Morgarhum: Review

Morgarhum Market: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Hand Management

Player Age: 12+ 

Player Count: 2 Players 

Time to Play: 30 Minutes 

Publisher: Invisible Kitty Games

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

The aim of the game is simple, you and your opponent are rival shopkeepers where both of you want to be the best and have the most but only one can. To be this one, gain the most points from your stall items at the end of the round, not once but twice. After all, you can't only be the best once, you need to be consistently on top to gain the public’s devotion.

Card Anatomy:

There are two types of cards; Goods cards and Town Officials.

Goods Cards: (now referred to as ‘good cards’)

Each good card contains an image of an item to be sold in your market stall, and victory points found on the top left. Additionally, there are two abilities on the card which pertain to specific players. The first player's ability is at the top, where the second players ability is on the bottom.

 

Town officials:

These cards contain an image of an official towns person (corruptible through bribery) and an ability at the bottom of the card. The ability of each town official will become activated upon bribery which will affect both players. On the left side of the card is an image showing how to bribe the town official (via exhausting one good card in play). This is opposed by an image on the right side showing how to un-bribe them (via exhausting two good cards). These town officials can be the difference between winning or losing, so bribe them wisely.

Setup:

- Deal each player two good cards.
- Place the deck between the players
- Lay out all the town officials in the centre of the table.

Key Abilities:

There are several key abilities in Morgarhum, so here is a glossary of what each one achieves:
Hide - this good is played face down
Reveal - flip a hidden card face up
Double - another good from your hand can be played along with this card
Restock - draw a good card from the draw pile.
Kickback (x2) - unexhaust one or two cards in your stall depending on what kickback is shown on the card
Confiscate (low/high) - the highest value on all good cards in both stalls will be discarded from every stall. For example, if the highest revealed point value is eight then every eight will be discarded across both stalls. This will be the same in reverse if the confiscate refers to the lowest card.

How to Play:

One player is designated the first player and the other player is designated as the second player. This changes between rounds with players taking turns to be the first player each new round. This game is very simple with what you do on your turn. Firstly you draw a good, then either play a good, bribe a town official or pass. When you play a card you must do the ability (top ability for the first player or bottom ability for the second player). These abilities are not optional so be selective in your strategy to obtain the best market stall.

If choosing to bribe, you will turn one of your goods 90 degrees (exhausting it) and the town officials ability will now come into effect for all. When the card is exhausted, the card has no point value and cannot be affected by any ability referring to the value until it is unexhausted. Instead of bribing, you can exhaust two of your goods to remove a bribed official from the round, therefore removing their active ability.

On the other hand you can simply choose to pass. Once you have passed, you can not do anything else for the rest of the round and if both players pass in the same round then the first half of the game ends and the score is tallied. Whoever has the higher score will win the round and the first to win two rounds will win the game.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- Portable
- Strategic hand management
- The first and second player abilities help to keep the game feeling fresh

Cons:
- Can be a bit too cut-throat for some players
- Navigating the different player rules in the same card can be confusing at first

'Morgarhum Market' succeeds at creating a quick strategic hand management game, as timing of playing your cards can be vital to victory. This is combined with the limited amount of cards, that leads to strategic hand management in your pursuit to create the best stall. To further elaborate you have to manage your hand of cards very effectively or else you will be wasting abilities on cards, or confiscating your highly sought after goods. With the option to only pass when you are finished leads to a tougher decision on what to do on your turn, given what you have to work with. This is a great game with a lot of hidden depth but still fits in your pocket. This will be part of my collection as a perfect travel game or a quick filler game with strategic depth.

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