ComponentsThe artwork is superb and very colourful, all the carboard pieces are good quality as is all the player pieces. The overall look of the components suits the theme well.
The only downside being the placeholders on the mainboard for the Stall cards the artwork, whilst nicely done, is too bold and it can be hard during the game to spot the empty slots at quick glance.
GameplayThe game has a suggested starting setup for new players and this is certainly worth it for your first game but there is a variant setup rule as well which is worth using for subsequent games
This one of those games where your choices of action are deceptively simple, as in you can take 1 action out of a possible 3 each turn.
Build stall- Play a stall card and
- a) place a new stall or
- b) add an expansion or
- c) move a stall
Lure a customer to a stallDraw 2 cardsAll but one of the customers is on the gameboard at any time, as soon as a customer has been to a stall and monies paid that customer is returned to its coloured money pile and the other customer on its money pile is returned to the board at the same market stall.
The end game is triggered if, after expanding a stand, the last expansion of a particular color has been used or if only 1 expansion each is left over of any 2 different colors. The only action players may now perform is Build stall. A player who does not want to build stall or cannot do so quits the game. The other players continue until no more player wants to build stall or cannot do so.
The choices are simple but how you use these actions, when to make certain choices all make the execution more complicated and therefore more enjoyable. There is room for strategy here and careful placement of your market stalls is also vital.
ConclusionsI really enjoy this game, each time I play it feels different and just as much fun as the first. The game plays reasonably quickly and close to its projected 45mins. There is plenty of player interaction here as you try and manipulate the right coloured shoppers to your stall or away from your opponents. You are also trying to grab the scoring medals away from other players too, for the immediate score and the potential to score them again at the nd of the game if you still have them. There is some luck here, with how the stall cards appear but with the option to throw away 3 to then place anywhere you like mitigates this a little, leaving players with real chance to form a strategy.
This will suit as an introductory game whilst still appealing to more hardened gamers
