Merkator

Players develop trade routes across northern German cities in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War. On a turn, players move between towns to collect goods or to fulfill orders; collected goods are then added to the city when a player visits a neighboring city. Fulfilling an order gives a new, higher-value order that can be kept and reused, subject to a hand limit. Orders score points at game end and can be exchanged for special cards that alter where goods appear or grant endgame bonuses. Entering certain cities gives or costs a resource called “time,” which can also be spent to accompany another player’s trip to fulfill orders in that city. The game ends when a player gains the top-value order by completing the preceding level.

Players: 1–4 best 2
Playing time: 45–90 min
Age: 12+
Complexity: 3 / 5

5.4 on LudoyaEconomicPick-up and DeliverContractsResource to Move

Play it with Ludoya

About the game

Design: Uwe Rosenberg
Art: Klemens Franz
Publisher: Lookout Games

Expansions

See them in Ludoya

Merkator: Messe Sonderkarte2010

On Ludoya's tables

Full stats in Ludoya

24
Plays logged: 21
Players: 1h 13m
Average play: 14
In collections: 5
On wishlists

5.4/10

from 7 Ludoya reviews

Mestremuten5.0
Rating: 3/5 Production value: 1/4 Is the game in my collection/Love to have?: 1/1
Evan4.6
This is a good conversion game, where on a player's turn they move a pawn into a location on the central board, which allows them to both collect goods cubes from that spot, and to complete contracts that require that spot. Other players can follow if they pay the active player, and then goods in all attaching areas replenish, which makes for a somewhat dynamic board state. Another interesting element is that each spot on the board produces one color of goods, which then separates into two types on your player board. Then each of those two types of goods also has a icon (food, weapons, clothing). The contract cards you buy reference all these things, so there are a lot of ways you can use your goods. Matching a solid route, capitalizing on predicting your opponents, building your engine with upgrade cards and getting new contracts that work into your combos is a really interesting challenge. :star: Art, Iconography and components functional :star: Clever or interesting mechanisms :star: Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players :star: Multiple plays stay interesting :star: Low or mitigatable luck elements :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: Raw enjoyment