I got the opportunity to play The Voyages of Marco Polo last week. I hadn't heard much about this one, so I was excited to try out something new to me. I'll share a brief overview of the game and my thoughts about it. While at a recent game night at my friend Troy's house, we got a chance to play a couple of games. One was The Voyages of Marco Polo. This Euro-game released in 2015 was one that had passed under my radar. I may have heard a discussion about it in one of the podcasts I listen to, however didn't really know much about it. This gave me a chance to learn a new game. One or maybe two of the others at the table had played before while myself and one other hadn't played at all. For the most part, we were all learning or re-learning the game. Overview The rules were fairly easy to understand. It seemed like we didn't spend that long going over the set up rules etc... probably about 30-45 minutes. The basic premise of the game is to explore the lands of the far east attempting to satisfy travel goals and to gain money, goods, and camels while completing orders acquired during the game. Explorers place trading posts in cities along the way which gain players additional action options for those with their marker on that city/location. I found the player aid was valuable in keeping track of things and performing actions in the proper order. Each player has five dice in their own color as well as a unique explorer role which gives each a special, seemingly overpowered, ability. In turn order players get one action at a time placing dice in a variety of locations on the board, using an action-selection or worker-placement style mechanic. The value of the dice sometimes influence the quantity or required value in each area and may effect those who follow wanting to use the same action. Some of the placement options require only one die, while others require two or three dice. An extra "neutral" black die can be acquired using the proper items in trade, allowing for an additional action. Players continue taking actions until all dice are gone, thus ending the round. The game is played for five rounds, at the end of which the game ends. Victory points can be scored in a variety of ways along the way as well as at the end of the game. The player scoring the most victory points is the winner. Thoughts and Opinions
While I didn't particularly care for the box artwork, the art and graphics on the game board and components worked well. The design was clear and the colors were fairly easily distinguished. The wooden dice were brightly colored, though a bit light-weight. An advantage of these dice would be that the rounded corners and light wooden construction should make them gentle to roll on most surfaces, avoiding dings and scratches. Overall the components worked well. The theme was fairly strong. Typically Euro-games are weak in theme, however this one felt the theme come through, like you were traveling and trading when taking actions. The individual roles made the gameplay somewhat unique for each player and required some thought about how your opponents use of their special abilities might impact your actions. Their wasn't a large amount of player interaction, however timing of actions and placement of dice on certain locations could certainly impact the cost or ability of another player planning to use the same action. There was no direct trading with each other or mechanics which were overtly mean. The flow of each round was nice, even the time spent in-between turns didn't seem to lag as you needed to calculate the next action and sometimes other players' dice placement/actions could impact those decisions. There were plenty of things to think about. I would consider this to be a medium-to-heavy weight game based on the amount of strategy and thought required to be successful. My overall assessment of The Voyages of Marco Polo is a positive one. Even after just one play, I can see the many possibilities of future plays. I believe the entire table had a similar reaction as we discussed our enjoyment of this game. There were cards randomly placed on each large city location on the board which change with each play and goals which are dealt to each other that also change, in addition to the varying roles available to the players. There is a lot of replay value here. I had a great time playing The Voyages of Marco Polo and found the rules to be quick to grasp making it less of a barrier to entry for most players. These are my thoughts and opinions about The Voyages of Marco Polo. If you're interested in reading more about this game on Board Game Geek's site, click here. Keep looking for more posts about board games and King's GameNight activity on this site and on the Facebook page. Continue playing the tabletop games you enjoy and ... Game on!
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