Medieval Merchant & Franchise — Are They Gems?

Description provided by Board Gems on YouTube:

First, we have perhaps the beigest game ever made! 1998's Medieval Merchant, designed by Christwart Conrad and published by Goldsieber. 20 years later, Conrad revised the game into Franchise, published by Queen. In both games, players gradually expand across a criss-crossing network of roads, to build branches for their business in new markets. Different-sized cities and different-cost roads means watching your money and planning your spending is important. But moreover, big cities can mean big income, but also potentially big points. What do you go for? If players compete to "win" a city for points, it means decreasing profits for everyone in that market. It's a bit of a balancing act, as many great games can be. While they're funadmentally the same game, Franchise has a number of changes such that I don't feel comfortable teaching how to play one and not the other. Instead I just talk about the games generally in this video, their differences and my preferences. 00:00 Intro ▶️ 01:08 Medieval Merchant 🪙 18:42 Franchise (and thoughts on differences) 🍔 Board Gems highlights older board and card games that are still great games today, and deserve to not be forgotten! Join & Support: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX9Ab6egkU1ru3sgP8TUI2A/join Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/boardgems.com BGG Blog: https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/10011 Brought to you by Pizzeria Ludica! https://www.ludica.ca/ BGG Listings: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/296/medieval-merchant https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/245645/franchise #boardgames #tabletop #vancouver #ludica