I bought this game cause edge recommended it. Although it's not bad it's not good neither. The game mechanic is a mix between colonization and a generic turn-based strategy game based in a simplistic scissor-rock-paper. Boring when you have played a few hours.

This game had such potential. With no Save feature playing becomes a tedious adventure. The AI is fairly basic and the steps to playing the game vary very little.

Now the publisher comes out with an update and slaps a new name on it "Fortune Winds: Ancient Trader" and charges as if it is a completely new game. The new version simply has what the game should have had from the start; a Save feature, and better AI.

I tend to call this a rip off and not caring about your customer base. No way will I support this company and repurchase the same game again.

It all depends on your level of expectancy, I guess ; if it is a pleasant nice looking half-an-hour beer and bretzel family friendly light strategy experience that you are looking for, just go ahead, Ancient Trader might just be what you need. In any other cases, you might very well be disapointed. The single player in particular just lacks depth, fur sure, even if this game definitively never pretended to be a deep strategy game anyway ... However, and for not-so-strange reasons probably related to the very evocative graphics and simple game design, I recently found out a hotseat multiplayer session could very well be used as a first light and pleasant entry in the strategy genre for young children.

So I would perfectly understand lots of gamers would not find any interest in Ancient Trader, but it certainly does not suffer from any lack in character or charm.

Ancient Trader is indeed a simple game. Both in the positive sense : easy to master, fine for a quick play during lunchtime or after a long day at work. It won't tax your brain too much but sometimes that's just what one needs. Yet, I can't escape thinking that there could easily be more challenge, for instance if prices were fluctuating, if there were "rare" commodities, more opportunities to upgrade or the possibility to have a bonus weapon or defense. I got it during the massive winter sale, so the price was right for me. But at 9.99 it's too expensive really. 3.49 to 4.99 would be the correct pricing for me.

Zero stars.

Onsom's nailed this one - "great game, for a C-64. :(" Take note of the positive reviews as well - eg. FinnN "a simple game ... not too much of a mental challenge" etc. Simple and lacking challenge is right... but why you might prefer this game to watching a screen saver is beyond me.

This may well be the worst game that I have ever had the misfortune to waste money on.

It consists of only two significant components: trading and 'card' combat.

Trading consists of purchasing a small number of one of three commodities and selling it at an adjacent town for more money. There is no supply and demand - prices are fixed and stay that way throughout the game. The best strategy here is to find two nearby towns with a reasonable price differential and move back and forward between them until you have enough money to buy all your upgrades.

The combat is exceedingly basic, and more or less random. Yes, there is a 'rock, paper, scissors' mechanic, but you never know if your opponent is going to lead with rock, paper or scissors, so you may as well just be flipping a coin. The final boss battle uses the same mechanic and, assuming you've upgraded everything as you should, you'll find it just as random as every other meaningless battle completed prior to this point.

There is no player interaction to speak of. Yes, you can attack and be attacked, but why bother? The benefits of trading vastly exceed any loss or gain to be had from combat.

Stay as far away from this one as you possibly can get.

This game was fun, and has a beautiful interface that is very evocative. I really loved the card system at first but quickly learned that it was lacking something -- it was more luck than strategy. The other issue was I felt like I had my fill after only 3 or 4 hours, and have not played it since. So I think the price was a little high at $9.99. I think when the price comes down a little it will be a must bye.

A charming game that is mainly charming because of its art and its presentation, not so much because of its actual gameplay.

It seems there are a lot of options open to the player during a turn, but these choices quickly become repetitive and schematic, the system starts to show through the presentation - it becomes a game of numbers. This is most obvious in the combat system, although I'm aware this is how that system is supposed to be.

Overall, after playing a couple of maps, the game feels sort of directionless. But.. I have a huge soft spot for games that try to do something unique and different, and this is one of those games. That alone makes me glad I bought the game.

Great game, for a C-64. :(

Set in the age of clipper ships, Ancient Trader sees you sailing around an undiscovered set of islands, moving from port to port while trading in three commodities, Tea, Spices and Fruit. The aim of the game is simple: Be the first to amass enough money to upgrade your ship sufficiently and to purchase several artefacts that will enable you to achieve your final goal.

Ancient trader employs simple turn-based mechanics for both movement and combat. During a turn you may move a set number of squares across the map, enter ports to trade, upgrade and accept missions as well as fight the many opponents that will also appear on the map. Unlike other strategy games, the ability to move is not lost when you start combat or enter a port, meaning that you can always use the maximum movement quota if you so wish.

Combat employs a rather simple yet effective mix of classic “rock, paper, scissors” style combat with various levels of attack strength. The relationship between attacks is clearly shown at the bottom of the screen and is indicated by applying colours to each attack. For example, a blue attack will typically beat a red attack of the same level or lower. While you don’t know which attack your opponent is going to select (especially when facing an AI opponent), these strength levels help to offset the initial blind selection of attacks at the start of combat. Losing combat will generally see you either losing money or cargo. While winning will generally see you earning a little more gold.

Trading is a simple matter of finding the ports with the lowest prices to purchase from and then other ports with a far higher price to sell to. Once a port is discovered its prices are always visible on the map, making it very easy to plan your destinations ahead of time. You can also always see how much you purchased a commodity for when you are in the trade screen – so you will also always know if you are selling at profit.

Quests take on several forms, such as delivering items or people to specific port, gathering information on a location or defeating certain enemies. Quests carry a time limit of several turns, and in the case of combat orientated ones, can be failed when one of opponents defeats the enemy concerned.

The entire game experience is delivered with a unique style that sees all the action taking place on classic seafaring maps. This helps to give Ancient Trader its charm. The music too, fits well with the game play and is low key enough to not be too over bearing. While several preset maps of different sizes are provided, there is also a random map generator to help keep things fresh.

A multiplayer mode is also provided, but this is local only (i.e., one to four people taking turns on one PC). However, there are plenty of options to customise a multiplayer game, such as the size of map, type of map (ranging from beginner to advanced), number of AI opponents and the goal. The goal can either be similar to the single player goals, or based on cash/wealth.

Unfortunately, this game is not perfect. At times the AI opponents appear capable of advancing far faster than yourself which can see you at a disadvantage fairly quickly if you’re not too careful. The game lacks any ability to save your progress on a map, so you will always have to complete a game in one sitting. There is also a distinct lack of any video options so you will be unable to select a preferred screen resolution or run the game windowed. On the multiplayer side, there is no online multiplayer and the monetary goals are all preselected, so it’s not possible to specify custom cash or wealth limits to be reached. These are probably the only real disappointments in an otherwise charming casual strategy game. So if you’re looking for an enjoyable strategy game that is not overly complex and have an entire afternoon or evening to kill, Ancient Trader is well worth considering.

A simple game that very much comes across as a computerised board/card game along the lines of the classics like Settler of Catan. Not too much of a mental challenge but a great game none-the-less, wonderful graphics and music especially.

It took me a while to get it running (Windows 7/64bit) - manually running the XNA installer (in the game's install folder) got it going in the end.