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Main Catalogue |  Board Games & Card Games |  Z-Man Games |  Silk Road Silk Road Price: £34.99 This item usually ships in 2 to 3 days. RRP - £39.99 Board Game, 3-6 Players, Ages 12+ by Z-Man Games Around the time of the Han Dynasty, from 200 B.C. to around 8 A.D., an overland trade route from the Mediterranean Sea to China developed called the Silk Road. This 4,000 mile (6,000 KM) route ran from the Mediterranean Sea to the early Chinese capital of Chang’an. Not only were goods traded from various European ports to China and the cities in between, but this route played a major role in the diffusion of Buddhism into China. Silk Road is a strategy game for 3-6 daring adventurers who trade, buy, and sell along this historic trading route from Chang’an in the East to Antioch in the West. Players bid for control of the caravan leader to determine which cities to visit, where players will choose the actions they wish to perform: i.e. buy, sell and trade goods such as jewels, dried fruit, silk, etc. Players will also be able to play in reverse, starting in the West and moving East. Contents: 75 wooden goods cubes, 45 wooden coin disks, 5 wooden action disks, 2 wooden caravan pawns, 90 action tiles, 1 22\' x 9\' gameboard, 6 screens, cloth bag, 4 sets of rules (English, German, French, Dutch). No. of players: 3-6 Ages: 12+ Playing time: 90 minutes +++++++++++++++++++++ Counter Magazine Review +++++++++++++++++++++ designed by Ted Cheatham and Bruno Faidutti reviewed by Stuart Dagger For centuries the overland trade route to China has exercised a powerful hold on the European imagination, partly because it was long and dangerous, partly because of the exotic goods that could be bought at its far end, and partly because of the wonderfully romantic name that someone thought to give it. Little wonder then that games designers should also be drawn to it. This is the third game on the subject to be reviewed in these pages, following Die Seidenstrasse in 1998 and On the Trail of Marco Polo in 2004. The board, which, as you would expect, is long and thin, has the Chinese city of Changan at one end and the Turkish city of Antioch at the other. In between are a further 18 cities with generally westward paths between them. From some cities there will be a single outward route; from others a choice of two. So not all cities will be visited on a single journey. Next to each of the intermediate cities is a space which will hold up to five action chits - one fewer than the number of players, unless there are only three of you, in which case it is one fewer than twice the number of players. The idea behind the number being that at each city visited by the caravan, someone is going to miss out. Most of the action chits are either ``buy goods\'\', ``sell goods\'\' or ``barter goods\'\', with all the buying coming in the first half and all the selling in the second. So the general pattern is that you first build up a stock of goods and then try to sell them. A game turn begins with a pile of ``turn tokens\'\' sitting in front of one of the players - as many tokens as there are action chits in each city. There is then a ``once round\'\' auction beginning with the player to this player\'s left. The purpose of this is to determine the start player for the turn. When the bidding gets round to the player with the tokens they can either (1) accept the highest bid, in which case the bidder pays them and receives the stack of tokens, or (2) decide to retain the stack of tokens, in which case they pay the highest bidder the amount bid. The player who now has the stack of tokens becomes the ``caravan leader\'\' and begins by deciding to which city the caravan will move. As already noted, sometimes there will be a choice of two; sometimes the move will be forced. They then have first choice of the action tokens at the new location. Having taken their action, they then keep one of the turn tokens and hand the remainder to a player of their choice who has not already taken an action this turn. That player then selects one of the remaining available actions, performs it, keeps one of the turn tokens and hand on the remainder to a third player. This continues until there are no tokens left to be handed on. At this point, all the players bar one will have taken an action if there are 4 or more players. If there are 3, two will have taken two actions and the other just one. The player who has missed out is then given the stack of turn tokens in readiness for the next round. A ``buy\'\' action token will specify a single type of good. You can buy one at a cost of 1, two at a cost of 1+2=3, three at a cost of 1+2+3=6, and each token after that costs 4. A ``sell\'\' action is similar but in reverse: the first one you sell gives you 4, the second a further 3, and so on. A ``barter\'\' token can be one of two types. Type A specifies a type of good and allows you to trade up to two of this type for twice that number of goods of specified but different types. Type B gives you the option of trading a certain number of your choice for the same number again of your choice. The ``non-trading\'\' action chits are ``character\'\' ones (thief, grand vizier, etc) who each give you one-off opportunities to improve your position. At the end, each goods token you still have left is worth 1 point and there is a 2 point bonus for the player with the most remaining of each type of goods. These points are then added to your cash in hand. Highest score wins. It is necessary to use judgement in deciding how much to bid for the position of Start Player, since, as in Reiner Knizia\'s game, The Merchants of Amsterdam, it is very easy to pay more than the position is worth. There is definite skill here, but beyond this the game is pretty simple and you just hope that you don\'t get victimised too much and that the close decisions made by other people go your way. The whole thing is a pleasant enough way of passing an hour, but I can\'t see it featuring on many people\'s lists of ``top 5 for the year\'\'. In view of the box description - ``a game of bartering and adventure along the historic Silk Road\'\' - I\'d hoped for a little more than was delivered. The great game on this particular theme remains to be published. The components are decent enough quality but come in a ludicrously oversized box. 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