This game has been sitting on my table, lonely and unappreciated for a while now. Thankfully, it was finally nominated to be played. Marty explained the rules to us. And we started playing.
This is a set collection game of two basic categories: towns-people (5 types of 12 each) and sciences (5 types of 12 each). You start out with 4 towns-people and propose a trade. The other people will propose the other half of the trade. You either accept or not. And then you draw a towns-person. Play then moves to the next person. When you collect 5 of the same towns-people, you lay them down with a 3 point settlement victory card on top of them. They will allow you to draw an extra science card. If you lay down 5 of the same science cards down, you take the top most victory card of the cities (starting from 9, 8, 8, 7, 7, down to one 4).
The meat of this game is in the trades. You can either propose a trade of a request or propose a trade of an offer. The other people will then propose the opposite kind (offers if you proposed a request). You name the specific type of card or the general type of card and an ammount. An example would be three Vikings, one Alchemy, or two people. You can also combine the request/offer with an AND or an OR. For example, one Goth or one Viking. Both sides must be able to fufil the terms and must trade the cards if someone is selected.
The dilemma, of course, is that you want to put the request and the offer together. But you must decide if an offer is more likely to get you what you want or a request will. I started out behind the curve with only one settlment out. But I was able to get my second settlement out with a jucy trade for the other person. In the end, I was hoping that Marty would not be able to complete a set. But Doug helped him out for the set he needed to complete. And because of that, Marty finished in first and Doug in second.
Another playing of this game for me. Which makes me glad. I did travel to Tokyo and buy this game there. It is nice that it is finally being used.