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Merchants and Marauders, from Z-man Games, brings the age of sail to the board. Which is better? The life of a Pirate or that of an honest merchant? The D6G crew examines how the game plays and gives you the details in this mega-sode.

But first, Raef holds a "Round Table" and asks Russ and Craig the tough questions... much to their chagrin.

All that and our other not-too-horrible segments including:



- The Hollywood Minute

- What's in the News

- Do You Ever Notice

- & More

Link to episode: http://www.thed6generation.com/d6g-ep-73-merchants-and-marauders-detailed-review-raef-s-round-table

Please let us know what you think!

RussWakelin wrote:
But first, Raef holds a "Round Table" and asks Russ and Craig the tough questions... much to their chagrin.

And mine, it would seem!
Glad I could help Russ score 6 points. As a lawyer, I believe he owes me 2 of them.

Tertius wrote:And mine, it would seem!
Glad I could help Russ score 6 points. As a lawyer, I believe he owes me 2 of them.

Thanks for the real time backup Ken!

Just ordered my copy of Merchants and Marauders!

You'll love it! Go Pirates!

Raef mentioned the Three Investigators books in his boxes of moldy books...

I loved those books when I was a kid. A wonderful nostalgia moment. Asked a few of my friends about them and they didn't know what I was talking about so it's great to find somebody else that knows them!

Great episode as usual. I look forward to the contest and aim to sink all my competion.

I dare Ken to do an episode of "The Score" that contains the abomination that was the Naked Mole Rap.
Other than that, great show as usual.

I enjoyed the show and was glad to see that you all enjoyed Merchants and Marauders. I, personally, enjoy the game a great deal. Some of the people who have played it with me think it has a tendancy to play a little long (A.P. on the part of anyone doing a Port action can really drag things down). The game screams to be pimped out (Craig....).

I find it ironic that Russ is having some issues keeping up and making the same errors that he used to chide Raef for on a regular basis now that Craig isn't in the same room.

I'm just sayin... (stirrin the pot)

Fun episode.

I'm just surprised that Team Pirate, including their President, haven't gone in for Warhammer Historical's "Legends of the High Seas" if they are as pirate-crazy as we are led to believe?

sturmkraehe wrote:I find it ironic that Russ is having some issues keeping up and making the same errors that he used to chide Raef for on a regular basis now that Craig isn't in the same room.

It is just like rain on your wedding day.

I'm just surprised that Team Pirate, including their President, haven't gone in for Warhammer Historical's "Legends of the High Seas" if they are as pirate-crazy as we are led to believe?

This game breaks the rule that we like a company to provide everything. I have flipped through the book and I'll give them credit for boat rules!

RussWakelin wrote:This game breaks the rule that we like a company to provide everything. I have flipped through the book and I'll give them credit for boat rules!

I understand Team Pirate's preference for an "all encompassing" game system to include rules AND models. I'm a time-poor forty-something with a delight in all things shiney myself. But it's not as if pirate models are hard to find out there in internet land. And it's not as if you need *that* many. Even boats can be found if you look hard enough...



And if you are a master-terrain builder like Craig, this article by former GW game designer Gary Chalk is a great start:

http://www.madponies.net/pub/FoundryShips/GARYSHIP.pdf

I know it's a *little* harder than just having a no-brainer one-stop-shop to go to, but it's not like typical historical gaming where the field is infested with button-counters. So anything that looks good enough *will* be good enough. Go on.... you know you want to...

Or.... this could be the time to start working on the Official D6Generation 28mm Pirates Game (TM).....

Just sayin'

Avast me hearties....!

Just finished the episode this morning, and wish to offer up a few thoughts.

First, thank you for the Merchants and Marauders review. Been looking forward to it since Russ first tweeted about playing it with Nicole. I'm really looking forward to getting this game, and as soon as I can afford to do so I'll be picking up a copy. I'm even more excited after hearing the review.

Now, Raef's Roundtable. I know you guys value honest feedback here, so I'm gonna shoot straight with you. This was a tough segment for me to get through. I'm not sure what it was. Perhaps it was my enthusiasm to get to the Merchants and Marauders segment. But, RR just felt like a filler piece. A LONG filler piece. I enjoyed some of the questions and answers, but the gameshow (with it's seemingly shifting rules) just wasn't (for me) a shining D6 moment. I really appreciate Raef and the different viewpoint he ofter brings to the proceedings...but this segment just didn't work for me. I gotta give it a 5+, no re-roll. You know I love you guys like the gaming group I never had (but, wish I did!)...so, please take the above in the spirit in which it was intended. I know it's impossible to be all things to all people all the time.

Regarding pirate-y games - as I've mentioned before I am REALLY looking forward to Black Scorpion Miniatures' upcoming Cutlass! skirmish game. It's looking really cool. The minis look great, too! It's just not going to have ship rules :-( But, other than that...looking sharp.

http://www.blackscorpionminiatures.com/pages.php?page=cutlass

Also, revealed last week at Toy Fair in NYC there's a Pirates of the Caribbean game coming from Jakks Pacific called Masters of the Sea. They're labeling it a strategy game, but Jakks is a mass market toy company...so, we'll see. A lot of their merchandise for the new movie is hitting stores on March 1, so this game could be in stores soon.

Go Team Pirate!

I enjoyed the round tablebut but there may be some bias involved.

With all this pirate talk, Team Ninja needs to step up to the plate.

I also was a fan of The Three Investigators so it was a great trip down memory lane. Only my wife's stack of Nora Roberts novels deserves the slow death by basement mold.

Osbad wrote:Fun episode.

I'm just surprised that Team Pirate, including their President, haven't gone in for Warhammer Historical's "Legends of the High Seas" if they are as pirate-crazy as we are led to believe?

Our local group are big fans of Legends of the Old West, and were eagerly anticipating Legends of the High Seas. To a man, we all thought the ship combat rules were terrible. Cannons were absolutely useless from range - only specialized ammo such as grape shot was remotely effective. It would take forever for the cannons of a ship to sink another ship. The campaign rules were poor in that only the smallest level ships could be purchased by players. To advance to a larger ship your were expected to capture them from NPCs - and no one ever wants to be the one who controls an NPC ship and give another player a chance to capture it.

To be honest, guys, when I came back from Adepticon a couple years ago with LotOW fever . . . it didn't catch on at all. Can't remember exactly why, but for whatever reason it didn't scratch the itch we were feeling, and Gutshot stepped in and stole the show. Because of this I'm not sure we even looked at LotHS . . .

Thanks for all the suggestions, though! We'll keep our eyes peeled for all the upcoming Piratey Goodness!

~Craig

LawnDart wrote:Cannons were absolutely useless from range - only specialized ammo such as grape shot was remotely effective. It would take forever for the cannons of a ship to sink another ship.

TBH, that's pretty realistic for the period. Wooden ships were pretty robust when it came to standing up to punishment from cannon fire. Crippling them by taking out the rigging or setting them on fire and capture by boarding tended to take place with greater frequency.

Of course greater realism does not necessarily equate to greater fun.

I played GW's Trafalgar rules a couple of times and found them pretty tedious, although "Age of Sail" officianadoes tend to lable them as simplistic when it comes to representing sailing.

Fair enough that the Holy Grail of fun for 28mm ship-on-ship action hasn't been found yet. At least LotHS encouraged several independent companies to release 28mm pirate ranges a couple of years back. It can't be said that decent 28mm pirate miniatures are hard to find these days either side of the pond, and LotHS was at least a little responsible for that.

Master-Terraformer wrote:We'll keep our eyes peeled for all the upcoming Piratey Goodness!

I picked up a copy of Pirate Fluxx this morning, and just played a game of it with my wife and had a blast! Very fun game, and the pirate-y mechanics introduced in this version make it (to us) the best Fluxx yet!

SpookyVeez wrote:

With all this pirate talk, Team Ninja needs to step up to the plate.

thed6 are on a "boating" theme. Dystopian Wars, Merchants and Mauraders.

Ninja's assemble and lets take over there ships!

I can't say I am not "onboard" with the boating theme <pun intended>. Decided to pick up a Britania fleet for Dystopian Wars & Merchants and Mauraders!