Samarkand: Routes to Riches

Marry into merchant families on the Silk Road and extend their trade routes before anyone else does.

Designer: John Bohrer
Published by: Queen Games
Editions by: Piatnik

Samarkand: Routes to Riches puts you in the shoes of a merchant's heir on the Silk Road, and your main business is marrying well. Each turn you either wed into a family, paying its price (only two players can marry into each family), or expand the trade route of a family you already belong to, paying with that family's money. Expanding gets you trade relationship markers for meeting new families and goods tokens for reaching goods spaces first. Whoever collects the most victory points from relationships and goods wins. It is a 2010 game of cards, shares in families and network building, for two to five, and over in about forty-five minutes.

Marry into merchant families, two per familyExtend routes with the family's moneyRelationships and goods score points

Who it's for

You like economic games with a race feel, where small choices cut off what the others can reach.

Not for you if…

You want head-on conflict or a strong theme. The trading world here stays mostly a calculation.

Vibe's take

Brisk and calculating. You chase connections and goods spaces, and find that a marriage that was free yesterday is taken today.