Merchant of Venus - In Stores Now Hot

Somebody review this new version already.

I've ordered one. I'll need to dig up players. However, Sandi gets to choose activities this weekend. (Friday is our anniversary----Dia die Los Muertos of course.)

This is about the only game I'm interested in right now. I hope there is a lot of coverage from fellow F:ATies so I can make an informed decision.

I you did like it, you will. If you didn't, you won't. It's got the straight reprint rules inside, which is all I'm interested in.

I'm also looking forward to a review on this one. It would be nice to know if this long sought after classic is still worth getting.

At this point I know nothing about it except the very basic premise. I'd rather read about it on here rather than TOS...

I think there have been two or three writeups on it here already. At very least, there was Barnes' writeup of all the big Hamblen games plus:

http://fortressat.com/forum/10-ameritrash/30796-merchants-of-venus--lives-up-to- fat-hype#30796
http://fortressat.com/blogs-by-members/1073-merchant-of-venus-how-did-i-miss- this-gem

The search feature is nice!

Also, I don't care how you feel about BGG, Jesse Dean's Merchant of Venus review is very good:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/796717/a-modern-classic

Certainly good stuff! I'm more curious to see what the reception of the reprint is. I know the original rules are supposed to be in there, but I'd like to hear about the changes. Right now it is probably the one game I'm most interested in.

Well, my copy arrives today, if I can get people together to play and have strong feelings about the game, I'll write it up! I'll definitely be starting off exclusively playing the classic rules, though, as I've never played it.

Yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

This is the one game that is going on the Christmas list this year. The original game is a lot of fun in that slightly-wooly 1980s way. I actually don't think that a small tune-up would be out of line, but I doubt FFG would be very subtle about it. Either way, having the original ruleset is a good move that should make this game a hit.

Yeah, it looks like the difference between the "Classic rules" and the "Standard rules" is way the hell more than a "small tune-up", and is a wholly different game (which is cool, two games in one!). The classic rules do have some small tune-ups from the original, though.

Played it last night (classic rules) and loved every minute of it. The form factor is exceptionally good. Easy to see everything, easy to read everything, very pretty on the table. Navigation iconography is intuitive and the board is big enough to display everything without being cramped. Big chunky chits in the chit cup. I love big chunky chits in a chit cup. I have two tiny facets on the ship cards that I would have corrected, but so small I'd be embarrassed to detail them here. The board is positively glorious. Magnificent colors. Fantasy Flight Games stepped out of their art box and produced a bright, colorful package that matches the written materials from the original printing. This game has its own artistic space -- it doesn't look like other games and it sets a high bar. Beautifully rendered and invokes the original. I'd call it game of the year except that it's 20 years old.

After a couple of times around the board we were all rolling our dice as the prior player was finishing his turn, keeping things moving. Downtime between plays in a three player game was under two minutes by the time we got cruising and the "down" player needed to do bank and chit maintenance so everyone was on the move the whole time. With three motivated players the play cruises and remains engaging the entire time.

I love this game. No worker placement, no auctions to slow things down, no not-allowed-to-do-that-action-this-turn. Just a great play. I need to thank Buonocore for pressing the original game as originally written into this package.

S.

How different is Merchants of Venus from Merchants and Marauders?

They're actually a lot less different than you'd think, but only in the since that they aren't completely unrelated. The merchant side of M&M plays out a lot like Merchant of Venus, albeit simplified. MoV is much more about the pick-up-and-deliver aspect, but my one game felt pretty open.

What the hell is wrong with you people? Why is this game getting no discussion? This is an excellent play in a beautiful package. Is no one playing it?

S.

Sadly, no. No one in my area has it yet, and I'm waiting to hopefully get it for Christmas/birthday.

I don't know what everyone else's excuse is...

Yeah, well "haven't seen a copy yet" is a pretty bullshit excuse for not declaring it Game of the Year. That's never stopped others in the gaming cognoscenti.

I'm telling you people -- this one is going to get some attention. If you get a chance to crack the box open and have a look go after it. The production on it is beautiful and the play is just a bucket of fun. I've only played the classic rules, but I'd like to hear opinions on the new rules that almost certainly have "fixed" a damn near perfect game.

S.

If I didn't have a baby I'd be all over this. But I have family priorties and no time for MoV yet. I'm asking for it for Christmas and hope to play it soon after that. It's the only new game that interests me at all. Strange how the only new game I'm interested in right now is actually over 20 years old. I was on the fence Sag and your write up in here is what pushed me into the must buy camp. Which admittedly was an easy push.

Picking this up in a day or two - never played the original but was very encouraged by Sag's comments. Had a look at part of Summerer's vid review who gave it good marks but some nerds at Bgg are slamming the new version in the box (standard) pretty hard. Wonder which version we'll prefer. With the mark up in price, due to the inclusion of two games in one, hope we wont have any regrets. I always thought i'd love to play the classic game and now here it is.

I'm kind of over a barrel because my buddy bought it. Good news for me -- I didn't have to pay for it. But it means that I don't get to bring it to other outings, and it's pretty doggone hard to justify dropping coin on a duplicate copy.

S.

Playing it tonight for the first time and pretty stoked, we'll see how I feel about forking over money for yet another game.