The Game Board
The game board shows the table of a captain of a medieval merchant ship. Nine cities of the Mediterranean are depicted.
The top row of each city is composed of two harbor spaces and two building sites for fortresses. The number shown in each harbor space is the cost for building a warehouse in this city.
The number shown in each fortress space is the cost for building a fortress in this city. The other spaces (in a U-shaped track) surrounding the picture of the city are the building sites for the warehouses - except the last space on the right. The number shown in each of these building sites is the income of the players on each payday for their warehouses.
There are two banking spaces on the right side of the game board, a bank harbor and the proliferation chart. The loan cards are placed on the two banking spaces
The proliferation chart shows the amount of money each player receives on a payday, depending on the number of cities in which she has built warehouses.
The proliferation chart is split in two columns: The left column displays the number of cities in which the player has built warehouses and the right column shows the amount of money she earns from her warehouses on each payday.
Example: After the first phase of the game has ended, a player has built warehouses in four different cities. Now it is payday and she earns 10 Florin from her warehouses.
A 4 destination cards.
B Face down deck (supply).
C Discard pile destination cards.
D 3 proliferation bonus cards.
E Coins.
F Tanger, one of 9 cities.
G Proliferation chart.
H: Loan cards.
I Bank harbor space.
J 6 city interconnection cards.
K Face down deck (supply).
L Discard pile.
A City (Marseille)
A Harbor: These are the two spaces for the ships. If a player wants to build a warehouse and/or a fortress in this city he must land his ship in one of these two harbor spaces.
The number shown in the space is the cost for building a warehouse in this city. A player whose ship is in the first harbor space must pay 4 Florin for each warehouse and a player with his ship in the second harbor space must pay 5 Florin for her warehouses
B Fortress: A player wanting to build a fortress must have her ship on one of the two harbor spaces and at least one of the two fortress spaces must be unoccupied.
The player building on the first fortress space has to pay 8 Florin and then places his fortress there. This space is now blocked for the remainder of the game. A player building his fortress on the second space has to pay 10 Florin.
C The first two warehouses are built on these two spaces. Only the player building the first warehouse has the choice to build it either on the first or on the second space.
D The space with the darker triangle is an additional shut down space in a 2- or 3-player-game. It is of no meaning in a 4- or 5-player-game.
E The dark-colored spaces are called shut down spaces. When a player builds her warehouse on such a space, the first warehouse of the warehouse chain is shut down.
This warehouse is then placed on the center picture of the city. On a payday it does not count towards proliferation or majority anymore.
F Last building site.
G No warehouse may be erected on this space.
Sailing Cards
The sailing cards tell the players to which cities they can sail with their ships and how much they have to pay for this journey.
A player buying such a card has established a sailing route and can set sail once with this card.
There are two types of sailing cards:
- Destination and sea route cards
- City interconnection cards
Destination and Sea Route Cards
These cards can be used in two different ways:
Destination card: The player is sailing directly to a free harbor space of the city named on the card (the card itself shows the location of the city on the captain's table).
Sea route card: The player is setting sail from the city where her ship currently is anchoring. She can proceed as many cities as there are seals shown on the card.
Each seal is allowing her to sail to the next city in a horizontal or perpendicular line. If more than one seal is shown, she may proceed to as many cities or less (horizontal and perpendicular, rectangular turns are allowed).
A Number of red seals = number of routes you can sail, starting from any city.
B Purchase cost of this card.
C Destination: Starting off from any city or from the bank or at the start of the game you may sail directly to this city.
D Location of this city on the game board
Using this card a player may sail directly to Marseille, no matter where her ship currently is.
Or she may sail up to three routes, starting from where her ship is anchoring. For example, if the ship currently is in Valencia, it can reach all cities on the game board.
City Interconnection Cards
It is cheaper to purchase these cards, but players can sail only from one of the two cities to the other one. For example, if you buy the card Venezia - Tanger, you have to pay 3 Florin to the bank.
With this card you then may sail once only from Venezia to Tanger or once only from Tanger to Venizia. In order to use this card, your ship must be in one of the two cities mentioned on the card.
A Purchase cost of this card
B With this card a player may sail from Venezia to Tanger or from Tanger to Venezia.
C Location of the two cities on the game board
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