Merchant of Dunhuang

• Designer: Gabriele Bubola
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: ~30 minutes
• Times played: 3, with review copy provided by Mandoo Games

In Merchants of Dunhuang, players take on the role of competing brothers who end up trying to find the true value of a pound of flesh, with or without the blood inside it.  No, wait, that’s the wrong story.  As this game’s story goes: “In Merchant of Dunhuang, we are powerful merchants in Dunhuang who want to have the strongest power. To do that, we should control the supply of valuable goods, which means we need to use various people in the market to collect information and to use their skills. Be the lord of Dunhuang market with the help of little birds!”  If you search for this game on BGG, it is currently listed as “Merchant of Dunhuang”, but the rules translation that I have from the publisher has “Merchants of Dunhuang” in the art…

I had never heard of the game before talking to the nice folks at Mandoo, and then when I did some research, I realized that the designer of this game is also the designer of Hats and Skyliners.  Due to this great track record, my interest in the game immediately increased.  Like many games from Asia, it comes in a small package – but don’t let the size of the box mislead you to the “size” of the game on the inside.

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Mariposas

Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave

Publisher: AEG

Players: 2-5

Age: 14+

Time: ~60 minutes

Times played: 3, with review copy provided by AEG

Elizabeth Hargrave is one of the current hot designers in our hobby – it seems like almost every year, one or two names hit it big with a debut game and a strong followup (Recent Exhibit A: Wolfgang Warsch).  Most of our readers will be quite familiar with Wingspan, the 2019 Kennerspiel des Jahres winner, a game that has been lauded by gamers and reviewers since its release. 

Ms. Hargrave returns this year with another major release, again with a Nature theme – but instead of birds, the focus is now on the Monarch Butterfly.  The story of the Monarch Butterfly migration is truly fascinating, and they are the only insect to have a true 2-way migration like birds, moving between Mexico and the both coasts of the US each year.  The most amazing part of the story is that the average monarch butterfly only lives two to six weeks – so there’s no way that any single butterfly makes the round trip – and modern science really doesn’t have a proven theory on how the species knows where to go!   Well, the exception is that the overwintering butterfly can live for up to 8 months… but this butterfly stays in just one place.  If you’re more interested in this, there are numerous webpages that you can surely find via your favorite search engine.

Ripple Rush

• Designer: Ken Gruhl
• Publisher: Stronghold Games
• Players: 1-5
• Age: 14+
• Time: 10-15 minutes
• Times played, 6 with review copy provided by Stronghold Games (most solo)

Ripple Rush was a game I hadn’t heard of before I talked to my Stronghold press rep, and then when I saw the box, my mind thought – hey wait a minute, this looks really familiar, maybe it’s a reprint of a German title…  When the game arrived, it turns out that it isn’t a reprint at all (in fact, Stronghold is the only publisher listed for it)  – but the familiarity of the cover art made me want to play it first from my box of Stronghold/Indie goodies…  The game is a pen and paper affair that can be played solo – thus perfect for a rainy night in the Coronavirus era.  Sure, I’m not completely homebound any more, but still, more often than not, I’ve got nights at home to fill with mostly solitaire amusements.

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