Rumors typically require you to go to a specific port or Sea-Zone and roll either Influence or Scouting during a "port" or "scout" action (indicated with a skill icon). When taking the required action, present the rumor and roll the skill required. If you fail the roll, the rumor was false and the card is discarded. If successful you obtain what was promised by the rumor. In Merchants and Marauders, the winner is the first player to get to 10 Glory. This can be done in a variety of ways. You can sell goods at a port, stash gold, investigate rumors, and complete missions, or you can defeat other players and NPC ships, or plunder gold from merchant ships. The sea-board really is your oyster. In Merchants and Marauders you will take on the role of a captain from England, France, Spain or the Netherlands and try to be the first captain to achieve 10 glory points. This can be done through defeating other players in combat, making a big profit trade, plundering through raids, completing missions, finding out if a rumour is true, stashing gold and buying new ships.

If you grow tired of your Captain, or end up broke and with a heavily damaged ship, retiring may be a sensible option. Take a Ship Card corresponding to your chosen ship. Place it and your Captain Card on your Player Board. Extended Cargo Hold: Adds +1 to the ship's Cargo value. Move your "Cargo" hitlocation cube up one step. A ship's "Cargo" can never exceed 5. If you attempt to take a mission, but fail (for instance, failing an Influence roll), then unless stated otherwise the mission stays in play. A new attempt to take the mission (or another mission in the same port) can be made next turn during a new "port" action. If there is still a tie, the player with the largest amount of stash wins. If this does not resolve the tie, both players are declared winners.Wind and Weather, the eighth module, consists of two parts: the Storm token and Wind Direction. The Storm token is great. It represents a Storm that blows around the Caribbean that will damage player's ships if they begin their turn in or move into the same zone that it occupies. The Storm moves every round in the direction determined by the Wind Spinner and provides a fun obstacle for players to consider and avoid. Example: A Player starts his turn in the same Sea-Zone as both another player and a Merchant (represented by a Merchant Token). He takes a "scout" action and declares that he wishes to find the player Captain in the same Sea-Zone. He makes a Scouting roll and fails. He may now spend a new action to "scout" again, but may not "scout" for the same player again. Instead he "scouts" for the Merchant. III. Port By hiding the amount of gold you’re carrying, and especially the amount of gold you’ve stashed, you’re not placing a huge target on yourself for other players to exploit. Likewise, you should keep tabs on what other players are doing and try to estimate how much gold they’ve accumulated to find the right moment to strike and plunder. Pros & Cons Pros: In Merchants & Marauders, players draw captain cards to determine their skill at naval combat, scouting, leadership, and influence. Captains also have their nationality, home port, and special abilities. Use the "move" action to move between adjacent Sea-Zones or to and from ports. Each separate move equals an action. Move your ship miniature to show your movement, and place it on a port if you move to port. Movement is the same, regardless of ship type.

The winner of crew combat gets to plunder the other ship for one of their cards, gold, or even their ship. Death is not the end in the Merchants & Marauders as players can return with a new captain and keep their glory and stashed gold. Earning Glory Once all of that is done, we can place the ship type we chose into our home port. Each player is going to have their own ship, their own colour, and their own player board. From this point on, the adventure begins and we can really throw ourselves into the drama and excitement of a life on the ocean waves. Extra Cannon Port: Adds +1 to the ship's "Cannons" value. Move the "Cannons" hit-location cube up one step. "Cannons" can never exceed 5.Even if you find problems with the rules and requirements for certain achievements, like the acquisition of said galleons, you can house-rule as much as you’d like. Merchants & Marauders has a very flexible ruleset that allows for such a thing. Cons: Merchants and Marauders is an incredible open-world adventure. Every game feels unique. The core rules are straight-forward, but there are some intricacies that might put off anyone looking for a simple game. The multiple ways to win are all great, and all have their own difficulties. The game has a large element of PvP, that rewards the bold and can be an issue for any players who don’t want that element to the game, but those who don’t mind will have an incredible experience and plenty of stories to tell. Get This Game If: Roll your Captain's Scouting skill. If successful, you find the ship you scouted for after which a battle takes place. Battles against players and NPCs are elaborate affairs while the resolution of a Merchant Raid is faster and more abstracted.

When you sell the "Good in Demand", you randomly replace the Demand Token with a new one from the reserve pool. After changing the Demand Token you cannot sell any more goods that turn. The NPCs in Merchants & Marauders represent the game-controlled naval or pirate ships that will come into play through event cards. Naval ships will hunt for players that have a bounty on their head or are simply aligned with one of the warring nations.Anything that involves a test of some kind is carried out using 6-sided dice where the 5 and 6’s have been replaced with skulls. The skill characteristic for the test indicates how many dice are rolled, and a test is passed by rolling a single skull.