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It is an age of great discoveries. New and wonderful items find their ways into the hands of the greatest merchants. And if there ever is a place those traders love, it is the town of Dale. There’s an extraordinary guild in the Dale founded by the greatest merchants. The tricky part is getting the membership since one must win the annual trading competition to be invited to the guild. Notable animalfolk merchants from all over the world have gathered in the town to take part in the event. Everyone has only one goal in mind – to be celebrated as the winner and the newest member of the legendary guild. In Dale of Merchants, players take the roles of those participating merchants learning new techniques, trading goods, and managing their stock. The player who first manages to complete their astounding merchant stall wins the game and gets access to the guild!
| Year | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Designers | Sami Laakso |
| Artists | Sami Laakso |
| Publishers | Reflexshop, Popcorn Games, Devir, GaGa Games, Ludicus Games, Games7Days, Board Game Leisure, Schwerkraft-Verlag, Vendetta, Lotus Frog Games, Snowdale Design, Bragelonne Games, Fullcap Games |
| Players | 2–4 |
| Time | 30 min |
| Status | Previously owned |
| BGG Rating | 7.1 |
| Categories | Card Game, Animals, Fantasy |
| Mechanics | Dice Rolling, Hand Management, Set Collection, Race, Take That, Open Drafting, Team-Based Game, Deck, Bag, and Pool Building, Auction: Dutch |
| BGG Rank | 1024 |
| Complexity | 2.10 / 5 |
| Language | Moderate in-game text - needs crib sheet or paste ups |
| Date | Location | Duration | Qty | Players | Scores | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2021-06-19 | Vacation | – | 1 | MourningDragon, Yashima | 6.00, 8.00 | 8.00 |
|
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2021-05-10 | At home | – | 1 | Yashima, Yashimii 🤖 | 8.00, 4.00 | 8.00 |
My BGG Comment
I was a bit disappointed in this deck builder. The deck deconstruction which is one of my favorite mechanisms in deck building overshadows everything else to the point where you don’t ever get to play your deck. To win the game you need to fill your 8 market stalls with cards. Each stall takes only 1 suit (rule breaking cards break the rules) and the sum of the card values must ascend from 1 to 8. Who first finishes stall 8… wins. Each round you either fill up a single stall completely or you buy a card from the market or you play an action card. We only played with two which has three factions in the game. The more players you add the more different game mechanisms enter with those factions. As stated above play is overshadowed by the fact that you often want a card more for the stall than the card ability. I do not see myself playing this more unless someone really wants to see how the game works.