Trade

2019 · 2-4 Players · ~60-120 min · Competitive

Marco Polo II takes everything that worked about The Voyages of Marco Polo and refines it into a tighter, more varied experience. The guild system adds meaningful new decisions to the route-building core, the asymmetric character powers are better balanced, and the map offers more strategic options than its predecessor. It's not a revolution, and players who loved the original may find the changes incremental rather than transformative. But as a standalone design, Marco Polo II is one of the strongest dice placement euros available, delivering consistent strategic depth with enough variability to sustain long-term play.

2020 · 1-4 Players · ~90-120 min · Competitive

Merv builds a quietly brilliant euro around a rondel mechanism that makes every move feel like a branching decision tree. The game's city grid, where building placement determines your future action options, creates an emergent strategic depth that rewards careful spatial planning. Mongol invasion threats add welcome tension to the optimization, forcing defensive compromises that prevent the game from becoming a pure efficiency exercise. Some find the presentation understated and the interaction too indirect, but for players who enjoy discovering layered strategy through repeated plays, Merv is a hidden gem of modern euro design.

2016 · 2-4 Players · ~90 min · Competitive

Yokohama's modular board and branching scoring paths create a heavy euro where every game feels distinct and multiple strategies remain viable throughout. The movement system, requiring you to build chains of assistants before your president can act, adds a spatial puzzle layer that sets it apart from standard worker placement fare. Iconography overload and a steep first-game barrier are real obstacles, but players who push through find a deeply rewarding trade game that has quietly earned its spot among the best heavy euros of the 2010s.

2023 · 1-4 Players · ~60-90 min · Competitive

Merchants of the South Tigris blends deck building with worker placement in a way that feels fresh within the West Kingdom lineage, offering satisfying combo potential alongside a learning curve that demands patience.