Watch “Merchants Cove - The Alchemist,” a how-to-play guide for Merchants Cove from Trueflight Silverwing on BoardGameVideo.
Description provided by Trueflight Silverwing on YouTube:
Alchemical work can be very lucrative if you know your way around a cauldron, and deadly if you don’t. Phoenestra Orwyn, owner of the Crystal Vessel in Merchants Cove, continues a long tradition of royal elven alchemists using high-quality essences and volatile black ichor. To craft these essences she uses only select ingredients from her personal alchemical garden, which she tends with the help of faeries.
She brews coveted potions with the finest—but sometimes unstable—ingredients. Skillfully combines the extracts and essences from her decanter to drop into her cauldrons – adding catalysts to enhance production, while removing volatile ichor to avoid disaster!
Ichor is an ingredient few alchemists will work with, used carelessly it could result in an explosion. However, when used carefully it’s got properties that allow it to mimic and neutralize nearly anything.
The final thing that makes a proper alchemist is knowing how to create a solid-state catalyst. Catalysts are solids with properties nearly identical to Ichor—however, they are completely stable and can be re-used for months!
Mainly reviews. Merchants Cove is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 37 reviews, 9 how-to-play guides, 10 recorded sessions, 8 unboxings, and 2 other videos.
1 - 4 players
60 - 90 min
Medium weight: Teach it in one sitting
About Merchants Cove, from BoardGameGeek:
Welcome ashore! Merchants Cove is a highly asymmetrical eurogame where each player assumes the role of a different fantasy merchant with a unique shop. The merchants contend to sell their goods to the arriving adventurers at the cove's piers-the most famous markets in the Five Realms. Each player uses their own set of role-specific components and gameplay mechanisms to produce their goods, increase their shop's efficiency, and-most importantly-get rich!
Though the merchants work independently in their specialized shops, they compete against each other to attract customers, influence the demands for goods, and secure sponsorships from the four faction halls. To get an edge, merchants can employ local townsfolk to work in their shops as staff. Or if they dare to cut corners, they can gain leverage from the corrupt lair of rogues-but at what cost? After three days of selling at the markets, the wealthiest merchant shall be declared the winner!
-description from the publisher
