Ancient Trader Review (PC, Gamersgate)

I have to admit, I had not heard a single thing about Ancient Trader. But it started showing up in our Gamersgate reports and I thought I would take a look at it. I am glad I did.

Ancient Trader, from 4Kids Games, combines turn-based strategy with card battles. Your goal is to find the artrfacts for each level and then defeat the Ancient Guardian before your opponents do. This will take some clever trading, quick thinking and luck.

The main battle mechanism in the game is a 3-card hand. Each hand contains one each of red, blue and green cards. They are assembled in a rock, paper, scissors type configuration (Blue +2 vs red, red +2 vs. green, green +2 vs. blue) and each card has a power level. A card with a power equal to or greater than its lesser will win. A card with two or more levels over its greater will win. Example a Blue 6 will beat a red six but lose to a green six (which is +2 =8). A blue eight will be a red eight and up to a green five (a green 6+2=8 and would have an advantage possibly). Cards of the same color and number are decided on luck, no, actually, I don’t know how they are decided. I’m guessing it’s whomever is attacking.

Ancient Trader has a fantastic art style. The entire game is basically played on an old, weathered sea chart. That being said it’s not eye-popping visuals but it is quite cool. All of the player markers, items and monsters are old 2-D representations that one might expect to see on a 16th century privateer chart. Even the cards have a battered weathered look to them and fit right in with the theme and atmosphere of the game.

The really great thing about the game is the simplicity. It’s easy to pick up and play and you’ll get the hang of it fairly quickly. Plus with the interesting art style it’s easy to remain focused on the game for long periods of time as you’re drawn deeply into it. One can almost smell the salty sea breeze as you pilot your ship back and forth shuttling cargo and making money.

Oh yes, this is a very important strategy point. You must upgrade your ship and your cards. To do that you need to have money. There are several ways to make money, attack other ships, attack monsters, take on quests and conduct trade. My favorite tactic is to find a two-way profitable trade route with a short (3-4 square) distance then do runs back and forth making profit on both ends and upgrading as I go. The cargo hold can be expanded to 10 spaces as can your sails allowing you to travel 10 squares per turn. Each port also allows you to upgrade something else, cannons, swords or ship in general. These are the power levels of your cards and not all ports allow you to upgrade all of them. Also in the ports you’ll find quests which can be as simple as ferrying someone or something to another port, taking out a monster at a specific location, etc. They’re all fairly easy and some of them pay rather well.