire a rumor, If successful, they pay 2 gold and take a rumor card. If they prove it to be true, they earn a glory point and a glory card. A player can choose to purchase the upgrade token available and add it to their vessel. Players can also buy and sell a ship to gain a bigger more powerful one. In their home port, they can stash gold to gain extra glory points. Each sea zone on the board has special instructions that either benefit or prevent the player’s actions.
I SEE A SHIP, AND ITS FULL TO THE GILLS, A RIPE FOR PLUNDERIN’!
Each captain has a set of skills that they use on their turn; seamanship, scouting, leadership, and influence. Skill tests are determined by rolling a set of dice. Each die has two success symbols on it and players succeed tests by the number of successes rolled. Pirate players will want to have a high scouting skill, as that is the one used for spotting ships. Seamanship is how well a player can sail and move. Leadership is used for crew combat and other tests for how well a captain manages their crew. Influence is how much fame and glory the captain has.
If a player wants to perform a scout action, they roll the number of dice based on their captain’s scouting skill. If they pass, they can attack any merchant, navy, or another player in their sea zone that is not in a port. To attack a merchant, players will draw 3 cargo cards and look at the symbols indicated, if the damage doesn’t reduce any of their ship’s areas to zero or the ship does not have a higher number of evade symbols than hits, the merchant has lost and the player wins! But be warned, while every successful merchant raid gives glory, gold, and cargo, it comes with a price; the player receives a bounty token from that nation and has now become a target for any matching nation naval vessel that is active! If that nation happens to have a man-o-war out, they are best to avoid it at all costs!
If a player feels they have what it takes, they can attack a naval vessel as well, receiving glory and gold if they win. Each time a player wins a battle succeeds in a merchant raid, sells 3 of the same cargo to the port where the good is in demand, completes a mission, proves a rumor to be true, or upgrade to a Frigate or Galleon they earn a glory point and a glory card. Glory cards are not given for stashing gold, those points are determined when a player has enough and announces that they have reached 10 glory points. While a player can stash as much gold as they wish, the maximum they can use for glory points is 5.
THINK YOU CAN BEST ME DO YE? WELL LET’S SEE WHO GOES TO DAVY JONES LOCKER FIRST
Player attacks against a naval vessel, pirate ship, or each other are handled differently. First off, there is a test of seamanship. Each player rolls their seamanship skill, adding any bonuses from cards. Captain’s skills for the naval vessel and pirate are found on their event cards. The player with the highest number wins and can choose to take the first action. If attacking a naval vessel or the pirate, set the ship up with the brown cubes on the space on the board based on the type of ship indicated on their card. Combat consists of three actions, shoot, board, or flee. To shoot, the winner of the seamanship test can fire all of their cannons, while the other player can return fire based on how many successes they rolled. For every hit, roll a die and compare it to the sections of the ship on the player board, reducing the strength of that area by one. If a player’s hull is ever reduced to zero, their ship sinks and their captain dies.
A player who chooses to board another ship then starts crew combat where each captain rolls their leadership skill, reducing their opponents’ crew by one for each success. Defeat their crew, and your opponent is dead, and you can plunder their ship. A player can only choose to flee if they win the seamanship skill test and their opponent has not rolled any successes. If successful, the combat ends, and the retreating player can go and lick their wounds and get to a port for much-needed repairs.
As I said in the beginning, This is my favorite pirate game I have played, it is one of the first games I purchased and has provided a great experience every time I play it. The pick-up and deliver mechanic shines beautifully with the challenges of combat in a richly themed experience that fans of pirates and the age of sail will enjoy over and over again.
Written by Ed Carter
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