Mercatores (2017)

Overview

New geographical discoveries opened new possibilities and demands. The Old Continent craves New World goods like tobacco, corn, cotton, cocoa and coffee. In Mercatores players take to role of the merchants and try to make the most profit of the new market. The wealthiest player wins the game.

Mercatores consists of two phases: invest phase and profit phase. In the invest phase, players take turns, which consists of two mandatory actions: First, player must trade with the market in the middle of the table by exchanging card in hand for two or three cards in the market. Second, player must play a card. Player can play cards in three different ways: play any number of a single good, play two cards of different goods or play a special card. After that player passes the turn to another player. When any player plays the thirteenth card in front of them, that player gets the captain card and other player can play one more round.

After that, the game goes into the profit phase. Players take turns selling their goods and using the special cards, like warehouses or ports. When all players resolve all their cards, the game ends and the player with the most points wins.