Designer: Carl Van Ostrand (Kapos!, Ophidian 2350)

Artist: Mihajlo “The Mico” Dimitrievski (Architects of the West Kingdom, Raiders of the North Sea, Valeria: Card Kingdoms, Villages of Valeria)

Publisher: Final Frontier Games (Cavern Tavern Rise to Nobility, Robin Hood and the Merry Men)

Genre/Mechanisms: commodity speculation, dice rolling, economic, miniatures, rondel, tile placement, time track, variable player powers, worker placement

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Merchants Cove is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 9x the initial funding goal with 6 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About:  Like Root and Vast: The Crystal Caverns, Merchants Cove incorporates asymmetrical mechanics for each player as they compete to satisfy the needs of a variety of adventurers as they constantly sail into town.

How It Works: A round consists of three phases, Preparation, Production and Market; with the game played over the course of three rounds. Preparation is a combination of clean-up, set-up, and determining player order. During the Production Phase, as players take actions on their asymmetric player boards, they’ll move around the time track of the Clock, sometimes refilling Customers in the undocked boats. Each player board functions like a different mini-game, with different mechanics. Once their token moves forward to the Market Token located at the 9 o’clock space on the time track Clock, each player completes their portion of the Production Phase; once all players have reached the Market Token space, the Market Phase begins. During the Market Phase, players sell Goods produced during the Production Phase to the Customers who’ve arrived at the various Markets via boat. At the end of the third day, players score additional points (in gold) for the non-Rogue symbols on their Townsfolk and Corruption cards multiplied by the number of customers in the matching Faction Hall; they’ll also DEDUCT additional points (in gold) for the number of Corruption Symbols on their Townsfolk and Corruption cards multiplied by the number of Rogues in the Rogues Lair. And as you can probably guess, the player with the most gold remaining wins.

Comparisons: Between The Mico’s art and Final Frontier publishing, you’ve got your pick from Explorers of the North Sea, Raiders of the North Sea, Shipwrights of the North Sea, Architects of the West Kingdom, Paladins of the West Kingdom, and Rise to Nobility (and to a lesser degree, Cavern Tavern), but the asymmetric player abilities draw this one closer to the likes of Root and Vast: The Crystal Caverns.

What Should I Pledge?:
$79 Merchants Cove: includes the Merchants Cove base game, The Secret Stash expansion, and all unlocked stretch goals.
$110 Merchants Cove All In Pledge: the Merchants Cove pledge rewards, plus The Innkeeper expansion & The Oracle expansion.

Add-Ons:
$19 The Innkeeper expansion
$19 The Oracle expansion

KS Exclusives:
None, but The Secret Stash expansion that collects the campaign’s stretch goals will not be included with the base game at retail, and will be sold separately.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $110 for the Merchants Cove All In Pledge plus $15 in shipping for a total of $125.

Merchants Cove completes its Kickstarter on Wednesday, September 11th and tentatively ships in June 2020.