Mercenary (board game)
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Mercenary, subtitled "Merchant Princes Alter the Course of World Events", is a board game published by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) in 1975 that is a game of conquest set in medieval Europe during the period 1494–1560. Critics complained that there were large gaps in the rules. As Jon Freeman noted, "the designer has made the standard mistake of assuming the gamers know what was in his mind."
Mercenary is a board game for 2–6 players, where each player represents a powerful merchant who is trying to control the destiny of a European power.[1] Players can use diplomacy to form or break alliances, as well as bribery, terror or military conquest.[2] They can even offer their grown children for politically-expedient marriages.[2] As the game progresses, players can buy upgraded technology, such as arquebusiers in place of crossbowmen.[2] The large 23" x 29" map (slightly smaller in the second edition)[1] uses movement via area rather than a hex grid.[2] The game lasts eleven turns (each representing six years), and the player with the most money at the end of the last turn is the winner. With 220 counters and many rules, the game has been characterized as "complex."[1]