The princess is having a wedding this weekend and everyone is rushing to gather gifts and treasures for the occasion.

But this gathering isn’t as simple as running to the store and buying things. Instead, you’ll be maneuvering boats and jumping from boat to boat to collect the items you’re after.

Plus, others will be out doing the same thing and they’ll make even harder for you to get around and get what you need.

So it is in Dragon Market – a fun family board game from Blue Orange Games.

 

How to play Dragon Market

As anticipated with Blue Orange Games, Dragon Market is a simple game to learn and play.

The goal in the game is to be the first player to complete 2 Objective cards. And players do this by jumping from boat to boat, collecting the item tokens that match those on their card, and getting back to their starting pontoon.

To begin, players take turns placing the boats on the board. Then 2 matching tokens are placed on each empty space of the boats. Players then shuffle the Objective cards and each draw one and place it face up in front of them.

On a player’s turn, they roll the 2 dice and will have that number of movements to make on their turn. (As each die has faces of 3 and 4, the total movements players can make on their turn will range from 6 to 8.)

Every movement point allows a player to:

• Move a boat any number of spaces in one direction
• Turn a boat 90 degrees
• Move their player pawn

When moving boats, they can only go forward and backwards, not sideways. And they stop when they hit another boat, a player’s starting pontoon, or the edge of the board.

When turning a boat, they rotate from where the permanent sailor is on that boat. For some boats the sailor is in the center while on other boats the sailor is on the end. A boat most be able to rotate 90 degrees in order to be moved this way. If another boat or edge blocks a boat from rotating, then it can’t be rotated.

When moving a pawn, every square moved is one movement point. Players may not pass over sailors but may pass over other player pawns, and they can’t end their movement in occupied spaces. While landing on or passing over a square with a token of an item on their objective card, the player may collect that token. Collecting an item doesn’t cost a movement point.

If a player doesn’t use all their movement points on their turn, they take 1 coin from the stock for each unused movement point. On future turns, players may spend 1 or 2 coins to add that many movement points to their turn.

Once a player has the 4 items shown on their objective card, they must return to their pontoon to store them. If it is their first objective completed, the player then draws another objective card and heads out again.

The first player to complete 2 objective cards and return to their pontoon is the winner!

 

Advanced Variation

If players want to bring a bit more strategy into the game, they can play with the Advanced Objective cards.

In doing so, players use the red deck of objective cards. These cards display only 3 items to collect and also have special abilities listed at the bottom of the cards.

During setup, players draw 2 objective cards and choose 1 to keep. They keep this card face down until they complete it. When they do, they turn the card face up and can now use the ability on that card for the rest of the game.

To get their next objective, they likewise draw 2 cards and choose 1 to keep.

When playing the advanced variation, players also play until one player completes 3 objective cards.

 

Can the whole family enjoy Dragon Market?

Dragon Market is a solid family board game.

The rules are very simple and the game play flows nicely and quickly. And it’s especially good for helping children develop their spacial reasoning skills. Because moving those boats where you want them can be a bit tricky at times!

The basic game play of collecting the items shown on your card is very straightforward. Children will be able to grasp this concept with ease. Then they’ll roll the dice and try to figure out how to use their movement points to get their pawn to the right boats and over the right spaces to collect their tokens.

It’s a fun challenge that kids will enjoy.

The next question is–will teens and adults enjoy the game?

That just depends on how much of a challenge said teens and adults like in their games because Dragon Market is on the lighter end. Plus, there’s a fair amount of luck involved in the game–mostly in the form of the objectives cards.

If a player draws an objective card where the items just happen to be close to their starting pontoon, it will be hard to stop them from winning. Yes, players can maneuver any boat they want and can use their movement points to try to put their opponents in tough spots. However, doing so means that they aren’t spending their movements to grab the tokens they need for themselves. So they’ll still be behind.

While players start their turn by rolling dice, because the results will either be 6, 7, or 8, this isn’t as big of a luck-factor as in other dice-rolling games. Plus, players can choose to skip some actions one turn to gain coins which they can use on future turns to get extra movement–which also mitigates some of the luck in typical dice rolling.

One way we’ve thought of to suspend the luck-factor in drawing objective cards is for players to choose their opponent’s objective cards. In this version of ours, players each draw 2 cards and then select one to give to their opponent on their left. And when a player completes their first objective, the player to their right again draws 2 cards and chooses one to be completed next.

But when playing with kids, don’t worry about the lucky card draw at all. Just play the game straight up and have fun.

 

How does Dragon Market score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Dragon Market scores well on our “let’s play again” game meter for families with young kids.

The game play is simple to understand and games usually go by very quickly. So it’s easy to play multiple games in a row if they’re clamoring for more.

Plus, the game components are fantastic to handle and look great on the table. So why not keep it out and keep playing?

The Board Game Family would like to thank Blue Orange Games for a review copy of Dragon Market.