Age of Exploration

Age of Exploration Rulebook

Table of Contents

Components

16" by 22" folding game board (note 1)
240 die cut counters (1 sheet) (note 2)
36 Expedition Outfitting cards (ivory)
10 Explorer cards (ivory)
8 Conquistador cards (ivory)
50 Land Exploration cards (brown) (note 3)
40 Civilization Encounter cards (gold)
50 Sea/Coast/River Exploration cards (blue)
6 Ship Cards (ivory)
6 Expedition Mats (note 4)
1 pair of dice
1 16-page Historical Guide / Designer & Player Notes / Reference sheet
1 four-page Let’s Play! rules introduction sheet (note 5)
1 four-page Rules folder

Component Notes

The legend omits to identify the gray “B” boxes as bases. The New World base of Lima (SA3) is incorrectly identified on the map base placement chart as “Quito”. The Bay containing the St. Lawrence River discovery should be labeled as North American coastal waters (NA).
Six differently-coloured sets of 18 player counters, 60 tan Expedition chits, 68 various status markers. Play is not limited by the counter mix. Some counters have an “*” printed on them to remind players that special rules govern their use.
Cards 179–182 (“Ambush”) should read “[Success]No effect”. Card 44’s ID is misprinted as “04” (the latter error has no effect on play).
The Raft Sea Check base value should read “5 in coastal waters” instead of “5 at sea” (Rafts cannot enter sea spaces).
This replaces the two “one-page summary sheets” listed on the box back (which also shows an earlier version of the map).

Introduction

Age of Exploration 1492–1543 is a game of discovery and conquest for 2–6 players, ages 12 to adult. Players outfit and direct expeditions, led by historical figures, to explore the New World. Upon return, victory points are earned for publishing discoveries and successfully completing major expeditions.

General Course of Play

Play begins with the players outfitting their first expeditions in Europe. In subsequent turns, each player can remain in Europe to try to improve his outfitting, or launch his expedition. Once launched, an expedition generally draws an exploration card based on its location (at sea or in coastal waters, the latter including rivers) and resolves the card. If Progress is made, the expedition moves one, possibly two spaces. The expedition may then undergo one “status change”, transitioning across a grey arrow. Finally, the expedition can execute an action, and then an end-of-turn action. Once land is reached, the expedition can disembark and become a land expedition in order to progress inland. Land expeditions can later rejoin their ships or, if the opportunity arises, build rafts in order to navigate rivers. Card draws trigger all sorts of events and can lead not only to discoveries that are worth victory points once reported to Europe, but to rumors of gold that entice the expedition ever further inland.

If things go really badly, an expedition can fail or be aborted by the player, at which point he immediately starts outfitting a new one. If things go well, discoveries are published in Europe, yielding victory points and bonus outfitting cards for the next expedition. Gold, natives, and hardwood may be brought back for similar effects. As more of the map becomes known, New World bases become established, from which the players can launch later expeditions.

Among the discoveries are the two great American civilizations, the Incan and the Aztec, that have their own progress tracks and encounter cards. Major expeditions can also be undertaken as separate endeavors, such as world circumnavigation.

The game is mostly a race to discovery and publication. Aggressive players use military might against the natives, and can challenge a rival land expedition leader in order to take his expedition over.

The short game is won by the first player to acquire 4 victory points (6 points if only 2–3 players are playing) and takes 1–3 hours to play. The full campaign game is played in 15 victory points and takes 3–6 hours to play.

Key Concepts

Leader. Each expedition is led by one Leader, either a Conquistador or an Explorer. Leaders are described by five attributes: Leadership, Negotiation, Navigation, Ship Handling, and Personal Arms. Explorers tend to be better at ship handling and navigation at sea while Conquistadors tend to be better at navigation on land, sea combat, and hand-tohand fighting. Leaders that die are withdrawn from the game, while one that is fired by a player can be hired by another. Each Leader is accompanied by a generic Second-in-Command, who takes over if things go sour.
Leadership: Check to avoid turning back when the crew is afraid, or personally survive a non-combat loss when no men are left.
Negotiation: Check to gain Provisions or Porters, to make progress on land when interacting with natives, or to repulse a rival’s attack.
Navigation (Sea/Land): Check to avoid becoming Lost (or recover from being Lost), to make progress when running with a storm, or in a variety of other challenging situations.
Ship Handling: Adds into Sea Checks to avoid damaging ships and to move faster at sea, as well as to raft-building checks. It is also the maximum number of extra ships an expedition may have.
Personal Arms: Check to quell mutiny, if attacked by a rival, to determine the Leader’s combat bonus, to prevent the loss of the last man in combat, or to personally survive a combat or battle loss when no men are left.
Check. A check is a roll of two dice vs. a number (one of a Leader’s attributes, or the expedition’s ships’ seaworthiness, or a fixed number), possibly modified by personnel, equipment or other modifiers. A check succeeds if the dice total is less than or equal to this modified number. Combat is one type of check.
Expedition Ship Type. Every expedition has a ship type, either Caravel or Carrack. All ships in an expedition are considered to be of the same type. The ship type determines the expedition’s base sea (seaworthiness) check and cargo capacity, and affects movement at sea (as indicated on the Sea cards).

Set Up

Separate the tan counters into one pile; these are the expedition chits, used when outfitting expeditions. The rest are status chits.

Map: Place two Known Sea Progress chits, and the Incan and Aztec Military Strength & Awe markers on the map. Put the Known NWP Progress & Known SSA Progress markers off to the side until the Panama City (CA1) base is founded. Shuffle and set out the card decks. Put the three Sea/Coast/River, Land, and Civilization card decks to the left of the board, leaving room for a discard pile for each deck. Put the ivory Outfitting cards to the right, leaving room for their discard pile. Put the Ship Type cards next to those. Finally, put the Conquistadors and Explorers in two draw piles with a common discard area (the “Retired Leaders”).

Players: Each takes a coloured set of chits, a play mat, a ship card, an Explorer (face up, randomly drawn), and 6 outfitting cards (face down, also randomly drawn). Set the expedition “Crew” and “Ship Prov.” markers at “2” on the mat. Place the Ship marker in Europe and the “VPs” marker in the “0” box of the Victory Point track.

Roll dice to determine first player and seating order. Each player, in order, now outfits his first expedition.

Outfitting Expeditions

General Procedure. At the beginning of the game (and whenever an expedition returns to Europe or a base to publish its discoveries and receive Outfitting cards), players outfit expeditions by:

Deciding whether to retain or replace the expedition’s current Leader.
Choosing whether the new expedition will launch from Europe or a New World base (the Malacca M1 base can only be reported to, not launched from). At the beginning of the game, there are no New World bases, so all expeditions launch from Europe.
Deciding the expedition’s ship type by flipping the ship type card to the desired side. Place the expedition’s initial Crew and Provisions (2 each) on the expedition mat.
Playing Outfitting cards and spending Gold (at the beginning of the game, players have no Gold), turning them in for counters representing additional personnel and equipment. Any remaining (unused or unusable) Outfitting cards are discarded each turn (but not Gold). Reshuffle the deck when card #51, labeled “reshuffle”, is turned in. Players may not trade cards or Gold while Outfitting.

Optional Rule: To diminish randomness, play as many cards as there are players from the Outfitting deck to the table, face up. In turn order, each player draws a card from the face up cards or from the draw pile. Replace the face up cards as they are picked. Continue until each player has picked up six Outfitting cards. In later turns, whenever one or more players are in outfitting mode, play as many cards to the table as there are outfitting players (minimum of three cards). After all players have completed their initial expedition outfitting, play begins with the first player and proceeds clockwise. Each player may either stay in port, drawing and playing two Outfitting cards in the hope of improving his expedition, or may launch his expedition (see below).

Switching Leaders

When outfitting, a player may choose to replace his Leader by turning in a Letter of Credit and taking any face up retired Leader or the topmost face down card from either the Explorer or Conquistador decks. Once the player has both Leaders in hand, he chooses which one to retire, placing the former Leader face up in the retired Leaders area. A player switching Leader type (between Conquistador and Explorer) may exchange a Pilot for a Rutter or vice versa (since only a Conquistador may have a Pilot, and only an Explorer may have a Rutter).

Cargo Capacity

A ship expedition may only take as many personnel or equipment as can fit on its ships. Items marked with a blue circle or a “P” (provisions) require one cargo space each, including all Crew and Provisions. Cavalry requires two cargo spaces and is limited to one per ship. Raft expeditions work the same way except the cargo capacity is 2 per raft. Both ship and raft expeditions can include at most one Porters (ship expeditions can convert the Porters to a Natives for Europe chit, and could carry both).

A land expedition also works the same way, except that it’s the items marked with a brown circle (Land Prov., Cannons, Trade Goods, Gold) that require cargo space, while those with a plussed brown circle (Crew Ashore, Porters) provide additional carrying capacity (beyond the expedition’s base value of 1). Cavalry requires no cargo space but provides no carrying capacity either. Another important difference is that land expeditions check their cargo capacity restrictions only upon moving, while ship and raft expeditions must obey theirs at all times.

Choosing Ship Type

A sea expedition consists of 1–3 ships. Each expedition’s first ship is “free” and comes with 2 Crew and 2 Provisions. This is represented by the ship type card and by placing the “Crew” and “Provisions” counters on the circled “2” spaces of the respective tracks of the expedition mat. The ship type can change freely until the expedition is launched, as long as the crew and cargo limitations are not exceeded.

Additional Ships

Outfitting cards may be used to add extra ships up to the Leader’s ship handling skill (e.g. a “+1” ship handling allows an expedition to take 2 ships total). Conquistadors accompanied by a Pilot may take 3 ships (the Pilot’s ship handling of 2 is used instead of, not in addition to, the Conquistador’s ship handling skill). Each additional ship adds 1 cargo capacity only: it does not come with extra crew or provisions.

Other Personnel and Equipment

These are added by expending Outfitting cards and either taking the relevant counters or adjusting the Crew and Provisions counters as needed. Outfitting cards may not be played in violation of the limits listed on the cards themselves or the expedition mat. Some Outfitting cards may be played in multiple ways; the player chooses. Letters of Credit may be turned in for any legal counter (including Gold). Gold can be spent to buy Crew, Provisions, or Soldiers (but not Cannons).

An additional Gold or Letter of Credit must be turned in for each Copper Plated Hulls, Sturdy Ship, Cavalry or Cannons taken at a New World base. A Native Guide and/or Interpreter (maximum of one of each) may be taken only if launching from a New World base. The Native Guide or Interpreter’s region must be specified (North America (NA), Caribbean (CB), Central America (CA), or South America (SA)), and that region’s Landfall must have been published.

Switching Launching Point

A player can freely change his intended launching point (for instance, if a New World base becomes available while he is perfecting his outfitting), as long as he adjusts to the new launch point’s restrictions (e.g. only Caravels may launch from Panama City (CA1)) and pays any additional costs (i.e., some personnel and equipment are more expensive at New World bases).

§ Playing Tip: Beginning players should probably form a Caravel expedition led by an Explorer, taking a second ship, at least one extra Crew or Provision, plus any or all of the following: a third ship (if allowed), Sturdy Ship, Missionary, Trade Goods, and possibly a Rutter.

§ First Game: You now know enough to play until one or more players feel ready to launch their expeditions.

Launching Expeditions

A player launches his expedition by discarding any remaining Gold (spend it or lose it!) and transitioning his ship token to the sea space adjacent to Europe. Launching takes an entire tum; the player doesn’t draw any cards nor take any other actions. Later expeditions can launch from New World bases (mostly on foot, since only Hispaniola (CB1) and Panama City (CA1) connect to coastal spaces). Expeditions may only report to the Malacca base; they may not be launched from there. Naval expeditions launching from a base are placed in an adjacent coastal space—unless they wish to gain further provisions through the Gain Provisions expedition action, in which case they are put in the base’s land space. Once Land Sighted chits are on the map, expeditions can launch directly from Europe to those chits, taking as many scurvy losses as the number rolled on one die (–1 if a Caravel expedition). For each loss, lose 1 Provision (men). You may eat horses as part of the Provision loss. This concludes the player’s turn.

Exploration Turns

A launched expedition performs the following steps in order:

Draw and resolve an exploration card
- a. Follow instructions
- b. Resolve Discovery and Rumors of Gold
- c. Note whether any Progress was made
Movement
Status Change
Expedition Action
End-of-turn Actions

Draw and resolve an exploration card

The expedition draws and resolves a different exploration card (Sea, Coastal Waters, Land or Civilization Encounters) depending on its current (starting) location. Sea and Coastal Waters instructions appear on the top and bottom portions of the Sea/Coast/River deck; follow only those instructions relevant to the expedition’s current location.

New World Bases. An expedition in one of the bases only draws a Land exploration card on the turn that it launches from the base or on the turn that it intends to leave that base’s space. The latter should matter only if gaining provisions, spending Gold, repairing ships or rafts, or building rafts at the base over several turns.

Mid-Atlantic Islands. An expedition in one of the four Mid-Atlantic Island spaces only draws a Coast exploration card on the turn that it intends to leave that space (by transitioning back to the island’s adjacent sea space).

Straits of Magellan. An expedition in one of these two coastal spaces does not draw a card; it makes a Navigation check at –3 instead, as indicated on the map. Both spaces must be successfully traversed when heading west, but only one when heading east.

Coastal Waters. The coast portion of the Sea/Coast/River cards is also used to explore the Northwest Passage (NWP) or Rivers. Separate instructions for these areas may be listed; follow the instructions appropriate to the expedition’s current location. Note: Discoveries are marked separately in the coast and sea portions of the cards.

Landfall. An expedition which changed status from a coastal sea space into a land space draws Land cards on later turns despite still being a naval expedition (it is considered to be “moored” off-shore). This is only possible in coastal land spaces (i.e. land spaces that are accessible from a coastal waters space through a status change).

Building/Repairing Rafts. A raft expedition in a river space that wishes to repair a raft or to attempt to build another one draws a Land exploration card instead of a River one. It may not move nor change status either.

Cards are resolved in three stages. First, all instructions are followed and any checks are made based on the Expedition’s current location. Then, resolve any Discovery (or Rumors of Gold on Land cards) if one is indicated on the card. Finally, note whether any Progress was made to determine if movement is possible in the next step. If the card specified “Reshuffle Deck”, do this once the card is turned in.

Card Instructions

Choices and Sequences. Some cards present several options separated by an “OR”. The player chooses which instructions to follow. Some Land and Civilization cards list multiple instructions separated by horizontal lines. Resolve each instruction sequentially from top to bottom. A choice (set of “OR”ed instructions) may be bracketed by horizontal lines: the choice is subordinate to the sequence. Example: On Land Exploration cards #161–168, “Hostile Natives”, the “If – Otherwise” condition splits the card instructions into two sections. The options separated by an “OR” are both contained within the bottom “Otherwise” portion. Exception: On Civilization Encounters cards #93–94, “Siege Opportunity”, the “Otherwise” instruction applies to both the bolded location (i.e. if not in the Contact or Capital boxes) and the listed condition (i.e. if in either of those boxes but without any manned Cannons).

Card outcomes are also sequential. For instance, drawing card #195 (“Warring Tribes”) could result in Provisions, Porters, and a combat check. Any cargo over-capacity problem caused by the Provisions and Porters gain would need to be resolved before proceeding to the combat check.

Expedition Must Return. Besides being declared as an end-of-turn action, this may be triggered by an exploration card. Known Waters. The navigation bonuses for having a Pilot or Rutter only apply in “known waters”; initially just those sea spaces extending from Europe to the Known Sea Progress or Land Sighted markers. Until Panama City (CA1) is placed, all coastal waters remain beyond Known Progress. Once it is placed, all coastal waters between the SSA and NWP Progress chits (inclusive, including the two SA Río de la Plata coastal spaces) are within Known Progress; so is the stretch of Pacific sea spaces starting south of Malacca (M1) and ending south of the Cape Verde Islands. Exception: If Expedition must return has been declared and the expedition is retracing its path, it is in “known waters”.

Rivers. Navigation checks in river spaces use the Leader’s Sea rating. The Native Guide, Rutter, and Pilot bonuses are not applicable.

Trade Goods. When instructed to conduct a Negotiation check with natives, Trade Goods can be used for a +3 modifier unless the card specifies “unmodified Negotiation”. Trade Goods are not expended unless the card indicates so (see Civilization cards #68–69, 85–86).

Native Guide, Interpreter. If a second Native Guide or Interpreter is gained through a card’s instructions, you must either dismiss the previous one or turn down the new one.

Combat. Combat checks have varying consequences for [Success] or [Failure] (shown as thumbs-up / thumbs-down icons in the rules). A Battle is a combat check modified by adding the Awe rating and subtracting the Military Strength rating of the civilization being encountered (Incan or Aztec). Combat checks are sometimes modified by the space the expedition is in (e.g. NA3 has a –4 combat check modifier, while the middle SA1 space has a –2 modifier).

Sea Combat: Each Crew has 2 combat strength, each Soldiers 2, Cavalry 3, Cannons 3 (if at least one Crew or Soldiers is present to man them), Missionary 1. The Leader conducts a Personal Arms check to find out what his combat strength is. A hungry expedition has –1 combat strength. Sadly, Native Allies Porters are useless for ship combat.
Land and Raft Combat: Each Crew has 1 combat strength, Porters 1 if Native Allies. Soldiers, Cavalry, Cannons, Missionary and Leader as for Sea Combat. A hungry or living-off-the-land expedition has –1 combat strength.

Taking Losses. If instructed to lose an item or personnel (in combat or otherwise), that counter or track value is removed or reduced one space. If given a choice of losses (e.g. “Lose 1 men or Porter”), only one of which is present, you must lose the one.

Lose 1 Provision: Lose 1 Provision unless no Provisions are available to be lost. In that case, there is no effect.
Lose 1 Provision (men): Lose 1 Provision unless none are available to be lost. In that case, the expedition loses 1 “men”.
Lose 1 Porter: If no Porters are present, there is no effect. Remove any Native Allies chit when all Porters are lost.
Men: When instructed to lose 1 “men”, either 1 Crew, Cavalry or Soldiers must be lost. Porters may be lost as “men” when resolving Starvation (but not Disease), and when resolving combat/battle if the expedition has Native Allies. “Men” losses may not be satisfied by losing a Missionary, Pilot, Interpreter or Native Guide. Losing Cavalry is not the same as Eating the horses (see Expedition Action, below): there is no Provisions gain.
No “men” available to satisfy a non-combat loss: Check Leadership (at –3 if hungry). [Success]: no effect. [Failure]: the Leader dies and the expedition fails.
No “men” available to satisfy a combat (or battle) loss: Check Personal Arms. [Success]: no effect. [Failure]: the Leader dies and the expedition fails.
Leader combat intervention: A Leader may check Personal Arms to avoid the loss of the expedition’s last remaining “men” to combat (but not to battle). If [Success], no loss occurs; if [Failure], the Leader dies (flip card over to Second-in-Command side; if the Leader was the Second-in-Command, see below).
Second-in-Command death: If this occurs, the expedition fails.
Damage (wreck) 1 ship/raft: Place a Damage chit on the expedition mat unless one is already present. In that case, the expedition loses one ship or raft, removing the Damage chit. Check cargo space, losing any excess.

Reducing Additional Ships. When a Leader with some Ship Handling skill is replaced by his Second-in-Command (who has Ship Handling of 0), or when a Pilot supplying said skill to a Conquistador dies (which can’t actually happen unless variant rules or cards are used), the expedition may need to reduce its number of additional ships. Before adjusting to the newly reduced cargo capacity, use the Consolidate ships Crew recovery rule if applicable.

Shipwrecked: An expedition losing its last ship at sea fails. An expedition losing its last ship or raft in a coastal space fails unless it is connected to land by a Status Change arrow. In those cases, it is shipwrecked instead. An expedition losing its last raft in a river space is automatically shipwrecked. Form a land expedition in that land (or river) space, after checking each “men” and any Missionary, Native Guide, or Interpreter. Check against 6 on a coast, 9 on a river. Replace Cavalry with Soldiers. Remove any Pilot/Rutter, Porters, Natives for Europe, Cannons, Gold, Trade Goods, or Hardwood chits. Set aside the ship type card. If in a river space, the expedition will have to spend some time building one or more rafts before it can move again; the one exception being the Mississippi River’s R5 space, which allows a status change to the CA6 land space. Examples: An expedition losing its last ship or raft in the Orinoco River coastal space (CB) would fail because there are no status change arrows connecting to that space. Likewise for the Strait of Magellan (southernmost) coastal space or the Cape Branco (easternmost) coastal space.

Discoveries

Unless Lost, an expedition drawing a “Ⓓ” card in a space containing one or more potential discoveries may make one discovery, marking this with one of its “Ⓓ” chits. The first expedition to publish these discoveries will swap its “Ⓓ” chits for “Known” chits. Upon discovering Gold, take one Gold chit but do not mark the space (Gold may be repeatedly “discovered”). Discovering Hardwood makes the Harvest Hardwood expedition action possible in that space (which in turn yields Hardwood chits).

New World Sighting and Landfalls. There are VP awards for the first published New World sighting as well as for the first published landfall in each of the map’s four regions (NA, CB, CA, SA). A player can mark these potential awards with “Ⓓ” chits in the appropriate map spaces (no “Ⓓ” card draw required), being careful to put them in the upper part of the map boxes since if the spaces also contain potential discoveries, the latter will require separate “Ⓓ” chits. It is easier to mark only the “true” map discoveries with “Ⓓ” chits, as the New World sighting and landfall awards are usually obvious.

Additional Automatic Discoveries. If marked in white (such as the Amazon River mouth or Hardwood in SA1), these discoveries are made (and marked) as soon as an expedition enters that space. A “Ⓓ” card draw is not required. Automatic Effects. In addition to certain discoveries, items printed in white automatically affect expeditions entering that space. For instance, the Provision gain in the Cod Banks (once known or discovered) and the loss in SA1 Peru.

Rumors of Gold

Ignore “Ⓡ” draws if Expedition must return has been declared.

If not already on the map, the “Rumors of Gold” chit is placed in the first available connected land space containing an “Ⓡ” symbol and with a higher number than the expedition’s current space. If the chit is already face up in such a space, it stays in place. If there is no such space, put the chit face down in the expedition’s space.

If it is in a lower-numbered space (and therefore face down), redeploy it as if it were not already on the map: this represents new rumors directing the expedition onwards. If the “Rumors of Gold” chit is face down in the expedition’s space or in a higher-numbered space, the “Ⓡ” draw has no effect.

Unless it declares Expedition must return, the expedition must visit a face up “Rumors of Gold” chit, dispelling those rumors, before it can make a Status Change. Once it reaches the space, the chit is flipped face down. A face down chit represents discredited rumors, which are ignored by the expedition. Once the expedition makes a status change while its “Rumors of Gold” chit is face down, remove it.

Switching between Naval, Land and Raft Expeditions

Land Expeditions. To move inland, a land expedition is formed by shifting counters to the middle portion of the expedition mat and obeying land cargo rules (in particular, the number of Porters is limited to at most Crew + Soldiers + Cavalry + 1). The Leader and Missionary always accompany a land expedition; a Rutter or Pilot must be left behind with the ship(s). The “Land/Raft” chit is used to mark the land expedition’s location. Until the land expedition leaves the space, it may freely swap equipment and personnel (other than the Leader) with its ships. A player may choose to scuttle the expedition’s ships, to avoid the adverse effects of the “Dissension” card (#173): turn in all chits remaining on the Ship Type card and set it aside. Only a land expedition may enter an inland space (e.g. NA2, CB2, CA2, etc.); it may also enter land coast spaces (e.g. NA1, CB1, CA1, etc.).

Raft Expeditions. A raft expedition is formed from a land or ship expedition after one or more successful Attempt to build a raft expedition actions, shifting counters to the right-hand portion of the expedition mat. The raft cargo rules are the same as the land rules, except that only one Porters is allowed. A land expedition turning into a raft expedition shifts all of its counters; a ship expedition turning into a raft expedition proceeds to split its counters exactly like when forming a land expedition.

In an inland land space (i.e. the Mississippi or Amazon headwaters, NA3 and SA4, respectively), a raft expedition must change status to a river space (Mississippi or Amazon R1) before it can move (downriver)—since the Attempt to build a raft expedition action occurs after the Status Changes step, this can only happen on the turn after the one in which the last raft is built. A raft expedition can turn back into a land expedition by simply abandoning its rafts. Only a raft expedition may enter a river space (i.e. the Mississippi or Amazon). Raft expeditions can also enter coast land spaces and coastal waters spaces.

Reboarding the ships. Any ships left behind (unless scuttled) are dormant (only Leaders draw exploration cards and do actions), and are reboarded by moving back (on foot or by raft) to the space containing the ship marker. Roll to determine if the ship(s) are still there: check (7 + 1 per Crew left aboard) for each ship. If at least one ship [Success], transfer the counters back to the sea portion of the expedition mat. If all ships [Failure], the expedition must either abort (an end-ofturn action) or make its way by foot and/or raft to a New World base (assuming one is on the board) to publish. Natives for Europe. When reboarding, a land expedition with Porters can take one of those chits onboard, using up one sea cargo capacity. Alternatively, the expedition can take a Natives for Europe chit, using no sea cargo capacity to do so but giving up the option to use these Porters for another land (or raft) expedition.

Civilization Encounters

Drawing and resolving Civilization cards may result in placing chits in the Empire’s status area or adjusting its Awe or Military Strength. These changes remain if the expedition leaves.

If more than one expedition is encountering a given civilization, only one of them at a time may seize its Ruler (gain the Ruler Seized chit) or gain Native Allies. To enter the Capital, an expedition must either have seized its Ruler, gained a Capital Entry chit, or be allowed to do so by its current card. Having a Capital Entry or Ruler Seized chit trumps the numerous Civilization Exploration cards that say “Progress (except into Capital)”.

Only one expedition may be in the Capital at a time. A second expedition that enters the Capital must attempt to take over the first expedition (as an Expedition Action). If unsuccessful (but not itself taken over), it must immediately leave. To defeat an Empire, three things must occur: 1) The Empire’s Awe must go to +5. 2) The Empire’s Military Strength must go to 0. 3) The conquering expedition must be in its Capital. If another expedition is in the Capital, it does not defeat the Empire until it achieves a result that would either increase the Empire’s Awe (of 5) or decrease its Military Strength (of 0).

Defeating an Empire completes that Major Expedition and the VPs are scored immediately—the expedition does not have to get back to a base. If the game isn’t won yet, go through the Expedition Return checklist to update Known Progress, publish discoveries, gain Gold, draw Outfitting cards, and place the appropriate base (Incan: Lima (SA3), Aztec: Mexico City (CA4)). The player’s turn ends with him outfitting a New Expedition (don’t forget the extra 5 Gold).

Movement

To move, an expedition must not be Lost, and it must have “made Progress” on its card draw. Progress doesn’t always translate into movement; some spaces require additional checks to move into or out of (e.g. several Northwest Passage areas, CB3, SA5). A raft expedition in a river space that wishes to repair a raft or to attempt to build another one may not move.

Sea expeditions may make up to two spaces of Progress (as instructed by the card). Expeditions in other locations (Coastal Waters, Land, or River) may only make at most one space of Progress (Land expeditions may not “trade a Provision for Progress” if hungry, obviously). Movement may not occur across gray status change arrows, black impassable borders, or against one-way movement arrows.

Remove any Natives Attacked or Native Allies if the expedition changes region (from CB to SA, for example).

Land cargo capacity only applies when the land expedition actually moves; a land expedition may exceed its cargo capacity otherwise. It may not, however, form caches or split up. Ship and raft expeditions, on the other hand, must obey their cargo capacity limitations at all times.

Known Progress. Use the expedition’s discovery (“Ⓓ”) chits to mark its extension of Known Progress at sea or in coastal waters. When an expedition extending Known Progress publishes, the relevant chits are advanced.

Status Changes

After all movement is complete, an expedition in a space containing a gray status arrow may transition across it to the adjacent space, thus changing from one type of space (Sea, Coastal Waters, etc.) to another (Coastal Waters, Land, etc.). Only one transition may be made per turn. A status change may not be made if the expedition is Lost or has pending Rumors of Gold.

Remove any Natives Attacked, Seized Ruler, Native Allies and Capital Entry chits after making a status change. A raft expedition in a river space that wishes to repair a raft or to attempt to build another one may not change status (this only matters at the mouth of the Mississippi, R5).

Sighting Land. To change status west across a “D” status arrow, the Land Sighted chit must be known or discovered. Traversing the status arrow eastward automatically discovers the Land Sighted.

Civilization Encounters. A land expedition that discovers a civilization (draws a “Ⓓ” card in Incan SA2 or Aztec CA3) or reaches a known one may change status to the civilization’s “Rumors” space, marking where it came from with a Discovery chit. Later exploration draws will use the Civilization Encounters deck.

Expedition Action

An expedition may perform one of the following actions each turn, after movement and status change:

Spend Gold (at a New World base): Gain additional Crew, Provisions, or Soldiers. This may also reap one of the 1st X+ Gold VP awards, in which case you get the VP but do not draw an Outfitting card.
Gain 1 Provision (in a known or discovered Ⓟ or Provision space, or at a New World base): There are four provision spaces on the board that require discovery draws: the Cod Banks and three coastal spaces in the Pacific (two of which are off Nippon N1 and Eastern Africa A1).
Repair ship or raft (in a known or discovered Ⓟ space (not the Cod Banks) or at a New World base): Remove a Ship Damage chit (but not Rotten Hulls).
Eat horses (if Cavalry present): Gain 1 Provision for each Cavalry turned into Soldiers. This cannot be done during the exploration card resolution, so you will probably want to butcher the horses as soon as you run out of Provisions.
Consolidate ships: Reduce the expedition size by one ship and remove any Ship Damage chit. If not at maximum Crew, check against (9 – # of Crew aboard). If [Success], add 1 Crew. You cannot consolidate rafts.
Attempt to build a raft (in a river or coast land space, or an inland space connected to a river space): Check (6 + 1 per Crew ashore + Leader’s Ship Handling). If [Success], gain a raft. Success is automatic if building a raft at a New World base.
Harvest Hardwood (at a known or discovered hardwood space): Take a Hardwood marker. Each Hardwood takes a ship cargo space.
Operate Mine (at a known or discovered mine space): Gain 1 Gold. Check against 8. If [Failure], deplete Mine (flip chit over). The Mine markers are labelled “< 6 to deplete”; ignore this (an 8 check has the same odds).
Kill a Seized Ruler (if a Seized Ruler chit is owned): Decrease the empire’s Military Strength by one and turn in the chit.

Check target Leader’s Negotiation–4, modified by +2 per Gold given to the attacker:

[Success]: Attacker may not attempt to take over the target again in this space.

[Failure]: Check attacker’s Personal Arms:

[Success]: Check defender’s Personal Arms:

[Success]: Attacker must leave in the direction it came from and may not attempt to take over this expedition again. [Failure]: Target fails. The Leader dies. Give all of its chits to the attacking expedition (including discoveries). [Failure]: Attacker fails. The Leader dies. Give all of its chits to the target expedition (including discoveries).

End-of-turn Actions

An expedition performs any or all of the following actions:

Lost (mandatory if Lost): If the marker is in the “Still Lost” box, remove it. If the marker is in the “Lost this turn” box, check Navigation. If [Success], remove it; if [Failure], move the marker to the “Still Lost” box. The Lost counter reads “No Progress without navigation check”; ignore this.
Declare intent to return (voluntary; except in the Pacific): Mark on mat with an Expedition must return chit. Once declared, an expedition’s movements are limited, but it ignores all “Rumors of Gold” (and can use its Pilot or Rutter navigation bonus). If it’s a land or raft expedition, it must move by the shortest path to its ships or a closer New World base. Aboard ships, it must retrace its path to Europe or a base, unless an alternative path is both in “known waters” and shorter. The expedition must move if possible along its path when Progress is made and may not make any “side trips”, except for status changes to known or discovered provisioning spaces only.
Return to Europe or a base (voluntary; must have reached either): (See “Expedition Return”, below).
Abort Expedition (voluntary; except on the launch turn): Turn in all chits, retire Leader face up, then proceed to New Expedition. You may not choose the freshly retired Leader as your new expedition’s Leader.

Expedition Failure. This can occur in four ways. 1) An expedition fails when the Second-in-Command dies. 2) An expedition fails when no men are available to satisfy a loss and a Leadership (non-combat) or Personal Arms (combat) check fails. 3) A naval expedition fails when it loses its last ship at sea, or its last ship or raft in a coastal space that is not connected to land by a status change arrow. 4) Finally, a land expedition fails when it is taken over by a rival one. In all cases, turn in all chits, retire Leader face down, then proceed to New Expedition.

§ First Game: You now know enough to play until an expedition returns to Europe, fails, or is aborted.

Expedition Return

When an expedition returns to Europe, it publishes its discoveries, gaining Victory Points (VPs) and Outfitting cards as appropriate. Most VP are awarded by shifting the player’s Discovery (“Ⓓ”) chits to the VP chart on the map (and possibly placing Land Sighted or Known markers on the map). Others are awarded for delivering specified goods (Gems, Pearls, Spice, Hardwood, Natives, Gold) to Europe or bases. Each of the VP chart awards can be claimed only once, by the first player to do so. Several potential discoveries (e.g. Mayan Ruins) do not need to be marked by Known chits on the map since they are marked off the VP chart. Unless specified otherwise, one or more sequential awards (for 1st– 4th River, for instance) may be claimed by a single expedition.

An expedition which failed or was aborted won’t have any discoveries to publish, and thus skips directly to New Expedition.

For each VP gained, also draw an Outfitting card.

Known Progress. Advance the Known Sea Progress markers to match sea spaces explored by the expedition. Similarly advance the Known NWP Progress and Known SSA Progress markers to match coastal spaces explored by the expedition. The latter two advances score 1 VP each (regardless of the number of spaces advanced). Draw 2 Outfitting cards in all three cases (Sea, NWP, SSA).
Land Sighted. Place a Land Sighted chit on any “Land Sighted” discovery; remove any co-located Known Sea Progress chit, because it is now redundant.
1st New World sighting (1 VP). A New World coastal waters space must have been reached.
NA/CB/CA/SA Landfall (1 VP each). A land space of the region must have been reached.
Cod Banks (1 VP). Place a Known marker in the space (easternmost NA). This is now a known Provisions space that cannot, however, be used to Repair Ship.
Teredos (1 VP). These are found in Coast Exploration cards #105 and 107. Copper Plated Hulls become available.
Hardwood (no VP). Place a Known chit in the space (Cape Branco or Amazon River mouth coastal water spaces; the SA1 land space does not require one). The Harvest Hardwood action becomes possible there.
1st Mine, 2nd Mine (1 VP each). Place a Mine chit in the space (CB3 or SA5). The Operate Mine action becomes possible there.
Channels (no VP). Place a Known chit on the published Channels (there are 8 on the map: 5 in the Northwest Passage (NWP1–4), one in CB, two in SSA). Draw 2 Outfitting cards if publishing one Channel; draw an additional Outfitting card for each additional Channel published.
1st Bay, 2nd Bay, 3rd Bay, 4th Bay (1 VP each). Place a Known chit on the published Bay (there are 5 on the map: Hudson’s Bay (NWP2), the Gulf of St. Lawrence (NA), Chesapeake Bay (NA), the Gulf of Venezuela (CB), and the Río de la Plata Estuary (SSA)).

New Expedition

Draw 2 Outfitting cards. If the expedition failed or was aborted, draw 2 more unless you have more VPs than all other players. Otherwise, if the freshly returned expedition was led by a Second-in-Command, retire him face down and select (from draw pile or retired leader area) a new Leader.

The player then plays Outfitting cards and spends Gold (see Outfitting Expeditions).

Major Expeditions

A player may score a Major Expedition instead of normal scoring. The Expedition Return check list is still executed (gaining Gold and Outfitting card draws), but no VPs are scored other than the Major Expedition award. Each Major Expedition may only be scored once, by the first player to claim it, and by a separate expedition. If the player has no VPs at all, all Major Expeditions are worth a mere 4 VPs.

Mississippi River Descent (5 VP). The expedition rafted through the R1–5 “M. River” spaces from NA3 to CA6 or the Gulf of Mexico (CB).

Amazon River Descent (8 VP; variant: 7 VP) The expedition rafted through the R1–7 spaces from SA4 to the Amazon’s mouth (SA).

Northwest Passage Explored (5 VP; variant: 6 VP) The expedition reached at least NWP6.

Circumnavigation (8 VP) The expedition entered the Pacific sea spaces via the Straits of Magellan or the Northwest Passage and then returned to Europe via the Cape Verde Islands.

Aztec/Incan Empire Defeat (9/11 VP and 5 Gold) The civilization’s Awe reached +5, its Military Strength decreased to 0, and the expedition entered its Capital. See Civilization Encounters for details.

Northwest Passage Traversed (14 VP) The expedition reached NWP9.

Victory

A player wins as soon as he reaches the requisite VPs.

The short game is won in 4 VPs, or 6 VPs if only 2–3 players are playing.

The full campaign game is played in 15 VPs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is there a separate small coastal waters space southwest of Hispaniola (CB 1 )?

A: No, the coastal waters border southwest of Hispaniola (CB1) doesn’t mark a separate coastal waters space, it connects the coastal waters east of Hispaniola (containing its status change arrow) to the adjoining coastal waters (due east of CA1).

Q: Can ships gain provisions in a Ⓟ space after a land expedition has been formed?

A: No. Expedition actions may only be performed by the Leader, thus ships left behind become dormant.

Q: Are coastal waters discovery boxes separate spaces? Do I enter them after making a discovery? What is the arrow running into the Bay discovery box off Newfoundland trying to show?

A: Discovery and automatic effect boxes (shaded or white) are not separate spaces and are not entered. The arrow running into the Bay discovery box off Newfoundland indicates that this Bay must either have been discovered by that expedition or be known (marked with a Known chit) before the coastal waters space that the arrow points to (the Gulf of St. Lawrence) may be entered.

Q: Why can’t you repair ships, spend Gold, or gain provisions in the Malacca M1 base?

A: That would be pointless because there is no status change arrow leading out of Malacca.

Q: When publishing, must I publish all discoveries and Major Expeditions, even if they don’t result in any VPs?

A: Yes. When publishing, an expedition also turns in all of its personnel and equipment, except for Gold and its Leader.

Q: In NA3, I’ve built rafts and then, before I can status change to the River, I draw Rumors of Gold. Must I go to NA4? Do I lose my rafts?

A: Yes, you must go to NA4 (because the Rumors of Gold preclude any status change) and you do lose your rafts. Declaring Expedition must return will allow you to avoid visiting NA4, but you then must proceed to your ships (or the nearest base) by the shortest route, which won’t be via the River.

Q (continued): If I had already visited NA4 before, do I still have to go?

A: Yes, unless the Rumors of Gold chit is face down in that space.

Q: I’ve seized the Ruler and draw card #69 again, can I get+ 1 Awe?

A: Not if you still have the Ruler; that is part of the “Seize Ruler” result.