Merchants of the Dark Road – A Deluxe Merchant Adventure

I think deep down we all just want to run in circles as fast as we can. It’s ingrained in us. From a young age, we’re trained to run around an oval. Growing up, whether it was NASCAR, baseball, or track cycling we watched others compete in circles as well. So, when I first watched a playthrough of Merchants of the Dark Road and saw these wooden wagons circling the board. All I could think was: Hell Yeah!

While its circular nature drew me in, a lot is going on to make the board gamer in me sit up like when I see the waiter coming with my meal. There’s buying and selling with market manipulation, there’s managing your inventory straight from an RPG game, there are stacks of flavour cards drawing you into the world of Lumi, and best of all, there’s a follow-the-leader mechanic.

Have no fear though, as despite the awe-inspiring amount of mechanics in place. They managed to blend them into a board game that’s more than the sum of its systems. And there are a lot of systems!

What a turn looks like

Each turn starts with a choice, and it’s not an easy choice. You have three dice to select from. These dice have different abilities but also determine how far you can move around the board. One die allows you to craft a free item, another gives you a lantern letting you use illuminated dice, and the last one gives you money or allows you to manipulate the market.

This decision will torment you throughout the game. As often you’ll want to use the die to craft a free item, but then it won’t have the movement you want.

After you’ve chosen your die, you’ll move your wagon from district to district around the town. Stopping between two buildings but only activating one. Another tough choice. Fortunately, there’s a usual order you’ll want to follow.

This starts with getting items – done through the store, the die ability, or exploring the ruins. Then, you’ll need to sell these newly acquired items.

You’re a merchant after all, what are you going to do with a magic staff?

Anyway, this is when you need to decide between money and prestige. If you want money, you’ll want to price gouge some naïve adventurers in the tavern. But if you want prestige, you’ll have to venture out onto the dark roads of Lumi and deliver items to the outlying towns.

The interesting thing about deciding what you need to do is that at some point you’ll need to do both. It’s not enough to stack one or the other – you’ll need both to win. As whatever you have the least of at the end of the game represents your final score.

Follow me if you dare

The climax of the game is venturing onto the dark roads beyond the town and delivering goods and travellers to the outlying towns. I mean it’s in the title, it has got to be the climax, right?

Like all other actions within Merchants of the Dark Road, this one starts with a choice. This time you’re deciding between using the perilous unlit path. Or, if you have enough lanterns, create a shortcut by lighting a new path in the darkness.

Funnily enough, the shortcut, despite being more expensive and lit up like a Christmas tree, is equally as dangerous as the perilous path. Only the rewards are greater.

Once you’ve decided on a route and a town you’re going to visit, you’ll need to let the rest of the table know. As they now have the option to take part in your caravan. Depending on the route you choose, these moochers may have first dibs on the rewards of the journey. They also get to deliver to a town near your destination.

If you’re the freeloader in this situation it’s a fantastic way to deliver goods without expending turns or resources. But as a leader, it’s painful watching everyone benefit from your hard work.

As such you need to always keep an eye on where everyone is headed. Because piggybacking on a delivery can be the difference between winning and losing.

Diversify your bonds

There’s a lot you can do, but it’s what you should do in Merchants of the Dark Road which will give you pause. With only 13 turns throughout the game, there’s not enough time to do everything.

Thankfully, deed cards provide you with the direction you should head, as these objectives give you victory points upon completion.

To help complete deeds you’ll sometimes get access to the incredibly rare illuminated dice, allowing you to activate three districts at once. You can also acquire familiars who provide you with abilities at the cost of blazing quartz.

Even with all these efficiencies, you must constantly weigh up when to deliver to the outskirts. There are significant rewards for delivering, meaning you shouldn’t delay until you have the perfect caravan. But going without a full caravan might mean you miss out on points in the long run.

So, you need to decide when is enough, enough.

Along with everything else, Merchants of the Dark Road creates such interesting decision space. No matter what type of gamer you are, there’s something in here for you.

For the euro-gamers, you’ll love figuring out the efficiency problem, for the storytellers, you’ll dive into the wonderfully detailed world of Lumi, for the social gamers, you’ll be guessing where everyone is going, and for the dice chuckers well… there’s plenty of dice to chuck.

Merchants of the Dark Road ticks every box in the board game buzzword bingo. Creating what I like to call: comfortable crunchiness. Where allows your mind to tick over at a steady pace like The Lost Ruins of Arnak. But because there’s more going on in the Merchants of the Dark Road, you fall deeper into its comfiness, until you no longer want to move.

Enhanced by great components

Andrew Bosley knocked it out of the park when he did the art for Everdell. But here, it’s even better. The dark and moody colours paint the picture of this town lost in the winter. Yet it uses this motif of light in the dark to capture the hope you’re bringing to the residents.

This excellent artwork is matched by the components, one of which I need to give a special shoutout. This is the magnetic market wheel, which while it doesn’t add much to the game, is just straight-up cool.

When reviewing Escape Plan I explained that great components are a multiplier. Unfortunately, Escape Plan‘s gameplay didn’t match the quality of the components, and that dissonance brought down my impression of the game. The opposite is true here. I love the gameplay, and the deluxe edition takes that love to another level.

However, to answer the question posited in my headline. Merchants of the Dark Road, can not be the best game of 2022. Because I received this board game in late December 2021. Therefore, while Merchants of the Dark Road isn’t the best game in 2022, for me, it is the best game I played in 2021.