Merchant of Venus

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Not to be confused with The Merchants of Venus.

Merchant of Venus
Publisher	Avalon Hill
Players	1–6
Age range	12 and up
Setup time	15 minutes
Playing time	2–6 hours
Random chance	Medium
Skills required	Dice rolling, Counting, Social skills

Merchant of Venus is a board game, published in 1988 by Avalon Hill, set in an unexplored part of the galaxy during a reawakening of galactic civilisation. Players move around the board as traders discovering long forgotten pockets of civilisation and buying and selling goods. The game can be played by two to six players. In tournaments it is usually played by four players, a good number. A solitaire version, which relies heavily on combat with a militaristic race, plays almost as a different game.

The name of the game is a pun on the Shakespeare play Merchant of Venice. The planet Venus does not actually appear in the game.

[edit] Aim

The aim of the game is to acquire a set amount of wealth ($1000, $2000, $3000 or $4000). The first player to hold the required amount in cash and deeds is declared the winner.

[edit] Strategy

The length of the game impacts on the strategy. In short games well developed trade routes will not develop whereas in longer games extensive trade routes will develop.

The game has at least two predictable phases. In the early part of the game, players are discovering the identity of the races in the dozen solar systems available for trade, and often find valuable artifacts from an earlier period of civilization. Players get bonuses, which they can use to buy goods, for discovering a race. Once the board has been largely revealed, the game focuses on moving goods from races that build to other races that demand the goods. Often the winner will be a player who is effective in investing his mid-game purchase in factories and orbital ports that pay a commission when other players use the ports. Judging whether a player is coming up on a win often consists of looking at the amount of deeds the player owns.

Later in the game, calculating the sale, purchase and commission on several transactions can become a relatively complicated event, especially when players are expecting a fast turnaround.

The game is popular twenty years after publication in part because of its whimsical theme, but also because it allows a number of potential win strategies and calls on the players to make many interesting decisions.