Merchants Of The Dark Road Review - Rondels, Heroes, & Shortcuts 

I’m grateful for al your hard work Alex. Hope you and your family have a wonderful thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Alex! I'm thankful to have you in the space :). Hope you and the family have a great holiday!

I felt limited in what I could do in my first couple of games of Lost Ruins of Arnak. I know now that I get better at this with more plays so I don't mind it. To me, it's part of the puzzle and I like to be a few games into it before I figure it out. Sounds like I'll have a lot a fun with this one. This was a great review. I love all detail and insight you put into it. Really gives me a feel for it beyond what I've gotten from other reviews. Thanks again, as always!

Thanks for the review!

Merchants of the Dark Road has been the board game I've most been excited for since the campaign. I'll pretty much be playing it exclusively solo, so hopefully it ends up being a game I enjoy. If not, well, good opportunity to better learn my tastes and inform future decisions.

Nice review. I feel like most of your criticisms are things that are in so many games that I enjoy so I don't see it as being problem for me. Especially the one where someone takes something you wanted and you have to adapt your planning to suit (I feel like that's in so many games?) I personally love games that have lots to do but you can't do it all, because that gives the game more legs in terms of more plays to discover those new things. You have succeed in helping me make my mind up about the game which is what reviews are for (even if it's being pursuaded by aspects that you didn't like that I know I like 😂) Appreciate the hard work and happy holiday!

This is one I just can’t seem to fully walk away from. Ive “decided” it’s a pass for me at least a dozen times now but I keep coming back. I’ve yet to assuage any of my doubts about it but can’t seem to just let it go. The art and deluxe components just keep drawing me back in.

My brain melted when you started listing off the edge cases. This is why you shouldn’t try to learn complex rules at 7 am 😂. Happy Thanksgiving Alex.

Nice, was waiting for this one, skipped on the Kickstarter back then not being convinced, let's see what your verdict will be :-D And happy Thanksgiving ofcourse🍗🌽

Great review. It packs a lot of material in as little time as possible. Your sentiment towards the game is in line with other reviewers, from what I can tell. A lot of interesting things to keep playing it at first, but will somewhere end up on the shelves after a couple of plays. Too bad because I have ordered the deluxe

Fantastic review. Thank you! Very helpful. I still have the deluxe version on its way. I’m hoping it holds its value but I’m assuming it won’t. Haha

I do understand what you mean with Merchants of the Dark Road; it's a very frustrating game. You plan turns in advance in an intricate web of actions, and by the time it gets back to you it's either ruined by another player, or you've forgotten what your plan was. The short cut also seems not really worth it, but just getting that double bonus and then getting 2 illuminated die as a result makes it worth it - but yeah, it doesn't feel worth it because everyone else gets to pick before you, so now you need to prepare a 4th lantern for re-rolls, and pick the oldest companion for the extra travel die, because the rewards on the short cut are hella good. So far I've only played this game 2 player and I really want to try it with more players a few times as the game both speeds up and becomes more in depth and competitive with repeat plays. I do understand the sentiment that you are essentially playing the same game over and over, but a lot of games are like that, and the challenge of perfection is great, and the tiny asymetry from the horses alters each game enough to want to go again and again (kinda reminds me of Clans of Caledonia). The tightest bit of the game is the last few rounds, where it forces you to do 3 different move actions and at the same time you know you are lacking either money or prestige and for stupid reasons you are geared towards earning the one you already have enough of! It's frustrating, but when you pull off those combos, and make the right plays, and gamble correctly, oh wow it feels rewarding. 8.5/10 for me.

Thank you for this review. So, I got to get this and see if my taste differs. Which I hope.

I absolutely adore this game. I’ve played it three times at 4-players, one of which I was the new person and each of the other two plays I taught 2 new people. It took ~3 hours (including the teach) every time. I would really like to try it at 2 or 3 players. For the third game we house ruled that the person who takes the shortcut still gets first pick of the dice because after spending three lanterns they probably don’t have any left to alter the roll and they still have >%50 change to get a negative effect. This worked really well and the shortcut was chosen twice as much as in the games where we used the normal rules

The situation you described at 22:30 reminds me alot of brass. Which makes me wonder if it really is that much of a negative. Tbf alot of euros turns tend to feel Samey I've still got my pre order of the game (for now) I am a little less optimistic now, but I'm still on the fence

Hi Alex, I stumbled across this video as I was interested in possibly getting this game. But I have a question for you that is not related to the game featured in the video but more about a game in the background. Can you tell me please what is the game that is on the shelf behind you to your left, that looks like it has a puritan on the cover? Thanks in advance.

One thing I have seen with many content creators over time, especially ones like yourself who play so many games, is mention of how each game feels the same. I see this directed at some many games and I have often puzzled over it. Most games feel the same every time, as they are the same game. This isn't merchant's cove or something with high asymmetry, and even those games start to feel a bit same-y over time. I love the Brass games, but they are typically always the same game, with the same questions and pacing. For me, even games I love, spacing them out during play helps. I find the more I play of any specific game, the more I start to feel this. Then I remember that players play differently and randomness changes things up as well. If I wasn't able to do this, then most Euro games would fall apart, such as Castles of Burgundy.

Still excited to try my copy when it arrives, but you have made me a little bummed. Perhaps some house rules will make it better?

I always find interesting what light to mid weight euros work for folks and which ones don’t. In essence, “each game feels the same” can be said about A LOT of them.

Any chance on reviewing Anachrony ?

Did your copy come in or is this an early copy? Hoping this shows up soon

It is almost a good game, but fell short for us. The problem for us is that the turns and thus the whole game feels really same. You get some tiny bonuses you can use sometimes, but mostly your turns are pretty similar at the beginning at the middle. On top of it the last few turns are even worse than the turns before them because you will have less choice with every turn, so the last 3-4 turns are beasically just trying to come up with something useful with what you rolled, while others might have rolled just the right numbers (but mostly it is just downhill for everyone). So after the 3/4 of the game was flat is goes down from there. For me it is possibly a "sell without opening" when it arrives, but it pains me because it is such a pretty game.

This looks amazing. But if this is not the King regarding pick up and delivery games, what game is it than ?

How's the interaction between players?

Reads title, realizes that my copy hasn't arrived. Contemplates whether I really want to know the answer...lol

First time watcher! Thank you for the good content and great video quality. One concern I have is you mentioning this is a Medium to Heavy Weight Euro. I would say this is Medium and borderline Light (for the simplicity of the actions). This does not compare to Heavy Euros. Thanks again for the honest review and look forward to seeing more of your content.

Great balanced review as always Alex! I got into KS after this had finished. I almost added it to my Atlantis Rising pledge in the PM, but glad I waited for your review. I might pick this up later on the second hand market. I don't need to buy into all the hype and FOMO around this beautiful game!

Damn, I wish they gave you a preview copy during the KS. Lot's of solid points there Alex. I bought the game for the visuals so I'm hoping I can save it with house rules (although I really hate it when you need to "fix" a game straightaway with house rules...).

Sounds like this game will give me the same bitterness of playing Alma Mater.

Man Alex, I really need to listen to you on 0.75x speed 😂

Am I mistaken or was the preview pretty hyped? This sounds like the honeymoon is over... passion may give way to deeper love, or to separation

Pass!

I love this channel! This is the review I was waiting for. I was looking forward to this game for a year. Now I've decided to give it the hard pass.

At 5:35... LoL... Your overview has the same amount of content as some others' "How to play"! (That was meant as a comment about them, not about you). Anyway, you gave it a 3.5 out of five. That sounds like a 7 out of 10 to me. In other words, if I also think it's a 7 out of 10, then it breaks the "keeper" threshold!

Looks like a mish mash of Lords of Waterdeep, The Village and Stone Age. Pass for me...

Too late… I took it 🤣 ahaha

Here is a very short summary of playing for the first time: There are 38 separate elements in the box, some of which you will not use. Using the 20-page rule book, you learn about the market dice, night dice, illuminated dice, oracle die, ruins die and travel dice, lanterns, horseshoes, crystals, companion cards, event cards, hero cards, deed cards, commission tiles, steeds, buildings, coins and goods. Easy as pie. Then you can study your wagon with its 11 regions for storing goods, heroes, commissions, lanterns, crystals, horseshoes and dice; also the crafting table, locked slots, movement slots and the bonus areas. Then take a little time to familiarize yourself with the board and its 6 (yes, 6 - the Ruins of Yin is separate) areas (let's ignore the buildings for now). Then you can unbox and engage in the setup; it takes a while. Now lets look more closely at the rule book. On the back you will find a hieroglyphic glossary of 66 different icons that are found throughout the game. Don't try to memorize them, you will refer to this glossary constantly. The rule book is 20 pages, and most things are pretty simple and straightforward, just a lot of unless, and/or, if, with/without, except, multiple choices, etc. Then you come to Yurg's Excursions. This is like a whole mini-game unto itself. There are 10 steps, the last of which is a choice between 4 bonuses, one of which (the wagon upgrades) involves a further choice from among 6 upgrades. Well, it's been about 90 minutes now, unboxing, setting up, and studying. Let's begin the play, with 4 players. Each player has 4 parts to their turn - chose a die, take the bonus, move their wagon, and then Take The Action(s) chosen. Commissions take about 10 seconds. The other 4 potential actions take (usually) less than a minute. Yurg's Excursions can take a full 5 minutes. After all 4 players have done their turns, reset the board and wagons and do these 16 steps again. This will happen a total of 13 times, for a total of 208 parts involving 52 separate actions, with constant reference to the hieroglyphic chart. Then you can engage in scoring, which should only take about 5 minutes. Then you can rebox everything, using a tutorial video, or just trying to figure it out yourself. It's now a realistic 5 hours, and everybody is exhausted, but had a lot of fun. Next time it'll take less time, until really good players will only take 3 hours to setup, play, and put away. It's a great game, and comes highly recommended. p.s. - the physical aspect of this game is Excellent - the pieces are very high quality.

Ever since you started doing content with Quackalope, you picked up his habit of adding a superfluous "You see" at the beginning of many sentences. I don't know why it annoys me so much, but it does x) In regards to the game - this was one of the first ones after a heavy Kickstarter period where I resisted the pull of beautiful deluxe components and instead thoroughly read all the rules, watched some playthroughs and in the end decided the game is not for my group and didn't back. It seems it was the right decision

Oh no!!!!!!!!!!! I bought the deluxe on Kickstarter!

Damn, I was really looking forward to this game but your point about each game feeling the same pretty much killed my interest. I've been down that road far too often, and it is a game-killer even if you have some fun initially. Oh well, another KS game for the eBay crowd to gobble up.

This game is so overbloated. When it comes down to what this game is actually about, it's purely just a puzzle game of economics. Except it's more like 5 mini puzzle games. The theme has no impact whatsoever. There were so many different components and elements that felt completely unnecessary; just adding more stuff to warrant the expensive price. I don't trust anyone that says this game is good