UNSERE REZENSION

Market day in the Tempest universe

Mercante

Buy and Sell at the right moment

The City State of Tempest has been the setting for several games already, and all those games were completely different as to mechanism. Tempest Mercante is a game on trading, in which players represent a Merchant House. As a player you have your own warehouse and your own agents that carry out all kinds of tasks for you. And you are that powerful that you can influence the markets themselves by interfering with supply and demand. As is standard for that kind of games, the main purpose nonetheless is money! With corresponding negotiation abilities and a little bit of luck you can make a lot of money and enlarge your riches which you can then invest in victory points. But, alas, events here are also governed by the two facts of "Everybody starts at the bottom" and "Long live competition"!

The Merchant House of each player is represented by two game components. On the one hand, each player has his own player board, the so-called Merchant Ledger, where he stores his commodities in warehouses and deploys his agents, and on the other hand by an individual card for each merchant house, the so called "House Power Card". This card is unique for each Merchant House and offers one permanent advantage for the whole duration of the game. The House Power Cards are randomly assigned at the start of the game, then each player can - once - discard his card and draw a new one from the stack. From then on the houses remain unchanged for the rest of the game.

On his Merchant Ledger each player has room for three warehouses, which in turn can store up to three commodities each. At the start of the game each player already owns one of those warehouses, the others must be bought. A warehouse that is available is marked on the Merchant Ledger with a colored cube, acquired warehouses cannot be lost during the game.

On your Merchant Ledger you also find the area of deployment for your agents, with whom you choose your actions in your turn and resolve them. Each choice of actions shows one or more blue seals on which you can place one single agent. Agents are represented by blue wooden disc, and you start the game with two such agent discs.

The four different markets, the locations for trading commodities, have their own board - there is a market for luxury commodities, one for valuable metals, one for resources and one for comestibles. At the market you sell your commodities in the guise of Goods Tokens. Each market has a limited number of placement opportunities which all offer room for one Goods Marker. Each placement opportunity also shows the amount of money, called crowns, which you receive if you sell Goods. The markets are always filled with Goods from top to bottom and each good or commodity can only be sold at the corresponding market. For each market there are four different kinds of goods, so that there are are 16 kinds of goods in play, all in all.

At the right-hand side of the market you can find the Harbor Zone. This is where ships anchor to bring new commodities. As regards to game mechanics this is implement with separate cards, so-called shipment cards. Next to a face-down draw-pile five of those shipment cards are always displayed face-up to form the supply from which one card is chosen for auction at the start of a turn. When the draw-pile is empty this constitutes one of three possible end-of-game conditions.

To the left of the market the so-called Calendar is located, also represented by cards, and made up from a draw-pile for event cards and an open-faced display of up to three event cards. Those event cards influence prices at one of the markets or for a specific kind of commodity, making the price rise or fall; there are even cards which can completely close a market. At the start of the game only one card is displayed, during the course of the game there can be a maximum of three cards on display. Each card of the Calendar is assigned to one or two of three possible categories. There are: Permanent cards (Category Enduring), which are displaced open-faced in the calendar, when they are played; Cards that must be implemented instantly (Category Fleeting), which are discarded to a discard pile after resolving them, and finally Reaction cards (Category Reaction), which can be played during a Sale Action for a commodity. The sales price of a commodity therefore always is the result of the value stated on the market, modified by the Calendar.

As markets in the game are only used as sales locations by all players and therefore commodities do accumulate there, there is a separate phase in the game, in there commodities are removed from the markets. This so-called Upkeep Phase only happens at certain moments, that is, when the player who holds the Upkeep Marker is the active player. At the start of the game the player to the right of the starting player holds this marker. The Upkeep-Marker moves counter-clockwise.

For mirroring the progress of the game there is an individual separate game board, the reference track board. At the start of the game the Reference Track Marker is located on the first spot. Each spot of this board depicts two specifications: The current price to buy a victory point and the current price to acquire an additional agent. The further the Reference Track marker advances the cheaper the agents and the more expensive the buying of a victory point.

At the start of the game each player is given money, crowns, in relation to his position around the table in playing order, plus two event cards and two order cards. Order cards are cards which can accrue one or two victory points when they are filled by selling the commodities depicted on them. When you accept an order you receive money for it, either 6, 8 or 10 crowns, depending on the card. When the order is not filled at the end of the game you lose up to three victory points, as specified on the card. Victory points are represented in the course of the game by victory point chips that you collect.

Mercante is played in clockwise direction; the turn of a player comprises three phases plus the Upkeep Phase should he currently hold the Upkeep Marker.

In the first of the three phases one single Harbor Card is auctioned. The active player chooses one of the five cards that are on display in the harbor. Then each player in turn can make one single bid, beginning with the player to the left of the active player, so the active player has the last bid. This is the point to mention that the money owned by each player cannot be hidden, it must always be visible. Each harbor card holds specifications as to minimum bids. Most harbor cards depict more than one kind of commodity. Commodities depicted on the card can either be auctioned one by one or in total. This is decided by the active player. Therefore each harbor card shows a specification for the minimum bid for each commodity and for the complete bundle, that is, the card. Each auction is independent from all others, so you can pass in one auction and bid again in the next. When a player wins a card he takes all depicted commodities from general stock and puts them in his warehouses. Should there not be enough room in the warehouses, he can decide which commodities to keep and which to return to general stock.

At the end of this phase the harbor is replenished to show five open-faced cards again.

In the second phase a player takes his agents back to place them again in the following phase. This is important as placed agents must remain at their locations till this phase happens as there is an action in which an agent resolves this actions during another player's turn.

Now comes the most important phase with your decision on which actions you want to place your agents; the chosen actions are resolved immediately after the selection. You can have a maximum of four agents and can choose for them among eight different actions, each blue seal can hold only one agent:

The action IMPROVE HOUSE ASSETS enables a player to buy an agent or a warehouse. The price for agents depends on the position of the Reference Track marker on the track, the price for a warehouse is always 5 crowns. When a player buys an agent the Reference Track Marker advances by one position as a consequence.

The action BUY ONE VICTORY POINT is available twice on the Merchant Ledger. In a turn you can thus acquire two victory points. The price for them, too, depends on the position of the Reference Track Marker and this marker advances two steps when a victory point is bought. You get the victory point chip and one victory point chip is placed on the Upkeep Marker. Should the Reference Track Marker reach the end of the track after Improve House Assets or Buy One Victory Point, the game ends after this turn.

Using SELECT A CONTRACT you take two order cards from the draw pile, check them and may keep one. The other card is discarded and you receive the amount of money stated on the card for accepting the order.

MANIPULATE EVENTS enable you to influence the Calendar. You draw an event card and may then either play an event card from your hand or draw another event card. When you play a Fleeting Event the event is resolved immediately, an Enduring Event is placed on the calendar. Should there already be three cards on the Calendar you remove the bottom one and add the new one on top of the column.

GATHER INTELLIGENCE allows you to look at a total of three cards from the individual draw piles for harbor/ship cards, event cards and order cards in any combination. After each card that the checked you decide if you want to look at another card. At the end of the action you decide for each card that you checked if you put it back on top of the stack or place it underneath the stack.

SKULDUGGERY is the only action that is not immediately resolved by a player. First, you only place an agent on the seal. This agent allows you to steal from other players. You can steal at the start of another player's turn or at the moment when another player is forced to return commodities to general stock, as he does not have enough room in his warehouses. You can use the agent exactly for one theft, but must use the action until the start of your own next turn; if you fail to do so the action is forfeit. When you steal discarded commodities you may them place in one of your warehouses, at the time when they are discarded. If you steal from a warehouse, the warehouse must hold a minimum of two commodities and the player you want to steal from decides which commodity he gives to the thief. The victim of the theft must be the active player and in his turn other players can only steal one commodity per warehouse, in case several players want to steal at the same time.

But you can protect your commodities by using the action SECURITY. Each warehouse has a seal where you can place an agent. If a warehouse is thus protected you cannot steal from them.

And, finally, the most important action - HIRE DOCKWORKERS. With this action you send agents to the market to sell commodities. A maximum of three agents can be placed at this action. Depending on the type of commodity you want to sell you need a different number of agents to be able to sell: Sale of a luxury commodity needs two agents, but one agent is able to sell two comestibles to the corresponding market. Before you can sell a Goods Token you must give all players the opportunity to play event cards that influence this pending sale. When all players in turn hat their chance to play event cards, the active player himself can play cards. This can considerably change the amount of money that one will receive for each individual sale, but the active player cannot withdraw his sale. The event cards must contain Reaction Events and are discarded on the market. You cannot do any sale on a market completely filled with such cards or on a market that has been closed down by an event card.

As an alternative to selling into a market a player can - without deploying an agent - sell any number of commodities from his warehouses to the bazaar. This he can do at any time during his turn and he always is paid 3 crowns for each Goods Token.

Regardless whether the player did sell into a market or into the bazaar, the sale can be used to complete an order. Such an order must always be completely filled within one single turn and you receive the number of victory point chips for the victory points stated on the order card you filled.

When a player has deployed all his agents his turn ends and the turn passes to the next player. When a player has the Upkeep Marker, the player must resolve the Up-Keep Phase at the start of his turn. This Upkeep Phase begins with the removal of Goods Tokens from the Marked. In relation to the number of players the active player can remove a number Goods Tokens of his choice from the market. Then he draws the top event card from the event card draw pile and resolves it. And, finally, he auctions of victory point chips that might happen to be on the Upkeep-Marker. Each chip is auctioned individually, using a blind bid procedure. Each player bids simultaneously, with crowns in his closed fist. All reveal their bid simultaneously and the player with the highest bid wins the victory points. In case of a tie the order of play decides the outcome. Victory point chips that were not sold in auction remain on the Upkeep Marker. At the end of the Upkeep Phase the Upkeep Marker is handed on the right-hand player of the current holder.

The game ends when one of three possible conditions occurs: the Reference Track Marker reaches the end of the Reference Track or one player owns at least 80 crowns or the draw-pile in the harbor is depleted.

Now the commodities in the warehouses are sold to the bazaar, whereby you still can use those sales to the bazaar for completing orders. Your own stock of money is changed into victory points, for 10 crowns each you add one victory point. Then all add up their victory points and deduct penalty points for orders that were not filled.

The central game mechanism of Mercante are the many auctions, therefore the game is mainly geared for fans of auction games. This bidding mechanism has been embedded in quite a number of additional rules which give off the impressing during the game that one or the other of the rules might be the one rule too much of a good thing. The auction mechanism was supplemented with rules for stealing from other players, for filling orders and influencing the game with events. And, finally, each player represents his own Merchant House with special abilities and characteristics, which unfortunately are not quite balanced.

Despite every single one of those mechanisms is interesting, but in total they overwhelm the game. The weighting of the components is also problematic, on the one hand they are intended to make the game more interesting, but on the other hand they can be hard to introduce or implement as the maximum number of possible agents is four and this often prevents optimum use, as much too often those four agents are used up by selling and buying or for protecting one's own warehouses and no options are left to use them for acquisition of event cards or orders. The accepting of orders, too, is only of limited interest, as the earn money when accepted but their filling is only linked to one or two victory points which usually can be acquired much cheaper by direct buy or via an auction in the upkeep phase. A higher reward would make those orders much more interesting and attractive.

The central bidding or auction mechanism deserves a positive comment. It is played quickly and makes for interesting constellations during the game, as one usually buys Goods Tokens in the turn of another player, but can only do something with them in one's own turn. So, when a player buys commodities soon after his turn he must wait to sell them until it his turn again. If you then consider that the following players can use agents for stealing, it is often useless to auction for commodities too soon if you have not secured the corresponding warehouse.

But this then again costs a valuable agents. This time-shifted sequence of buying and selling makes the management of your money very important. Especially in the early rounds, when an individual player does not have much money, the funds are often only enough for bidding for one single commodity card until one is the active player again. And for your own auctions you must also keep some money back, as you first do an auction before you can sell commodities as the active player.

Another interesting element in the game is the game progress, represented by a Track on the Reference Board and marked by the Reference Track Marker, the advancement speed of that marker is determined by the actions of the players, so that players influence the length of the game by their actions. A very nice element are the rising and falling costs for agents and victory points as determined by the position of the marker on the track.

Mercante is especially good for three or four players; with three players there are special rules for the auction. In a round of five players the game is somewhat to drawn-out, it takes too much time until one is active again and can do something.

A positive remark is due to the components of the game, and the rules, too, are well structured and explain the game well, and the game boards have some information on the flow of the game so that you rarely need to consult the rules during the course of the game.

So, all in all, Mercante is a game that you should have played at least once. Some rules adaptions, for instance a higher number of agents for each player or more attractive orders, and, on the other hand, maybe obliteration of some rules would enhance the attraction of the game very much.

Bernhard Czermak

Players: 3-5

Age: 12+

Time: 60+

Designer: Jeff Tidball

Artist: Edward Bolme, Jim Pinto, Hal Mangold, Andrew Hepworth

Price: ca. 44 Euro

Publisher: Alderac Entertainment 2012

Web: www.alderac.com

Genre: Auction

Users: With friends

Version: en

Rules: en

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Components provide flair and atmosphere

Good, clear, well-structured rules

Different, varied and interesting auction mechanisms

Compares to:

Hab & Gut, Modern Art

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 4

Bernhard Czermak:

The central auction mechanism is nicely and precisely implemented, but no effort was spared to provide rules for this mechanisms, which diminishes the fun a bit.

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0