Borneo Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Aim of the Game
• Preparation
• The Game
• Your Turn in Detail
  • 1) Complete a Mission
  • 2) Companies
  • 3) Shipment
  • 4) Draw Two Cards
• Winning the Game

Contents

• 108 cards, divided as follows:
  • 60 Shipment cards
  • 12 Harbors
  • 12 Missions
  • 15 Merchants (3 for each player)
  • 4 Merchant Companies
  • 5 Summary cards (1 for each player)
• rules.

Aim of the Game

You are a merchant in the Seventeenth Century. If you can maximize your profit on the lucrative trade shipments from the East Indies, you will be the winner!

Preparation

First, sort the cards by the symbol on the back. Give each player three merchants with the same portrait, and the matching summary card.

Shuffle the shipment cards. Give each player three cards to form a starting hand. Keep your hand of cards secret from the other players. The remaining cards create a draw deck. Leave a space for a discard pile.

Shipment card anatomy:

• Upper section: Flags. Four flags of various colors, arranged on two lines. Symbols summarize the content of the card. This upper section of the card is used when you play in a harbor or during a fight for position within a company.
• Lower section: Trade Good. Black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, or nutmeg, possibly with a "2" multiplier. This lower section is used when there is a distribution of goods after a shipment arrives at a harbor, or when completing a Mission.

Shuffle the harbor cards, and then turn three of them face up in the middle of the table. Place the remainder face down nearby.

Harbor card anatomy:

• Upper section: Maximum number of cards or flags. These values determine the distribution of trade goods (see part 3: Shipment). Name.
• Lower section: Trade Good. This is the same as the trade goods on the shipment cards.

Place the four merchant company cards face up in a column. Select a first player to begin. Starting with the first player, each player places one of his merchants to the right of any one of the companies, or to the right of a previously played merchant belonging to another player. After the first round of placement, complete two more placement rounds in reverse order.

Example: In a four player game, the players (A, B, C, and D) will place their three merchants in the following order: A, B, C, D, D, C, B, A, A, B, C, D.

You may not place two of your own merchants next to each other at the same company (though this may happen during the game). At each company, merchants are ordered from left to right, as illustrated in the following example. (Diagram labels: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.)

Place the mission cards within easy reach.

You will need enough space in front of you to collect trade goods and mission cards. This area is called your warehouse.

The Game

The game is played in a series of turns, with play passing clockwise. On your turn, you take the following actions in this order:

1. You may complete a mission.
2. You may change companies or attempt to advance within a company.
3. You must play a shipment card on one harbor, and distribute trade goods.
4. You must draw two cards from the shipment deck and discard excess cards (above 6).

After you have complete all four actions, play passes to the player on your left.

Your Turn in Detail

1) Complete a Mission

As your first action for your turn, you may complete one mission and place it face down in front of you, where it will remain for the rest of the game. At the end of the game, each mission is worth the number of victory points shown on the mission card.

To complete a mission, search the mission deck (these cards can be examined by any player at any time), choose one card, and then discard from your warehouse (see below) the combination of trade goods shown for your chosen mission. You can use shipment cards or harbor cards as trade goods. Card in your hand may not be used to complete a mission. Shipment cards with the "2" multiplier can be used as two goods of that type. You do not receive any change if you use too many goods to pay for the mission. You cannot use mission cards to pay for another mission!

Mission card examples:

• In order to complete this mission, you must discard one trade good for each type. At game end, this mission is worth 6 Points.
• You must discard two trade goods for each type. At game end, this mission is worth 15 Points.
• You must discard three trade goods for each type. At game end, this mission is worth 25 Points.
• You must discard four trade goods of the same type. At game end, this mission is worth 8 Points.
• You must discard eight trade goods of the same type. At game end, this mission is worth 20 Points.

Examples:

• You may discard four goods of the same type to score 8 victory points at the end of the game. You could also pay for this mission by using two "2" trade good cards.
• You may discard one good of each type (4 goods total) to score 6 victory points at the end of the game by completing this mission. If you used three goods cards plus a "2" card, your total would be five goods, and you would receive no change. The excess good is simply ignored.

2) Companies

During the second phase, you may choose and execute one of these actions:

• Move one of your merchants from one company, and add it to a different company. Your merchant is placed to the right of all merchants at that company. If necessary, fill the space left at the old company by shifting any other merchants there to the left.

  – or –

• Advance one of your merchants in a company. In order to advance, choose one of your merchants (the "attacker"), and another player's merchant at the same company (i.e., in the same row) to the left of your merchant (the "defender"). Then, select and play face up from your hand one or more shipment cards that show flags of the company where the fight is taking place. The defender now has the chance to play cards from his hand that match the company, but he can play a maximum number of cards equal to the number you played.

  Important: You can never play all the cards you have in hand that match the company in question. You must keep at least one shipment card.

  Note: The defender does not have to defend his merchant!

  After both players have played cards, count the number of flags (not cards!) you played that match the company and compare your total to the defender's. The defender also adds a bonus equal to the number of merchant cards between the two merchants involved (if they are next to each other, his bonus is zero).

  If the attacker has as many or more flags than the defender, the attack is successful. Your merchant is moved into the position of the defending merchant, and the defending merchant is removed from the company. The defender may now either place his merchant in the space vacated by the successful attacker, or add it to the end (right side) of the row at any company.

  If the defender has more flags than the attacker, the attack is defeated. Both merchants remain in their places. In addition, the defender may turn any one of the shipment cards he played in his defense into a trade good, adding it to his warehouse.

  All shipment cards used in the fight (except any trade good reward chosen by the defender) are now discarded.

  Example: the third-ranked merchant of this company attacks the merchant in the first position. The defender gains a bonus of one flag, since there is one card between them. This is added to his total in the fight.

  (The fight example is shown as a diagram in the original rulebook.)

Important: If you only have one card in your hand, you may not start a fight, since you cannot play all of the card you have that match the company where the fight is taking place.

3) Shipment

In the third phase of your turn, you must play one shipment card from your hand onto one of the harbors.

Play your card face up directly below a face up harbor, or overlapping a shipment card already played on that harbor. If played on an earlier card, place it so that it covers the second row of flags, leaving only the top row of flags visible.

Playing a shipment card can trigger a distribution of trade goods. Each harbor card shows two numbers:

• The number to the left shows the maximum number of shipment cards that can be played on that harbor.
• The number on the right shows the number of flags needed to create a monopoly at that harbor.

If either maximum is reached by your shipment card, the trade goods at that harbor are distributed among the players:

a) Monopoly

If any company has at least the number of flags as the monopoly number (even if the shipment card limit has not been reached), then that company has a monopoly on the trade goods at that harbor. The trade goods are distributed to merchants of that company only:

• The first-ranked merchant of the monopoly company chooses and takes one of the shipment cards. In addition, he takes the harbor card, adding both to his warehouse.
• Next, the second-ranked merchant at that company chooses, then the third, and so on until all cards are distributed. If there are more cards than merchants, than the selection continues with the first-ranked merchant again.

It is possible that a shipment card will cause two or more companies to reach the monopoly limit at the same time. In this case, the tie is broken in favor of the tied company whose flag comes first in order on the very last card played (from left to right, from top to bottom).

Example: In this case, the red company gets the monopoly at the Tidore Harbor with six flags. The first merchant of the red company will take the Tidore Harbor card, plus one trade good of his choice. The second merchant will then choose one good, and so on.

b) Shared Distribution

If the shipment card limit at a harbor is reached, and no company has enough flags for a monopoly, there is a shared distribution of the trade goods at that harbor:

• The player who played the last Shipment card (thus triggering the distribution) takes the harbor card and adds it to his warehouse.
• Count the number of flags for each company. The first-ranked merchant of the company with the most flags now chooses one shipment card and adds it to his warehouse.
• Then the first-ranked merchant of the company with the second most flags selects one shipment card, then the third most, etc.
• If there are any goods left over after the first-ranked merchants have chosen, then the second-ranked merchants take trade goods in order of the most flags, and so on.
• If there is a tie for number of flags, the company with flags appearing first on the shipment cards (from left to right, top to bottom) goes first.

Important: If a company has no flags at a harbor, the merchants at that company receive no trade goods!

Example: With four cards, the monopoly limit of 6 flags hasn't been reached, so there is a shared distribution. The yellow company has 5 flags, red has 4, while green and blue both have 2. But the green flag comes before the blue one. The first merchant of the yellow company gets first choice, then the first merchant from red, then green, and finally the first merchant of the blue company.

After the trade goods at the completed harbor have been distributed, turn over the top card from the harbor deck and add it to the other harbors.

4) Draw Two Cards

At the end of your turn, draw two cards from the shipment card deck. If you now have more than six cards in your hand, you must discard down to six cards. If the draw deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile to form a new draw deck.

Winning the Game

The game ends if one of the two following conditions is met:

• you need to draw a new harbor card but the deck is empty
• you need to draw two cards, but there are none left (no cards to draw, nor discards to reshuffle)

All harbor cards and shipment cards still on the table are discarded, as are any cards still in your hand.

Now each player has one last chance to complete a mission. Starting with the player to the left of the last to play, each player may choose one mission card from the stack and complete it with the trade goods in his warehouse.

Then you can tally your score:

• each shipment card in your warehouse is worth 1 victory point (including those with the "2");
• each harbor card in your warehouse is worth 1 victory point;
• each mission you completed is worth the number of victory points on the card.

The player with the highest score is the winner! In case of a tie, the tied player with the most Missions wins.