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Such was the case with Merchants of Dunhuang, a card game for 2-4 players from Gabriele Bubola and Mandoo Games for which I had posted a video overview in December 2020. With the game now available for purchase through the BGG Store, I thought I'd revisit that video and write a bit about the game.
The hook for Merchants of Dunhuang is that you can try to win the game instantly or you can shoot for having more points than each other player — but those goals are somewhat contradictory, and going all-in for one of them might make it more likely that someone else will win by going the opposite direction.
In more detail, the game uses a "pyramid" deck, with one 1, two 2s, and so on up to ten 10s, with the deck being modified based on the player count. During the game, you'll have cards in your hand and cards on the table in front of you; in general, if you have the most visible cards of a number, then you'll have the majority token for that number. If you ever have four majority tokens (or five in a two-player game) and four different numbers in your hand, then you win instantly.
If the deck runs out before someone pulls off an instant win, then you score 2 points per majority token, 1 point per gem (a secondary currency of sorts), and (possibly) points for the cards in your hand, specifically the face-value of a number if you have at least as many of that number or more in your hand as each other player.
Thus, if you want to score, say, 9 or 10 points for having a majority, then you'll want to collect several of those cards — but doing so means that you're not diversifying your hand, which means you can't win instantly.
You start with only one card in hand, removing two others from the game, which gives you some information to run on when you're considering what it might take to win a majority. On a turn, you move the camel clockwise around the board to the character you want (paying for each space beyond the first), place the card next to that character either in your hand or in your public holdings, then carry out the action for that character (or collect three coins).
I've played Merchants of Dunhuang seven times on a review copy from Mandoo Games, and sometimes money is tight and you can barely move anywhere and sometimes you can pretty much afford whichever card/action combo you want. Sometimes you really want a card but don't care for the action; and sometimes you need the action but don't care for the card; and sometimes the card/action combo is ideal, but you lack the funds to reach that spot — or you have exactly enough, which means your right-hand neighbor will dictate what you can do on future turns since you'll be able to move only a single space.
Frustration compounds turn after turn because you always feel that your sand castle is being eroded by the actions of others, with a majority being lost here and a card you desired there — yet you can also have perfect turns that spin everything in your favor. A lot happens in the 20-30 minute playing time!
The game requires you to pay attention to everyone and react to what they're doing, picking off a majority if they're going for the instant win or using a character's action to forcibly swap cards with an opponent. Your first play will likely seem somewhat random because you'll be focused more on what you're doing than on what's happening at the entire table, but once you get more familiar with the flow of the game and the varied use of the characters — each of which is double-sided, with their order and specific powers greatly changing the feel of each playing — you can try to tilt everything in your favor bit by bit, whichever way you're trying to win.
For more on how the game plays and the specific powers of the characters, check out this overview video:
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