Openpatrician
Version: 1.0.1 Web: https://sourceforge. net/projects/openpatrician
The late middle ages in Northern Europe and the Baltic region were a fast-changing time, when landlords started to lose their power due to the powerful Hanse trade union. In Openpatrician, you are a young trader who buys and sells goods in the network of Hanseatic towns. At the beginning of the game you choose your name, a home town and finally start with one trade ship at your command.
Openpatrician is not turn-based; it’s constantly running in in-game time, which is important to remember. For instance, taking money as a loan implies payback in a given period of time, so it’s unwise to be idle when you owe money.
If you haven’t played this before, we strongly recommend exploring the documentation for The
Patrician (1993), a proprietary German game from which Openpatrician took its inspiration. The game is fully controlled by mouse, and it offers plenty of places and objects that you can click on and communicate with. Openpatrician is a captivating and complex economic simulator with lots of details a player should
keep in mind. There are two main goals in the game: one for earning profit by selling goods to other towns, and another for advancing your own career position. The latter is no less important than the economic part. Your influence grows if you become a mayor of a town, but the most powerful position is certainly the Äldermann, a head of the whole Hanse.
In general, the list of your expenses is much wider than the list of earnings. You need to pay a salary for your workers, keep your fleet in a good shape, bribe other mayors and even arm your ships with ballistas and catapults in order to hold pirates off at gunpoint. Lots of scenarios are possible in Openpatrician, including hiring a trade manager, who will perform buy and sell operations for you. It’s an incredible historic simulator that is worth getting used to. Fire up OPENJDK 11 or newer in order to play the Javabased Openpatrician, and travel back in time!