Marrakesh REVIEW - Is This The Perfect Euro?

Marrakesh is the latest original design by Stefan Feld, and one of his heaviest games yet. But it somehow manages to bring a high fun-factor to the experience. Is it good? Does it hold up after multiple plays? Who might enjoy it?

These are questions we hope to answer in this full review of the game, as we analyze what it's doing, and if it works for us.

Tour of Marrakesh Video:

Marrakesh Playthrough:

BGG Page:

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Game Analysis and Review (0:00)
Our Scores (19:49)

[Erril_Ferndal]

Thank you very much guys for this wonderful review, you did an amazing job. Emily has such a positive and friendly attitude, that is really great! 👍👍👍😃

[ThrehaneMiniatures]

Playing this game was the highlight of WSBG for me. I've had the chance to play this a few more times since WSBG. I absolutely love this game! The only struggle is keeping new players awake while teaching what each of the 11 locations do. (Aaron)

[Vadimaster]

Eagerly awaiting my pre-order to arrive sometime Q1. I had my doubts when it was on Kickstarter, but the reviews now have got me hyped up.

[JonHook]

The Midwest Gamefest convention was held in Kansas City during the first weekend of December 2022. Someone had posted several games that he was going to run at the con, a "Tour de Force" of Stefan Feld games; sounded like a lot of fun. Well, he posted on the Sunday Events this, "Marrakesh (or Merlin)." The thought being, if Marrakesh doesn't arrive in time, he'll run Merlin instead. I told myself, "Oh, that guy's definitely going to be running Merlin."

On Sunday morning, as I was touring the con floor, a friend of mine caught me and told me that someone was setting up Marrakesh. I couldn't believe it. I asked him, and he said that it had arrived in the mail just the previous night, and that this would be it's first play of the game.

As it happens, I was one of the guests at the con, and I was scheduled to be on a panel with two other authors. I immediately ran to the con organizers and asked if there was any way I could back-out of this particular panel. For reference, I had already been on two previous panels, and I had another panel scheduled for later on Sunday. Thankfully, they were very gracious, and let me back-out so the current panel only had two authors instead of three.

I've only been able to play Marrakesh once so far, at Midwest Gamefest, and it was a four-player game. It was fantastic! Like David, Marrakesh is a perfect game for me. I preordered my deluxe copy back in September 2022. I'm waiting with baited breath for it to arrive.

[kaseyschertenleib]

I got a chance to play one round at Gen Con, and I can’t wait to play a full game and explore further. Also waiting for a retail version that comes in at under $100, as it was quite pricey on the Kickstarter. :)

[Nightenstaff]

Played this for the first time last night and I agree with all of the points given. For me, this compares to the fun factor of Castles of the Mad King Ludwig, but with way more meat. I love Mad King because even if you lose, you had fun playing -- you can point at all the crazy combinations in your castle and everyone walks away smiling. Marrakesh doesn't quite have that level of "fun factor", but it replaces it with the heavy boardgaming choices that I equally love. My gaming group plays new games basically every week and it's been a long while since I've been so excited for a game.

If I had to nitpick, the game has a lot of moving parts which makes it easy to forget something; grabbing water for example. Also, while the game doesn't feel long while you're playing, it does have a deceptively long run time. Rounds one and two seem to be over in an instant, but round three triggers a lot of combos that push this to the upper limits of what I feel makes for a good game. Regardless of all that, absolute blast to play!

[CB-yhdb]

I hope Emily’s arm is 100%. I saw her wicked spill while rock climbing. 
I gotta admit, I’ve slept on Marrakesh b/c it always seemed like a ‘bog standard’ dry euro, but these mechanisms do seem intriguing.

[michaelkussy]

I have been excited for this one since watching Heavy Cardboard’s play through. If you need another player or it is in your way and you need to loan it to someone, let me know.

[robh]

It hasn’t come to me yet but hopefully soon!!!!

[gailwondowski]

I hope this one hits retail! I would love to be able to play. Maybe Gen Con next year

[stephencpavey]

I wish the tower worked. It didn’t at least for the copy we played at BGG con. Otherwise great game !

[gaillardlionel]

Does the cube tower feel similar than the one in Shogun?