Interesting! As you were explaining the attributes deck, I was thinking «if I get to play this someday I will play without that deck». I didn't know there was a variant for that until you said it. Too much randomness for me, even without the deck, as you pointed out. The art is beautiful though, I really like the style for the type of game it is! :)
A quick possible solution to the swingy character modification cards (e.g Lucky) is: as soon as the hero comes into play he is assigned a modification card which sticks with him until he dies. That way the information is out there beforehand and can make the rich heroes sometimes unattractive due to the cards penalty. Regarding the market, you are right it should refill after the round and possibly should have player count +1 cards i guess.
Morsvelox i like that idea, together with Rhados suggestion to not refill upgrade/ employee cards, it would take the randomness out of the game and make for a much more strategic experience. I like the game otherwise as a filler, especially esthetically and thematically - the mix of fantasy with comedy AND anime style art is just enchanting.
FYI, for the display window you can only attract heroes whose symbols match your display symbols. So even if you had tied/had more hearts over Jen, you still would have picked last since the fire symbol matched neither of the heroes. Jen would pick first, then you would have the remaining hero.
Two goofs for Paulo and a strategy consideration for anyone interested: I can't give a good time stamp because this mistake is repeated a bunch... maybe 5:50 ? You can''t use the ice scroll to entice a character who doesn't have magical aptitude, if there is no hero who can use the item on display then you must pick after everyone who can pair a hero with their displayed item. As it happens it didn't matter in this example as Jen had 3 hearts to your 2, but if you have a 4 heart card that didn't match either hero you'd still pick after Jen because hers did match the paladin. As for the wine skin it makes the character more likely to die, but 1 prestige is only worth as much as 10 gold anyways, so selling an item for 10 is still better as you can't get hosed by an adventure card, and since she can see the monster won't be killed even if they did die it would just mean a new hero is drawn with probably (and as seen later, much) more than the 10 gold the Paladin would come back with to spend. Under the circumstances Jen would probably want the Paladin to die (thanks to this video I have discovered a goof I always made though, as I thought players sold items in appeal value order rather than simultaneously, meaning I'd basically cheated high appeal players out of valuable information like this... although in the official rules it would surely lead to a lot of waiting around as people want to see what other players are doing before selling their items). 19:53 The City guard should be shuffled back into the deck at this time, and the alchemist (and one more) should not be drawn until the next upgrade phase... although we don't particularly like the way the job market works either so I get the confusion... although, it is a draft, and if you did badly I'm not sure why you should be rewarded for it... I'll probably figure out a house rule for it at some point. Personally we like the adventure cards as it adds a push your luck element to the selling phase, selling just enough for the most money might be great, but it could be better to sell slightly better for 5 or even 10 less gold in the right circumstances (if you are fairly certain you'll have the most appeal you can even give up more if you let the hero survive but not kill to leave your opponent(s) with poor heroes while you get the nice rich new blood). It is definitely a light game though.
We use your variant for the employees (i.e. don't replace the ones that are hired), and it's a small improvement. We still use the adventure deck, but we removed the ones that were either a huge boon or a huge mushroom stamp on the forehead. I would have liked your take on the Black Market expansion!
I love the theme and idea of this game, I've had it on pre-order for a while now. But I think it is definitely going to be played a few times to enjoy the silliness and then, next year, once Merchant's Cove ships to backers I will probably put this on ebay as I don't really need two games about running a shop in a fantasy setting, and MC definitely looks more "Gamery" and impressive where this is light and a bit of harmless fun if not taken too seriously. Good rundown as always
i would say that's a fair assessment. however, BQ does have a lot of expansion content available, and i think it does more than just add "more cards' so that might push it into weightier realms :)
@@rahdo The mini-expansions mostly just add more cards to be fair (though some of them are pretty cool), but the box expansion adds a black market which basically lets you roll the dice (not literally, you draw cards blind off the black market deck, some of which are incredibly powerful, others of which are probably going to get the hero killed if you sell them it) if you get something useless from the draft... or most importantly if you hate draft something useless to you. Bargain Quest is a super mean drafting game, and you have to go in with that mind-set, be it in hate drafting or in purposefully trying to kill adventurers to limit the amount of money people can earn if you think you're locked for having the most appealing shop. If you're a care bear it's probably not for you.
@SheezyBites IMO the expansions are almost essential as the heroes offered really do change up how you go for the draft, & by extension how much you can speculate & screw your opponents' draft (in that sense I agree, it's a mean drafting game). That said, I have BQ & am interested in Merchant's Cove, & I just can't see much similarities between them outside the broad theme of "selling goods in fantasy setting". MC feels more like a (outside the asymmetry ) resource management & 'market' manipulation game, whereas BQ is a drafting game that IMO feels more "direct" in your actions.
Thanks for the rundown! I have BQ with all the expansions & promos, & as you mentioned it is definitely a light gateway-plus game. That said, for the 2p gameplay IMO the advance variant is necessary since having to draft for 2 heroes really change up your drafting plans. There's also another variant from the expansion rules that, as you suggested, gives out X employee cards that don't get refill-ed, & I agree it makes the game better :) . Though honestly I feel that BQ base game was meh at best, as IMO the best part of the game is having to work with the variety of heroes - & sadly the base game only has 12 diff ones. For reference my copy has over 50+ unique heroes. The expansion packs also add in more "fun" equipment & employee cards that don't just count for stats. So yeah IMO it's one of those games where the expansion is essential to make the game shine. That said I do agree with you on the 'dullness' of the 2p drafting (& Yahtzee style solo draft), & I was thinking of implementing the drafting rules from Paper Tales to help spice the game up :)
I haven't tried the expansions yet, I'm trying to keep it vanilla until my gateway game group plays first, But definitely agree with the advanced variant! The basic game was a bit ho hum average, but the advanced variant made it better having to plan for 2 heroes as well as your shop window display. I look forward to digging in the expansions, glad to see there's good stuff in there.
Negatives suck when you're trying to win every fight, but positive effects suck if you're trying to kill off heroes to limit the money pool for your opponent(s). It obviously sucks when you call wrong every round, but try mixing up your strategy and then even if you do keep calling wrong it's at least funnier when you're absolutely bummed that the hero you sent out to die happens to be awesome.
Interesting! As you were explaining the attributes deck, I was thinking «if I get to play this someday I will play without that deck». I didn't know there was a variant for that until you said it. Too much randomness for me, even without the deck, as you pointed out. The art is beautiful though, I really like the style for the type of game it is! :)
A quick possible solution to the swingy character modification cards (e.g Lucky) is: as soon as the hero comes into play he is assigned a modification card which sticks with him until he dies. That way the information is out there beforehand and can make the rich heroes sometimes unattractive due to the cards penalty. Regarding the market, you are right it should refill after the round and possibly should have player count +1 cards i guess.
Morsvelox i like that idea, together with Rhados suggestion to not refill upgrade/ employee cards, it would take the randomness out of the game and make for a much more strategic experience. I like the game otherwise as a filler, especially esthetically and thematically - the mix of fantasy with comedy AND anime style art is just enchanting.
0:56 The shakiness around the Restless Ghost card is very fitting!
hehe, i should have cranked up the occlusion so that it would appear translucent! didn't even think of that :)
FYI, for the display window you can only attract heroes whose symbols match your display symbols. So even if you had tied/had more hearts over Jen, you still would have picked last since the fire symbol matched neither of the heroes. Jen would pick first, then you would have the remaining hero.
note added
nice
Two goofs for Paulo and a strategy consideration for anyone interested:
I can't give a good time stamp because this mistake is repeated a bunch... maybe 5:50 ? You can''t use the ice scroll to entice a character who doesn't have magical aptitude, if there is no hero who can use the item on display then you must pick after everyone who can pair a hero with their displayed item. As it happens it didn't matter in this example as Jen had 3 hearts to your 2, but if you have a 4 heart card that didn't match either hero you'd still pick after Jen because hers did match the paladin.
As for the wine skin it makes the character more likely to die, but 1 prestige is only worth as much as 10 gold anyways, so selling an item for 10 is still better as you can't get hosed by an adventure card, and since she can see the monster won't be killed even if they did die it would just mean a new hero is drawn with probably (and as seen later, much) more than the 10 gold the Paladin would come back with to spend. Under the circumstances Jen would probably want the Paladin to die (thanks to this video I have discovered a goof I always made though, as I thought players sold items in appeal value order rather than simultaneously, meaning I'd basically cheated high appeal players out of valuable information like this... although in the official rules it would surely lead to a lot of waiting around as people want to see what other players are doing before selling their items).
19:53 The City guard should be shuffled back into the deck at this time, and the alchemist (and one more) should not be drawn until the next upgrade phase... although we don't particularly like the way the job market works either so I get the confusion... although, it is a draft, and if you did badly I'm not sure why you should be rewarded for it... I'll probably figure out a house rule for it at some point.
Personally we like the adventure cards as it adds a push your luck element to the selling phase, selling just enough for the most money might be great, but it could be better to sell slightly better for 5 or even 10 less gold in the right circumstances (if you are fairly certain you'll have the most appeal you can even give up more if you let the hero survive but not kill to leave your opponent(s) with poor heroes while you get the nice rich new blood). It is definitely a light game though.
We use your variant for the employees (i.e. don't replace the ones that are hired), and it's a small improvement. We still use the adventure deck, but we removed the ones that were either a huge boon or a huge mushroom stamp on the forehead. I would have liked your take on the Black Market expansion!
I love the theme and idea of this game, I've had it on pre-order for a while now. But I think it is definitely going to be played a few times to enjoy the silliness and then, next year, once Merchant's Cove ships to backers I will probably put this on ebay as I don't really need two games about running a shop in a fantasy setting, and MC definitely looks more "Gamery" and impressive where this is light and a bit of harmless fun if not taken too seriously. Good rundown as always
i would say that's a fair assessment. however, BQ does have a lot of expansion content available, and i think it does more than just add "more cards' so that might push it into weightier realms :)
@@rahdo The mini-expansions mostly just add more cards to be fair (though some of them are pretty cool), but the box expansion adds a black market which basically lets you roll the dice (not literally, you draw cards blind off the black market deck, some of which are incredibly powerful, others of which are probably going to get the hero killed if you sell them it) if you get something useless from the draft... or most importantly if you hate draft something useless to you. Bargain Quest is a super mean drafting game, and you have to go in with that mind-set, be it in hate drafting or in purposefully trying to kill adventurers to limit the amount of money people can earn if you think you're locked for having the most appealing shop. If you're a care bear it's probably not for you.
@SheezyBites IMO the expansions are almost essential as the heroes offered really do change up how you go for the draft, & by extension how much you can speculate & screw your opponents' draft (in that sense I agree, it's a mean drafting game).
That said, I have BQ & am interested in Merchant's Cove, & I just can't see much similarities between them outside the broad theme of "selling goods in fantasy setting". MC feels more like a (outside the asymmetry ) resource management & 'market' manipulation game, whereas BQ is a drafting game that IMO feels more "direct" in your actions.
Glad I watched this, thanks
Thanks for the rundown!
I have BQ with all the expansions & promos, & as you mentioned it is definitely a light gateway-plus game. That said, for the 2p gameplay IMO the advance variant is necessary since having to draft for 2 heroes really change up your drafting plans. There's also another variant from the expansion rules that, as you suggested, gives out X employee cards that don't get refill-ed, & I agree it makes the game better :)
.
Though honestly I feel that BQ base game was meh at best, as IMO the best part of the game is having to work with the variety of heroes - & sadly the base game only has 12 diff ones. For reference my copy has over 50+ unique heroes. The expansion packs also add in more "fun" equipment & employee cards that don't just count for stats. So yeah IMO it's one of those games where the expansion is essential to make the game shine. That said I do agree with you on the 'dullness' of the 2p drafting (& Yahtzee style solo draft), & I was thinking of implementing the drafting rules from Paper Tales to help spice the game up :)
paper tales! good call! :)
I haven't tried the expansions yet, I'm trying to keep it vanilla until my gateway game group plays first, But definitely agree with the advanced variant! The basic game was a bit ho hum average, but the advanced variant made it better having to plan for 2 heroes as well as your shop window display. I look forward to digging in the expansions, glad to see there's good stuff in there.
My only game of this I got completely hosed by the luck cards (all negative) and it made the whole game such a slog.
Negatives suck when you're trying to win every fight, but positive effects suck if you're trying to kill off heroes to limit the money pool for your opponent(s). It obviously sucks when you call wrong every round, but try mixing up your strategy and then even if you do keep calling wrong it's at least funnier when you're absolutely bummed that the hero you sent out to die happens to be awesome.
I received the game a few weeks ago, but I haven"t plyed it yet xd
is there more those phase I, II and III monsters? Or only those three?
There are multiple cards for each level and each are chosen at random, so each game will be different.