Recently I was
fortunate enough to play an early review copy of Dwarven Traders, a
new boardgame from 2D6.EE Games
that is live on Kickstarter now! Let's head on down into the gemstone mines and I'll tell you what I think.
First, I just wanted
to note that while I only played a review copy I still really liked
the artwork on the main board, trading cards, and the player boards,
and I hope what I saw or something similar makes it in to the
finished product.


The strategy of the
game lies in trying to make sure you end up with the most valuable
color of gems at the end of the round. To do this you will need to
pay attention to what color gems the other players have, and what
options they have access to based on what trading cards are
available. Players can only ever have two gems at a time though, and
there are only four trading cards (which limit what you can mine or
sell) in play each round, so there isn't much danger of
analysis-paralysis. There isn't any hidden information when it comes
to what gems people have, but each time a player uses one of the
double-sided trading cards it is flipped over to reveal a new set of
options that future players can take advantage of. This can make
determining the best action difficult, especially if you take your
turn early in the round order. This, and the fact that there may not
be a trading card available on your turn that allows you to sell your
color of gem, can make some of your turns feel limited. Several times I found myself stuck with a valuable gem I couldn't
sell, while all of the mining options I had available would yield a
gem of mediocre value and tank the value of the gem I already owned. Most of the time your choices do feel meaningful though, and you will find that if you can't better your own position you can probably at least make a play that will worsen other people's positions. For this reason you are always interested in what other people are doing on their turns, watching to see if their moves either worsen your situation or perhaps advance the smuggler ahead of you on the scoring track.
The smuggler mechanic is
interesting as well. Each gem can only fluctuate in value from +3 to
-3 gold, and any action you take that would push a gem value above or
below this threshold scores points for the smuggler instead. The idea
is that, since the smuggler can win the game this way, players should
avoid taking actions that score the smuggler points. However, in all
of the games I played, everyone would rather see the smuggler win
than another player, so if a player wasn't winning but saw an
opportunity to hurt the player who was, they would typically take
the action that hurt the lead player even if it caused the smuggler
to take the lead. This can lead to some humorously counter-intuitive
game play, and games where nobody wins, but it's still a lot of fun.
My favorite part of
the game is the end of every round. I actually enjoy being the last
player to go, and often it's fun and advantageous to be in last
place so you can get that final trade. The final value adjustments and this
last trade are always tense moments, with lots of joking and pleading
from other players around the table as they beg the last place player
to swap gems with someone else. I also like that the game lasts just
as long as it should for what it does. We played several games even that lasted fewer than the thirty minutes suggested by the rules and the rounds
go by quick, so if your actions on one of your turns feel a bit
arbitrary it isn't a big deal because your next turn will be back around soon enough. All in all it is a fun, light game. And while Dwarven Traders probably
isn't going to be the main event of your game night, it should make for a
great before and after game that takes very little time to explain, setup and play.
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