The player with the most money at the end of the game wins (Bank + Cash).
Players will make money by owning and operating companies of various types. Producing and selling goods to cities or shipping other player’s goods.
The game end trigger happens when one or zero C Era companies are left to be acquired in the New Era Phase.
Following the order of play, each player may start one available company of the current era. They take the corresponding company deed and places it in front of them. Starting a company costs no money. Note that a player may never have more companies than he has slots, as indicated on the R&D track. A merged company that consists of multiple company deeds takes up only one slot.
If the acquired company is a production company, the player must place one goods counter in the appropriate province. He may place this counter on any empty land area. However, a goods counter cannot be placed immediately next to a goods counter of the same type. If no such area is available, the company cannot be started and is taken out of the game.
If a player acquires a shipping company, he places a ship in one of the sea areas bordering on the province indicated. Existing ships do not hinder placement in any way.
The game is played in three Eras A, B, and C each consisting of a number of “years” (rounds) with 7 Phases in each year (round).
The Phase order is:
If a new era occurs (first turn is always a new era) players place new cities, and new companies become available.
A new era occurs if there are no companies to acquire or if all companies left to acquire are of one type.
At the start of an era players place cities in turn order based on their city building cares for that era. They may choose one region on that card to place one green city. The city must be placed in an empty area on a coast. Each region can only contain one city.
After all players have placed cities, discard all unacquired companies from the previous era and place the next set of companies.
In turn order each player bids an amount of Cash once, placing the Cash in the “Bank” box on their player aid. Bids of 0 are allowed.
The player who bid higher will be first in order of play, tied players’ order remains unchanged.
Money in the Bank counts for end game scoring but can’t be used for the rest of the game.
Players must have researched at least one merger on the R&D track.
A merger is only between 2 companies.
Companies can only be involved in a merger once per year.
Mergers always happen between companies of the same type with the exception of Siap Faji mergers that can happen between a rice and a spice company. 2 Siap Faji companies may also merge. Siap Faji mergers cannot occur in Era A, only B and C.
Players may announce mergers regardless of who owns each company.
When a merger is announced the announcing player places the first bid.
The bid must be at least equal to the value of the merged companies (number of good/ships x value on player aid) OR a valid raised bid (bids must be divisible by the total number of goods/ships involved).
To bid a player must have the money on hand in Cash, and have an open company slot.
Players bid in turn order or pass, players who have passed cannot rejoin the bidding.
Highest bid after all players have passed wins.
The winner divides the winning bid among former owners based on the number of goods/ships.
Company deeds are given to the new owner.
The next player in turn order may now announce a new merger, until all players have passed announcing a new merger.
In turn order players may start one new company per round provided they have an open slot.
Players take the company tile and place one good chit in the region or ship adjacent to the region on the company charter.
Players research one of 6 upgrade types by moving their player marker one step forward. Players may move other players' Hull Player research markers.
Number of companies a player may own. Merged companies take up one slot.
Number of company deeds that may be involved in a merger.
Number of goods each ship may carry for that player.
Number of expansions a company may have during operations.
Number multiplied against player’s turn order bid.
In turn order players must operate one company they own each round, flipping it upside down, until all companies have operated once.
Place a number of ships up to the era limit on company deeds (combined total for merged charters) based on player’s expansion R&D track.
Ships can be placed in or adjacent to any sea spaces with existing ships of that company.
Sell Goods, Receive Income, Expand.
Cities buy 1 of each good type per city size. Companies must ship as many goods as they can. A player may not choose to not ship a good, or route goods inefficiently so that fewer goods sell.
Goods travel through a chain of ships owned by a single shipping company. It is not possible to move goods over land.
Only 1 production area needs to be adjacent to a ship in a sea space. If a production area has ships from multiple different shipping companies adjacent to it, goods can flow out from either or both. Goods cannot switch shipping companies mid transit.
Ship capacity for a single company’s good selling is limited to the shipping company’s owning player’s Hull Player R&D track.
If a merger has caused a company to have 2 production zones, each needs its own shipping.
For each good sold to a city the owner of the production company gets a fixed fee:
Then out of that revenue they must pay the owner(s) of the shipping companies they used $5 per good that passed through each ship. 2 goods passed through 3 ships with Hull 2, the shipping fee is $30. An easy way to track this is to place $5 tokens/chips on each ship a good passes through.
If a company sells all the goods it produced it must expand for free, or if it doesn’t sell all its goods it can invest to expand ($ per area based on good type), based on owning players’ Expansion R&D track.
Companies expand by placing new goods on the map in any empty adjacent space next to an existing production area that’s not also adjacent to another companies production area of the same type.
After expansion, turn the company charter face down to indicate it has operated.
Cities that receive every good that is produced grow. A city needs 1x it’s level of each good that can be produced to grow.
Discard all delivered goods.
Replace city with next level color. City tokens are piece limited, if not enough tokens players first in turn order chooses which cities to upgrade.
Cash earned in the last operation phase is doubled.
The player with the most money (Bank + Cash) wins.
Tie goes to the player first in turn order.
Each player gets two city building cards of each era type.
Players alternate building two cities each in the New Era phase.