Merchants and Marauders

I had a horrifying realisation a few days ago. It started when the lady at my friendly local game shop recognised me ("I've seen you come in occasionally. Do you play a lot of board games?"). You know you go into a busy shop too often when the owner recognises you. I ended up buying Merchants & Marauders, the most complicated game I've bought so far. The realisation hit me as I was walking home with my purchase: I'm an actual gamer now. I don't even know how this happened.

Merchants & Marauders is long, complex, and has a lot of detailed rules. It's definitely not for beginners. Unlike most of my other games, a non-gamer would never own this particular game. I spent four hours the next day walking myself through it with the rule book in front of me, and it's still going to take some learning to get the hang of. But from what I can tell, it has the potential to become a game I really love.

( Yo ho ho! Two pictures and review below )

At that point my niece knocked on the door to get my attention and I was out of the game, but it was a great ending. I can still hear the cannon fire and smell the smoke of those last two battles. It was exciting enough to leave me bouncing on my bed with joy.

I'm looking forward to learning this game better.