Die Hanse Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Game Preparation
• The Goal of the Game
• The Game Turn
• Appendix
• Quickstart Rules
• Harbor Card Translations

Contents

• Game Board
• 6 ship pawns, 1 pirate and wooden stands
• 10 storage cards
• 6 divided ship cards with cargo areas
• 52 harbor cards [2 blank, 20 wind, 12 new product, 3 pirate, 9 blockade, 4 storm, 2 return to Lübeck]
• 6 Kaperbriefe [Letters of Marque cards]
• 6 Privilegienkarten (Privilege cards)
• 144 product tokens [36 salt, 26 grain, 26 fish, 14 beer, 14 cloth, 14 ore, 14 pelts]
• 1 sack (for the product tokens)
• 1 round blockade token
• These rules

Game Preparation

Board. The board depicts the most important trading area of the Hanse: the North and Baltic Seas with the lands which border them. All ships move on the hexagonal fields. Some particular features of the board, are listed below:

• North Sea and Baltic Sea. The board is divided into the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. At the north tip of Denmark the boundary is marked through a strengthened line between the seas. This distinction is important, since certain events affect only a certain sea half. The starting point of each ship, either North Sea or Baltic Sea, is important since it determines the movement count used on the current wind card.
• The canal. Between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea there is a waterway with the Hanseatic cities Hamburg and Wismar as entry and exit points. The canal is four fields long.
• The strait. This strait at the Danish islands can during the course of play become blocked. The location for the blockade token is marked with a circle, which cuts across three hexagons. When blocked, the sea route between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea is completely interrupted. Ships can only cross between the seas through the canal.
• Helgoland Bight and Lübeck's Bight. In either of these hexes, through an event a ship can encounter a storm.
• Gotland, Helgoland and Rügen. These three islands in the North and Baltic Seas are the starting points for the pirate ships of the Vitalian Brotherhood.
• Card depot fields. On the large peninsula at the upper end of the game board (Norway and Sweden) there are three fields, which serve to hold cards. The left upper field holds the face down harbor cards. Discards may be piled directly beside that. The lower field holds the currently visible wind card.
• Exchange tree. In the left upper corner of the board is show the diagram for product exchange, the exchange tree. This diagram shows which wares one needs to exchange for others. [Salt may be exchanged for fish or wheat, fish may be exchanged for pelts or ore, wheat may be exchanged for cloth or beer.]
• The trading ports. Each trading port or harbor is marked with a name, coat of arms and the products that may be obtained there. These harbors are Bergen, Bremen, Danzig, London, Lübeck, Novgorod and Stockholm.

Product tokens. The game contains 144 round product tokens. On one side is a colored symbol, which determines the product type. There are seven different product kinds. On the reverse side is a number which indicates the value of this product. Only salt has no numerical value, merchants obtain salt in Lübeck for free. Products should be sorted out by type Then each product group is individually mixed and placed at the harbor on the board with its corresponding symbol so that the numbers of the product tokens are concealed.

Ware Values

Wares	0	1	2	3	4
Salt	36	0	0	0	0
Grain	0	14	7	5	0
Fish	0	12	8	6	0
Beer	0	0	4	6	4
Cloth	0

We recommend the products not be laid on the water spaces, but put on the adjacent land area where they do not disturb play!

Playing cards. Next all 64 cards must be sorted out. Each player receives 1 Kaperbrief card and 1 Privilegienkarte card. If there are fewer than 6 players, lay the rest of these cards to the side.

All of the other cards are termed Hafenkarten [Harbor cards]. Remove both of the blank cards from the deck. Then sort the harbor cards into 3 piles: Wind cards [20], "Neue Warren" cards [new product cards, 12], and all remaining harbor cards [18: 3 pirate cards, 9 blockade cards, 4 storm cards, 2 return to Lübeck cards]. These 3 piles should be shuffled individually and one card from each pile dealt face down to each player. [Each player show now have five cards all told.] A wind card is drawn and placed on the board. Finally all three of the undealt harbor card decks are combined, shuffled and placed face down in the space at the upper left of the board.

Storage cards. The ten storage cards present the task which each Hansa merchant needs to fulfill. Each card differs in the product symbols and uniquely determine which six goods the player must acquire in trade. Once a product is put in the storage card, it can no longer be exchanged. Naturally, the storage houses of each player are in Lübeck. Thus, each merchant must carry with his trade goods back there, in order to unload and pick up new salt. The ten storage cards are shuffled and each player draws one of these cards which he places down in front of him for all to see.

Game pawns. The six ship pawns and the pirate ship are fit into the wooden stands. They will indicate the current position of the trading cogs on the board. The black pirate ship and the round blockade token should be set to the side. They come into play later. Each player selects a colored ship pawn (the youngest player begins).

Ship loading. For each ship pawn there is a two-part cargo area card of the same color. The ship cargo area is halved and each half can hold up to three wares.

Each player takes the cargo area cards that match the color of his ship pawn and then the ship pawns are placed in Lübeck (or as near as space allows). As the last step in set-up, each merchant gives the person to their left the bow of their ship (the right half of the divided ship card).

Thus each player now participates in exactly 2 cogs. A player has, for example, a red stern and a blue bow cargo area before himself. Thus, on his turn he moves the red and blue halves together as a single ship.

Then each player loads the cargo areas lying before him with 6 salt (3 per half).

The Goal of the Game

All ships set out from Lübeck loaded with salt. Each merchant has a storage card, which must be filled with specific products. Through favorable planning of the ship routes and smart trading the players try to fill their own storage as quickly as possible and thus obtain the most points.

The Game Turn

Start. Each player fills both cargo halves before him with three salt product tokens. All cogs begin their journey in Lübeck. The youngest player starts and play continues clockwise.

Movement. Each merchant on his turn moves both ships which in which he half participates. The sequence in which he moves the two ships as well as the direction he moves the ships remains entirely up to him! The merchant can sail therefore in a circle or remain in place.

The cogs may be only be moved on the hexagon fields. These may be sea hexes, harbors or the canal between the North and Baltic Sea.

On the sea a ship sails at most the number of spaces indicated by the current wind card, which is displayed on the board, and applies to all players. The values will differ between the North (Nordsee) and Baltic Seas (Ostsee). The maximum movement of a ship is determined by where a ship begins its turn. If a ship begins movement from the North Sea, use the movement value on the wind card for the North Sea, even if ending in the Baltic. Accordingly, the same applies for the Baltic.

At sea, only one ship may occupy a hexagon at a time. Only in the harbors and in the canal may several ships rest in the same space at the same time. In the Helgolander Bight and Lübeck's Bight more than one ship may occupy a hex if driven there by a storm (see Harbor cards). Ships may move through hexes occupied by another ship.

When a ship comes into a harbor he stops and any remaining movement is lost. It is however allowed to exit a harbor and in the same turn re-enter the same harbor.

Note: The Hanseatic cities Hamburg and Wismar do not count as harbors in this game. They merely represent the entrance and exit to the canal.

On the canal all ships move only one hex per turn. The values on the wind card are meaningless here, and the rest of the points lost as long as one is moving in the canal. That is, as soon as one enters the canal, movement ends automatically on the first canal space. During the entire canal passage the ship may not change direction. A player must, if on his turn he finds his ship in the canal, continue on through one hex per turn. Not moving, perhaps with the goal of annoying one's partner, is not allowed.

Harbors. As soon as a cog reaches a harbor both partners can transact trades one after the other. First is always the player who moved the ship into the harbor. This player must play a Harbor card after the close of all trading.

• Trading. Each seaport normally offers only one product, but through the use of the Harbor card "Neue Waren" (new wares), other products may be available at a harbor.

Harbor	Ware Values
Lübeck	Salt 0
Bergen	Fish 1-3
Danzig	Grain 1-3
Bremen	Beer 2-4
London	Cloth 2-4
Novgorod	Pelts 2-4
Stockholm	Ore 2-4

To be able to trade for products offered in the harbor one must have the right products. Trades are always concluded on a 1-for-1 basis, strictly according to the following scheme: Lubeck Salt can be exchanged for Fish from Bergen or Grain from Danzig. Fish can be further traded for Ore or Pelts. Grain can be traded for Cloth or Beer. In addition, a product may also be exchanged for like kinds (grain for grain, fish for fish, etc.).

Once in a port, a player states beforehand the number and type of products that he would like to trade. He takes these from his cargo area of the cog which has just moved into the port and places them back on the board at their point of origin. For each token returned he may now turn over three tokens of his choice from the goods supply, examine their point values and take one of them. The chosen wares are placed face down in the cargo area of his cog. Finally he places the rest of the ware tokens face down again on the board.

Attention! The transfer of products between ships or from merchant to merchant is not allowed! One may exchange more of a wares of a type than one really needs in his storage, this can reduce the danger of looting. Such surplus products may be unloaded in Lübeck, and only there, and are distributed to the poor, i.e. these product tokens are again placed at their origin harbor on the board.

All trades are voluntary. Thus, one may enter a harbor without exchanging products. In every case however, a Harbor card will be played.

• Playing a harbor card. After conclusion of trades by both partners the main player must finish his turn by playing one of his three harbor cards from his hand. After its orders are followed, the card is discarded and the player draws a new one, so that he always holds three harbor cards.

If the draw pile is exhausted, the discard pile is shuffled and replaced on the board.

All harbor cards influence the whole game and can have direct or indirect consequences on all players. Listed below are the individual harbor cards with their consequences.

Wind card. A new wind card placed on the board. The old wind card is discarded. Starting immediately the new movement ranges count for all players. On each wind card there are two numbers. One counts for ships which begin their turn in the North Sea and the other is for ships which begin their turn in the Baltic Sea. Cogs which cross the line between North and Baltic Seas during their move use the number which applies for the sea in which they begain their turn.

Blockade. Play of such a card blocks ships from entering either a harbor or the Sund (strait). To indicate this, place the blockade token on the corresponding place: one of the seven harbors or the strait. Since there is only one blockade token there can only be one blockade at a time.

No ship may enter a blocked harbor. If the strait is blocked no ships may travel through it to go from the North Sea to the Baltic, or back. Instead in this case it must choose to travel the "slow" way through the canal.

Should at the time of the playing of the card one or more ships occupy the blocked hex, they are placed in an adjacent hex. The player of the card decides which ship is placed where. Of course he must observe the rule that only one ship may be placed in a single hex.

Neue Waren in: (New products). Additional product tokens are available at a harbor which does not normally offer wares of this type. Without examining their point values, take the wares listed on the card from their port of origin and place them at the relevant city.

Vitalienbrüder (Vitalian Brotherhood). Feared pirates of the North and Baltic Seas. The player of such a card takes the pirate ship and placed it on the listed starting space. Starting spaces can be Gotland or Rügen in the Baltic or Helgoland in the North Sea. Then the player moves the pirate ship a number of points listed on the card. If the pirates enter a hex containing a trading cog, it is automatically plundered. This means that a pirate ship may not jump over any cog as this trading ship would naturally be immediately attacked. One may however move the pirates around a ship, perhaps for example he would like to avoid having his own cog plundered!

In a plundering the player who moved the pirate takes two wares from the cargo area of the attacked cog. He has free choice of which wares he plunders [without looking at their values?] and whether he takes a ware from each of the partners or removes two wares from the cargo area of one player. Both wares are then placed back on the board at their port of origin.

• Returning to Lübeck. As soon as a cog returns to Lübeck both partners may unload their products completely or partially into their own storage cards. Surplus products can be returned. Free cargo area may now be filled with salt.

Once products are placed on a storage card they may never be exchanged out. Only as "penance" in the case of a missed Hansa Day can a product can be removed from the storage card.

• Privilegienkarte and Kaperbrief. [Privilege Cards and Letters of Marque] At the beginning of the game each player receives one Privilegienkarte and one Kaperbrief. When and whether to play the card is decided by the player.

These cards may be played if the turn of one's own or another's cog has just ended, including trade and play of a harbor card.

If more than one player wants to play a Privilegienkarte or Kaperbrief at the same time, the cards are transacted successively clockwise beginning with the player who last moved his cog.

Each card offers different possibilities from which to choose. Once played, a Privilegienkarte or Kaperbrief must be discarded.

The Privilegienkarte affords the following three possibilities:

1. An extra turn with one of your own cogs. The player who played his Privilegienkarte may immediately move one of his two cogs, including all actions which he can take with it, e.g. trading and play of a Harbor card.
2. Remove the blockade. The blockade token may be removed from the board. It will first appear again via a new blockade.
3. Play a harbor card. A Harbor card may be played from the hand even if the player has not moved a ship into a harbor.

If a merchant has not used his Privilegienkarte by the end of the game, it is worth 1 bonus point.

The Kaperbrief affords the following three possibilities:

1. A Pirate turn. The player may place the pirate ship on one of the three islands of Gotland, Helgoland or Rügen as he prefers. Then he moves the pirates up to to 6 hexes. If no cog is reached, his lefthand neighbor has an additional movement point, thus a range of 7 hexes. The pirate round continues until a cog is plundered, each player adding one to the movement allowance.
2. Remove the blockade. The blockade token is removed from the board. It will first appear again via a new blockade.
3. Play a harbor card. A Harbor card may be played from the hand even if the player has not moved a ship into a harbor.

If a merchant has not used his Kaperbrief by the end of the game, it is worth 2 bonus points.

• End of Play. As soon as the storage card of a player is correctly filled, all of the other players have one more turn. Then add up points.

First add up the tokens in one's own storage card. The merchant who first filled his storage card receives a bonus of 5 points. The partner with whom he shared the cog with which the first storage card was filled receives a bonus of 3 points. Players receive the printed bonuses for unplayed Privilegienkarte and Kaperbrief cards

All of the points are added up and the player with the highest total wins.

Appendix

• The Hansa. The founding and development of the Hansa is intimately tied up with the city of Lübeck. The importance of this city for the development of the Hansa can be compared with the relationship of Rome to the Roman Empire.

From the very beginning of sea trade on the Baltic Sea merchants had banded together to reduce the considerable risk of such long voyages. One of the first merchant organizations of this kind was the "Cooperative Association of Merchants of the Roman Empire Visiting Gotland" (universi mercatores Imperii Romani Gotlandiam frequentates). Over time more and more local communities of interest started up where trade and transport was saved from certain danger and where good business was to be expected. The first great product business was the trade of grain from the German areas for fish from Bergen. Quickly after that followed pelts and above all wax from Novgorod, where anyway grain was already being sent. Parallel to this development, the organizations of traders altered to become a hansa of cities. In the course of the settlement of the East and the manyfold foundings on the Baltic Sea coast the number of cities which followed the example of Lübeck in legal and organizational structures of the merchants also grew.

The many types of communities of the individual cities and the overlap of politics and business within a city (many prominent merchants were also city council members or even mayor) by the end stretched the form of the Hansa organization to include all city life and the city associations under it.

While at the beginning the trade associations were locally limited, the Hansa soon developed into a league of cities which at the high point tried everywhere to inject its power into politics. An example would be the war between Denmark and the Hansa.

• Vitalian Brotherhood. The Vitalian Brotherhood were pirates in the North and Baltic Seas in the 13th and 14th centuries. When Margarethe of Denmark besieged Stockholm from 1389-1392, they provided the city with victuals, i.e. Vitalien.

Later when the Prince of Mecklenburg went to war against Denmark and Sweden, they became freebooters signing on with all sides and equipping themselves with Letters of Marque. These Letters meant nothing other a written assignment of responsibility and accountability to one of the warring parties.

However these pirates soon became a serious threat to the Hanseatic traders. Based in Visby in Sweden, they even dared to sack Bergen in 1392. The Teutonic Knights organized an invasion which drove them out of Jutland in 1398. However they were soon back in operation. Read more at [Odds & Ends.] In the early 14th century a fleet from Hamburg and Lübeck was sent out against the Vitalian Brotherhood to overthrow the pirates. The remaining freebooters were initially dispersed, but freshly re-appeared after a short time, now under the leadership of Klaus Störtebeker, Gödecke Michels and Magister Wigbold. In the year 1401, the Vitalian Brotherhood and their leaders were attacked by a fleet out of Hamburg near Helgoland Bight and Störtebeker and Michels brought to Hamburg as prisoners, where in 1402 they were executed. [This event seems to be reflected by the "Blockade of Bremen" harbor card.] Opposed to the verdict was the "Bunte Kuh" [multicolored cow] and also Simon of Utrecht did not participate in it.

• The Ships of the Hansa Period. The cog was the universal ship at the beginning of the Hansa in the North and Baltic Seas. It was a further development of the knorr, the freight ship of the Vikings. Sailing in a closed deck with so-called castles at both bow and stern to serve as improved defense. Reconstruction has yielded cog measurements of about 27 meters in overall length, about 7 meters of width and draft of 3 meters. Similar to the viking ships, the cogs had one mast with a rectangular "square sail".

Toward the end of the 14th century [not translated]

• Nautical. [not translated]

• Heraldic. [not translated]

• Some tips on play. Make no mistake: Die Hanse is a competitive game, cooperatively-played, which in the end is won quite alone! But it can only happen in cooperation with others as one may not overlook that one is dependent on one's colleagues and can only approach the goal in conjunction together with them, if at least for a time. An early falling out with one's partners, and a clumsy course of direct confrontation, will probably give little chance of winning. Therefore, one should be be conciliatory with one's partners, and willing to cooperate, at least in the early going. Well-contrived plots can always be saved for later. Naturally, this is not to say that dissension cannot be sowed in the other alliances and partnerships around the board, whether it be that one loudly draws the attention of other players to the hidden attacks of their partners, or that one discreetly hints regarding the supposed play advantages of neglecting to cooperate with their partner.

Die Hanse is not a negotiation game, but it is very worthwhile to co-ordinate ship routes with one's partner, quickly get into the lead and thereby accordingly get close to the win. It can be quite useful to make your fellow players aware of the advantageous position of another merchant, if only to divert attention from this fact.

In order to do meaningful route planning, it is important to remember the rules for trades and barter as specified. One should use the harbor cards as directly and consciously as possible. In this way, one can try using one ship and a harbor card to influence the course of the second ship. For this purpose, sometimes it is even appropriate to visit a harbor at which one does not actually want to trade, or to sacrifice one's Privilegienkarte for a special move. Nearing game's end, it is important to detect, when a fellow player possibly has a hidden chance to win in order to prevent this in time, perhaps with the assistance of the other merchants.

Quickstart Rules

• Preparation

The product tokens are sorted and placed in the harbors with the same symbol. A wind card is randomly drawn and placed face up on the board. The harbor cards are sorted into wind, new wares and other cards, shuffled and each player is dealt face down one of each type of card. Each player receives:

• A Kaperbrief and a Priviligienkarte
• A wind card, face down
• A "Neue Waren" harbor card, face down
• One of the rest of the harbor cards, face down
• A ship pawn with the corresponding cargo area halves
• A storage card

The players hand to their lefthand neighbors the bow of their cargo areas.

• Start

All cogs start in Lübeck fully-laden with salt (3 per cargo area half). Play is counterclockwise beginning with the youngest player.

• Sequence of Play

1. First ship Movement: Merchant moves his ship on the hexes limited by the current wind card; arrival in a harbor triggers: 1. Voluntary trades by the active player 2. Voluntary trades by this ship's partner 3. Play of a harbor card by the active player (required)
2. Possibility for all players to now play a Kaperbrief or Priviligien card. In case of several wishing to play a card, they are resolved in clockwise order beginning with the player who has just moved his ship.
3. Second ship movement is conducted just like the first.

• End of Play

Once a player fills his storage card he is finished and all other players have one more turn.

• Final Account

Add up:

• the values of all the player's product tokens
• Awards: the merchant who filled his storage first gets a bonus of 5 points. The partner with whom he shared the cog with which the first storage card was filled receives a bonus of 3 points.
• Bonus: for unused Privilegienkarte, receive 1 point, for unused Kaperbrief cards, 2 points.
• The player with the highest total wins.

Harbor Card Translations

Harbor card (German)	German text	English translation
Hansetag in Lübeck (Hansa Day in Lübeck)	Jeder Kauffahrer mus in der ubernachsten Runde in Lübeck vertreten sein, sonst verliert er eine Ware aus seinem Speicher.	Each merchant must have at least 1 ship in Lübeck by the end of the second round or lose a product from storage.
Sturm auf der Nordsee (Storm on the North Sea)	Alle Koggen, die sich auf der Nodsee befinden, ziehen sofort in den nachsten offenen Hafen und setzen dort 1 x aus.	All cogs currently in the North Sea are immediately moved into the nearest open harbor and must wait there for 1 turn.
Sturm auf der Nordsee (Storm on the North Sea)	treibt alle Koggen, die sich auf der Nordsee befinden, in die helgolander bucht. Hier furfen jetzt mehrere Koggen stehen.	All cogs currently in the North Sea are immediately moved to Helgoland Bight. Multiple ships may be in this hex for this purpose.
Sturm auf der Ostsee (Storm on the Baltic Sea)	Alle Koggen, die sich auf der Ostee befinden, ziehen sofort in den nachsten offenen Hafen und setzen dort 1 x aus.	All ships currently in the Baltic Sea are immediately moved into the nearest open harbor and must wait there for one turn.
Sturm auf der Ostsee (Storm on the Baltic Sea)	treibt alle Koggen, die sich auf der ostsee befinden, in die Lübecker Bucht. Hier durfen jetzt mehrere Koggen stehen.

[* "Pfeffersäcke" is a slang term for very wealthy merchants.]