Fuldrigger
Fuldrigger Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- Game board
- 3 dice
- 108 goods counters
- 24 ships
- 24 fortresses
- 28 chance cards
- 99 money notes
- Rulebook
Object of the Game
Before the game begins, the players agree how long they will play. The winner is the player who has the greatest fortune when the agreed playing time runs out.
A player's fortune is the total of their cash on hand plus the purchase value of their fortresses, ships and goods.
The game may also end before the agreed time, if all players except one lose their ships.
Starting the Game
- One player is appointed to look after the bank.
- Each player receives 100 ducats from the bank.
- Each player chooses a colour and takes three ships in that colour.
- The players determine their home ports by rolling dice. The player who rolls highest chooses first, then the player who rolls the second highest chooses, and so on.
Playing the Game
The player who chose their home port first begins. Play then continues counter-clockwise (venstre om).
On his turn a player may trade goods, buy new ships and fortresses, and move his ships.
Sailing
The player rolls three dice and adds the numbers together. Each of the player's ships may move that number of spaces. A player may move a ship fewer spaces than the roll. A ship may not enter and leave a harbour city in the same turn. Several ships may stand on the same space.
On the world's oceans a ship may meet storms, icebergs and other hazards. These are marked with symbols on the board:
- Tailwind: The ship moves three extra spaces.
- Headwind: The ship moves three spaces fewer.
- Storm: Roll two dice. If you roll two or three, the ship sinks.
- Iceberg: Roll two dice. If you roll five, the ship sinks.
- Calm: Roll two dice. If you roll seven or lower, the ship is moved to the calm space and lies still in the next round.
- Dangerous reefs: Roll two dice. If you roll two or three, the ship is wrecked. If you roll higher, you now know the reef (it is marked with a letter) and may ignore it in the future.
- Pirate waters: Roll two dice. If you roll four, you lose the cargo. If you roll two or three, you lose the ship and its cargo. Privateer ships may ignore the pirates. If a player owns a fortress within two spaces of a pirate space, that player may ignore the pirates.
Ships
A ship costs 100 ducats and always begins in the owner's home port. Ships may be sold back to the bank for 75 ducats. Nothing is paid for any goods on board the ship.
A player may not own more than six ships.
Fortresses
A player may buy a fortress in a city if one of his ships is in that city. The price is 100 ducats. From then on, other players must pay 10 ducats in duty for each purchase and sale in the harbour. The player who owns the fortress may also sell goods in the city for 10 ducats more than the price stated on the city's list.
Players may trade fortresses between themselves. They agree the price themselves.
A player may not own more than six fortresses.
Trade
Every city lists which goods can be bought and sold there, and at what price. If a good is marked with a K, it may only be bought in that city. If it is marked with an S, it may only be sold in that city.
A ship can carry only one good. When a player buys a good, he marks this by placing a goods counter on the ship.
A player must transport a good at least 10 spaces before it may be sold. If a player wants to sell more than one cargo of the same good in a city during the same turn, the price falls by 10 ducats for each cargo sold.
Trade War
A player may fit out one or more ships as privateers and wage trade war against other players. A player may fit out privateers in his home port or in a city where he has a fortress.
The player must announce to the other players that a ship is becoming a privateer, by putting a privateer sail on the ship.
A privateer may change back to a merchant ship again when it is in the player's home port or in one of the player's fortresses.
A privateer may not sail with cargo.
When a player has his turn, he may choose to attack his opponents' ships or fortresses with his privateers. The attack is carried out as follows: the player rolls his three dice, as described under sailing. The privateer or privateers that can reach the space where the target is located are moved there. The player decides which and how many ships to attack with, but he must attack with at least as many ships as there are ships/fortresses on the space.
The result of the attack is decided by a roll of two dice, using the following table:
| Attack with: | 1 ship attacks | 2 ships attack | 3 ships attack | 4 ships attack |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attacker loses a privateer ship | Roll < 6 | Roll < 5 | Roll < 4 | Roll = 2 |
| Ship or fortress is captured | Roll > 9 | Roll > 8 | Roll > 7 | Roll > 6 |
If the sum of the extra roll lies between the numbers above, the result of the attack is a draw.
If a fortress in which the defender has ships is successfully attacked, the attacker chooses whether the capture is a ship or the fortress.
Ships in harbours without fortresses cannot be attacked.
When a ship or a fortress is captured (or bought), it is replaced by a ship or a fortress in the captor's (or buyer's) colour.
In a peace settlement after a trade war, money, ships or fortresses may be ceded as part of the agreement.
Other companies may at any time join a trade war to assist one side or the other.
Chance Cards
Before the game begins, the chance cards are shuffled by the player who looks after the bank, and placed in a pile face down. Each time the banker has his turn, a chance card is turned over, and all players must follow what the card says, regardless of what the rules otherwise say. When the pile of chance cards has been used up, all the cards are shuffled again.
It may be that the information on some chance cards has not been used by any player (for example the cards that give extra money to the player who first reaches certain harbours). These cards are shuffled back into the pile even though their effect has ended.
Strategy
From the start, the players must decide where in the world they wish to trade. They may choose between more or less risky options.
Some trade routes give large profits for carrying certain goods (for example carrying spices from the Far East to Europe), but these routes are equally risky, with dangerous reefs, pirates and frequent storms.
Once a player has chosen to sail a route, it is wise to build fortresses along the route. This both increases the profit and gives a valuable aid in any trade war. No player can control all the oceans from the start of the game, so it is wise, at the beginning, to concentrate on one or a few routes.
Trade wars can easily develop into economic ruin for the parties taking part, while the players who remain neutral, in peace and quiet, earn money.
Variant: Passage Over the Isthmuses at Suez and Porto Bello
(In the age of the full-rigged ships the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal had not been built, so the goods had to be carried across the isthmuses.)
A player may get goods across the isthmuses by delivering them on one side, and collecting them with another ship on the other side, in the same round or later.
A duty of 10 ducats is paid to the bank for each cargo sent across the isthmus.
If a player owns a fortress in Porto Bello, that player does not pay duty there, but may instead collect the 10 ducats that other players would otherwise have to pay for sending goods across the isthmus.
Similarly, if a player owns fortresses both in Suez and in Alexandria, that player is duty-free. If two different players own fortresses in Suez and Alexandria, they are both duty-free and share the remaining duties equally.