H. Operations
Table of Contents
In the operations phase, multiple rounds occur. Rounds are played in turn order. In each round, each player operates one of his companies and places it upside down to indicate that the company has operated. The phase ends when all companies have operated once. Merged companies operate as one entity.
A player may freely choose which company to operate. He must however operate one company each round as long has he has any companies left, even if the company cannot do anything sensible (or has to do something detrimental to the player).
H1. Operating shipping companies
For shipping companies, the operatons phase consists of one choice: it may choose to expand.
A shipping company may expand until it has a number of ships equal to the number listed on the deed for the appropriate era (a/b/c). Remember that a new era can only start in phase 1 at the beginning of a year.
New ships may only be placed in any sea area where the company already has a ship, or adjacent to any such area. If a player has expansion “2”, it is allowed to place the second ship in an area that has just been “opened up” by the first ship. The number of ships a player may add in a round is indicated by the position he has on the Expansion track in the R&D table. So if the owner has expansion 2, he may add at most 2 ships per company, provided this does not bring the company over its limit.
Merged shipping lines add the numbers on their respective deeds. So if Lampung (2/3/4) merged with Halmahera (3/4/5), the resulting company would be able to float (5/7/9) ships. These ships can be placed adjacent to any of the companies’ existing ships - the location of the original deeds does no longer matter.
H2. Operating production companies
Production companies operate by doing three things in order: sell goods; receive income; and expand. In this paragraph, mention will often be made of production areas. A production area consist of a number of adjacent areas producing the same good. A production area always belongs to one company.
Goods are sold to cities. A size 1 city will buy one of each type of good that is produced on the board at that time—so 1 rice, 1 spice, 1 rubber, etc. Goods that are not produced anywhere on the board are not required. A size 2 city will buy 2 of each good, a size 3 city will buy 3 of each. The goods are not physically moved on the board. Instead, place an upside-down counter of the same good (showing that good in transit) next to the city it is sold to. In this way, it is easy to see whether a city will accept any more goods of that type.
A company can only sell goods to a city iif there is a chain of ships of one shipping company connecting the producing area with the city. So there has to be a ship in one of the sea areas adjacent to the city area. If this area is not adjacent to at least one of the production areas, it needs to be connected to another ship that is. Goods can be freely moved from an area to a neighboring area within a production zone, so it is not necessary for each area to be next to a ship. It is not possible to move goods to a city over land, not even if the producing area is right next to a city.
If a company has multiple production zones (this can only happen as the result of a merger) each production zone has to be treated separately, and needs its own shipping. In other words, goods cannot move freely between areas of a company that are not adjoining. For each good that is sold, the production company needs a chain of ships owned by one company. A merged company counts as one company in this respect.