TabletopWars.com | Board Games, Card Games, Dice Games, Miniature Games, RPG, and More in the Philippines

Merchant of Venus

Do you enjoy picking up and delivering things? Do you long for games where you have to take a colored cube or chit, put it on your vehicle, and take it to another part of the board? Do you, despite your joy at playing these games, wish that the games had more rocket ships and asteroid belts?

Good news, friend! Merchant of Venus is for you!

Merchant of Venus, designed by Richard Hamblen, is a game from "the good old days of Avalon Hill" that all the geeks keep talking about. Players represent space traders, earning money by traveling from planet to planet, buying and selling goods. The first trader to reach a predetermined amount of money (1000, 2000, or 3000 space bucks, depending on how long you want the game to go) wins the game. It's been out of print for a while now, and I actually played a friend's homemade copy, which he constructed using assets he found on the 'net. Copyright ethics for out of print games are a little murky, so I won't use his real name. I'll call him Philbert. Philbert did a fantastic job constructing the board, and cutting out what must be hundreds of cardboard chits. He even reproduced the original box.

The board is made up of several planets, nebulas, and other galactic hotspots, connected and orbited by a path made up of yellow, red, and blue dots. The inhabitants of those planets are randomly determined from a pool of a dozen or so races, each with different technology and goods to sell. Players start out with a basic Scout ship, but they can buy faster and larger ships from the planets. They also may purchase shields and better engines that allow them to travel more quickly and easily between planets.

At the beginning of the game, nobody knows where each race of people lives. They must be discovered by the players. The first player to reach an inhabited planet gets an I.O.U. bonus for finding them, a sort of coupon for a discount on that planet's goods and services. Money is pretty tight at the start of the game, so collecting these I.O.U.s is a great way to acquire the upgrades and goods that you wouldn't normally be able to afford at this stage.

Each race is numbered, and the goods sold at a planet may be sold to any other race that sports the next three numbers in sequence. For example, a number 2 race's goods can be sold to any 3, 4, or 5 planet. Sometimes these potential markets are right nearby, creating a tidy little money-making loop. Other times, you have to go clear across the galaxy to sell your stuff. You can only carry so many goods on your ship (some ships have more cargo holds than others), so you have to be careful to plan efficient routes. As the game progresses, demand chits appear, indicating that a particular planet is in need of a particular good, and is willing to pay a premium to get it. This causes a bit of a race to occur, for once somebody sells a good at the high demand, the demand goes away.

Other prizes and perils await the aspiring space trader: Asteroids can hold treasure or equipment, or reveal a telegate (a numbered warp point). Asteroids may also reveal danger spaces, which force you to either pay a fine or stop. These dangers (which also appear on the board by default) can be diminished by buying a shield. Decision points can mess with your navigation, forcing you to go a specific direction based on your die roll. Players can purchase space stations in orbit around the planets. These make it easier to buy and sell (since you don't have to land on the planet), and also provide a commission when other players use it to do business. Purchasing the factory on a planet brings another type of good onto the board, as well as providing a hefty commission to the factory owner. Plus, real estate (stations and factories) count toward a players total for endgame.

In my first play, I started out exploring a region of space all by myself, but I mismanaged my funds, buying a larger ship too early and getting stranded in deep space. If I had purchased a better engine, I would have had more mobility, which could have transferred to the better ship later. Chris, on the other hand, picked up both a yellow and red drive early (allowing him to skip every yellow and red dot on the board), and was able to hit his destinations on a single roll virtually every time. Philbert collected a bunch of neat stuff from asteroids, but Al got lost in a nebula, trapped by those nasty decision points. In the end, though we fought back valiantly, Chris was just too quick to catch. He crossed the 2000 mark while I was hovering somewhere around 1200.

This is an a awesome custom made components for the game. Somebody should reprint this game. Click to view larger version of image.

Despite its length (somewhere around 2.5 to 3 hours), I really enjoyed the game, and I'd like to give it another shot. The random setup of races and asteroids means you'll have a different layout each time, and something about that whole exploration element really appeals to me. I'm not sure Stefanie would like it (she'd probably call it a "boy game"), but I certainly wouldn't turn down another opportunity to play.

Review by Eric Summerer

Source: boardgamegeek.com