Wouter & Ymke 
In this standalone game set in the world of Tidal Blades, merchants gather for the Banner Festival! Their goal is to make as much profit as possible while selling goods on the docks and to place the right bets on the watercraft race!
2-5 players, ages 8+
Playing time: 30-45 minutes
Designers: J.B. Howell & Michael Mihealsick
Artwork: Lina Cossette
Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
https://luckyduckgames.com/
🔹 The festival takes place over the course of three days, during which players take on the roles of those merchants. Depending on the quadrant of the harbor where they sell their goods, demand will be different and thus different goods will be worth more in the different quadrants.
🔹 Each day, players begin with eight cards in hand and play one on the table each round. The cards played are compared to the quarter’s demand and ranked by color and number.
The player with the highest ranked card moves their watercraft and possibly upgrades their merchant when they pass the starting line.
The owner of the lowest ranked card performs the card’s action, which can be placing banners, collecting fruit or moving the watercraft.
The players in the middle, in order from high to low, place a banner in the active quadrant and possibly earn fruits.
🔹 After each day, merchants count their profits gained from the majority of the banners they placed and the fruits they collected.
When the festival is over, players add up their earnings and the profits of upgraded merchants to determine who’s the best selling merchant of the Banner Festival!
💭 Banner Festival is a game that’s easy to learn and for us it was definitely a lot of fun to play. There’s definitely some luck involved in the outcome of the ‘tricks’, and you’ll have to gauge your opponents well and predict what cards they’ll possibly play to mitigate that luck, but of course not everything will always go according to plan.
It’s also about finding the balance in your game: do you want to be the highest ranking player or do you want to activate the power of your card? It can even be more interesting to just place a banner in the harbor for the majorities at the end of the day.
👉 A very enjoyable and fresh combination of trick taking and area majority that doesn’t overstay its welcome 💯
