Fujian Trader

We are addicted. Not only is it fun to play, its also a beautiful game with nice quality and clearly a well-thought out vision. For lack of a better comparison, its like Risk but with more options and things going on, and more ways ultimately to play one's "hand" at any particular point. The setup and rules are a little complicated at first and there are some holes in them where you have to interpret, so I imagine if this game ever got popular people will all have their own slightly different versions of playing. Also, while this is unrelated to the game itself, because the regions and cultures that form the basis of the game are unfamiliar historically to a family like us, and also considering the obvious rich history behind the whole game, it would be nice if it came with a book explaining the history, or maybe even just a website link that allows one to delve into the history and the thinking behind design elements of the game, and gave an introduction to the places and the times. (A website/community might also be nice for addressing things like some of the holes or open interpretation issues in the rules.)Overall A+, highly recommended if you like games like Risk and Monopoly.

I supported the Kickstarter and paid $48 for my version, which has the wooden pieces for ports and ships, but cardboard pieces for good and silver. However, the coloring for the ships and ports are nearly unplayable as is. The black and blue ports are nearly identical, and the "white" ports were not painted white at all. Even some of the green ports are dark blue. This makes it very difficulty to get a sense of any player's map control at a quick glance. One must carefully study port cards and match them up with the map.Another problem is the color of the die compared to the region. The colors do not match, but after a few rolls one gets used to it. In games like Ticket To Ride, there are symbols and colors to help the color-blind. This game either used cheap paints/colors which changed over time, or there was little quality control over the colors.As for gameplay itself. It is a combination of Risk and Catan (without actual trading between players, only selling goods to the bank). The cards have some ambiguous wording. For instance, the Typhoon event card, which would come into play the majority of games, states "After rolling for goods on a turn, each player rolls a 1-6 die, losing that many goods." This can be read in two drastically different ways: 1) after one player rolls for goods on a turn, each and every player rolls a die to lose that many goods, or 2) after one player rolls for goods on a turn, only that player rolls a die to lose goods. If you disagree, you have to explain carefully why it COULD NOT be read the other way.I really wanted to love this game, but there are too many flaws and many better games out there to recommend.