M.U.L.E
An oldy but a goody. You can get an NES version (or the reportedly better AI-wise c64 version) easily, on any platform. There's also PC/web ports of the game.
Only 4 resources, but what you do with them is great. Games are quick (45min-1hr single player), there's 4-player hotseat or internet multiplayer available, and it really makes you feel like your trading matters. Mostly as a way to screw over other players.
It's a competitive/co-operative format, where the colony needs a certain baseline of resources to win (so you can't completely destroy the competition), but you still want to come in first place. Resources have a value at the end of the game, but fluctuate depending on supply and demand throughout the game and on store stocks (you can sell to other players or the publicly accessible store).
Resources are food (for turn times, 3/4/5 needed for max time), energy (needed to run any Mule that doesn't make energy), smithore (needed to make more Mules) and crys-x (highly price-volatile good only used for trading/cash).
There's three sorts of terrain, each good at producing one thing (mountains=ore, river=food, energy=plains), with crys-x being distributed randomly over all three types (but in a "hotspot" pattern from high concentration to low). Land/terrain plots are gained one per turn in a button mashing race, from auctions, and occasionally won/lost from random events. Money is also a resource, used for buying land at auctions and as the standard intermediatory tool for trading (it's money).
If you have spare time after buying/outfitting/allocating Mules to your land plots, you can go and hunt wumpuses for some extra cash (truly the sport of kings), or go to the pub and gamble (just a little cash bonus).
At the end of each turn there's a multiplayer auction where you leverage your resources while retaining/purchasing basic stocks for next turn. Essentially, buy cheap, sell dear, create resource monopolies, profit from random events, and screw over other players (while just giving them enough to make sure the colony survives at the end, with you as its glorious leader).
There's economies of scale, repeated production bonuses, etc, to get massive amounts of resources harvested. Each game is 12 turns long, with the winner decided at the end, based on gross worth.
Don't mind the graphics, they're perfectly serviceable. Download the NES version on an emulator to try it out (though the AI is dumb in that one). Fun in single player, awesome in multiplayer. You can temporarily lose friends due to profiteering bastardry with this one. It's that good
(Never promise anyone anything. You will go back on your word)
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Topic: Trading Games (ie. Patrician, Port Royale etc.) (Read 1890 times)