Long Cours Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Caisse
• Initial Distribution
• Starting Position — First Turn of the Game
• Purchase
• The Game — General Rule
• Stationing — Stopover Points
• Movement
• Resale
• Storm Cards
• After a Storm — Entry into Play of a Cargo
• Brawl Cards
• Prohibition on Concealing One's Assets
• Using Cards to Enrich Oneself at the Expense of Adversaries
• The Corsair Ship (black figurine)
• Important Remarks
• The Last Player in the Game Wins the Game!...

The Caisse

The card being open on the table, the rest of the equipment is entrusted to a volunteer who acts as the Cashier.

This person may, without any inconvenience, take part in the game on the same footing as the other players, independently of their function as Cashier, which remains absolutely distinct.

Initial Distribution

Each player receives from the Cashier's hand:

1. A sum of 3 million francs in banknotes, representing their fortune in liquid cash.
2. A ship. (Set aside the Corsair ship, black figurine. If there are fewer than 6 players, unused ships remain out of the game.)

The cards (Storm, Brawl, Direct Move) are shuffled together and dealt to the players, one at a time, until the last. (With 5 players, set aside the Brawl card "Un regard mauvais".) Each player must keep secret the cards they have been dealt.

No card may be played during the first turn of the game. (See below.)

If the players wish to shorten the game, they can easily do so as follows: with 3, 5 and 6 players, set aside from the game the two Brawl cards "Un regard mauvais" and "Un regard terrible", plus two Storm cards and two Direct Move cards. With 4 players, set aside the same Brawl cards, three Storm cards and three Direct Move cards.

Starting Position — First Turn of the Game

A player, designated by lot, places their cargo in Zone 11 on a port of their choice, except for the place represented by a large white rectangle (Gibraltar).

The next player does the same in Zone 22, and so on.

Then each player, in the port on which they have been placed, makes their first purchase of merchandise.

To do so, they follow the purchase rules set out below, which remain valid for the whole game.

Note — We advise novice players to limit the amount of their first purchase to 1 or 2 million.

Purchase

Each zone contains four stopover points.

Three of them are ports where merchandise can be bought. These ports are represented by a small rectangle (for example: in Zone 55, Tamatave, Colombo and Perth). Each of them bears a drawing and a colour, which correspond to one of the six products listed along the border of the card. At each of these ports, only one product can be bought: the one that corresponds to the colour of the port.

Example: At Perth (yellow rectangle), only gold (yellow product) can be bought.

A purchase is never compulsory. One may stop at the ports mentioned above without buying any merchandise.

Merchandise is represented by small merchandise tickets, whose stock is held by the Cashier for the whole game.

Suppose a player whose cargo is at Valparaiso (blue rectangle) decides to buy cereals (blue product).

The player sets, at their discretion and according to their fortune, the amount of the purchase (an amount which is unlimited).

If they buy, for example, 1 million francs' worth of cereals, they pay their purchase to the Cashier by handing over 1 million in banknotes to the Cashier.

In exchange for the money paid, the Cashier gives them a merchandise ticket for cereals (blue ticket) stating "1 million of cereals". This ticket represents the merchandise bought.

Cargo — The buyer places in front of them the merchandise ticket they have just acquired. This merchandise is supposed to travel in the holds of the buyer's ship. It constitutes the cargo of the ship.

After successive purchases in different ports, a player will have in front of them a cargo made up of merchandise tickets of various natures.

The Game — General Rule

From the start of the second turn, the normal game begins.

Players take turns.

We shall see that during the course of the game they will carry out operations of very different natures. They will mainly be led to:

• buy various merchandise,
• try to resell merchandise if luck is favourable,
• move their cargo,
• trigger storms (by means of their cards),
• trigger brawls (also by means of their cards) when they encounter an adversary in a port.

Each of these operations is the subject of specific rules, explained in the following chapters. It is first appropriate to know the general rule below.

General rule — A player may not undertake anything when it is not "their turn to play."

But during their turn of play, they carry out, one after the other, all the operations which seem opportune to them and which are permitted to them.

They carry out these operations in the order they wish. On this point, their freedom is absolute.

Example: During the same turn of play, a player has the right to buy a merchandise in a port, start a brawl there, move, trigger a storm, buy another merchandise, trigger a new brawl, resell a merchandise... and trigger still two or three more storms.

But, in general, they take care not to spend their cards in this way.

Stationing — Stopover Points

Cargos stop at a stopover point, that is to say:

• either at one of the ports which offer merchandise to buyers,
• or at one of the places represented by a large white rectangle (places where nothing can be bought).

Movement

Players move their cargo from one stopover point to another, in the direction of their choice, following the dotted lines.

Each player has the right to make, on their turn of play, one movement only, to an immediately neighbouring stopover point of their starting point.

This kind of movement is called: "Ordinary Movement."

But, on their turn of play, each player may renounce the ordinary movement to which they are entitled and replace it with one or several "direct movements", by playing one or several Direct Move cards.

When they play one of these cards, a player may transport their cargo directly (without intermediate stopovers) to a port, even a distant one, which they choose freely, with the exception of any place represented by a large white rectangle (beaching place, whose role will be explained in the chapter "Storms").

Every card played is removed from the game permanently.

No movement is compulsory. A ship may remain in place until the following turn.

Resale

Players try to resell the merchandise they have bought, in order to enrich themselves. To do so, they use the die.

Each player has the right, at the moment of their turn of play, to roll the die once, and only once, with the aim of reselling. This action gives them the right to resell only one product, and the die indicates which one: 1: cereals — 2: fruit, etc. (see the border of the card).

If the player has no merchandise ticket for the product indicated by the die in their cargo, they do not resell.

If they have one or more tickets for the indicated product, they hand all of them to the Cashier, who pays them (in banknotes, obviously) at triple their purchase value.

Storm Cards

Each of these cards allows the player who plays it to trigger a storm in a zone that the player chooses freely.

Woe to the cargos found in that zone! Driven by the raging elements, they will all run aground on one and the same distant coast (the large white rectangle). These cargos are transformed into unusable wrecks. Their cargoes are lost to their owners.

But, in the wrecks, these cargoes remain intact, abandoned to whoever comes along.

As a consequence:

1. The figurines representing the wrecked and unusable cargos are immediately removed from the game and temporarily returned to the Caisse.
2. All the merchandise tickets representing their cargoes are piled up, in bulk, at the beaching place. This place, in each zone, is indicated by a large white rectangle (Zone 11: Gibraltar — Zone 22: North Cape — Zone 33: Aleutian Islands — Zone 44: Cape Horn — Zone 55: Malaysia — Zone 66: Panama).

Afterwards, the first cargo that calls at this white rectangle will automatically take possession of all the abandoned merchandise. This merchandise will thus add to its cargo.

Every card played is removed from the game permanently.

If the cargo of the player who triggered the storm is found in the devastated zone, it is thrown onto the coast like any other cargo.

After a Storm — Entry into Play of a Cargo

The players who were victims of the storm become captains of a new cargo. In fact, the Cashier gives back to them free of charge the figurine they had before the storm. (They have therefore lost only their cargo in the affair.)

Each of them, when their turn comes, brings their new cargo into play, proceeding as follows:

The player rolls the die. If they roll a 1, their cargo enters in Zone 11. If they roll a 2, in Zone 22, etc.

In the zone designated by the die, they place their ship on a port of their choice, except for the place represented by a large white rectangle (beaching place).

In its port of entry, the new cargo has the right to one normal turn of play, that is to say it may (without waiting for the following turn) move, buy, try to resell, etc.

Brawl Cards

It is frequent for two cargos to be found in the same port. In such a case, it sometimes happens that a sailors' brawl breaks out between their captains. The blows they exchange are represented by the "Brawl" cards they play. These blows become more and more violent. The winner strips the loser of their wallet.

The one who decides to trigger the brawl waits, for this, for their turn of play. They announce "Brawl with... such-and-such" and play a Brawl card.

The targeted individual retaliates immediately (without waiting for their turn of play, obviously) by playing a card. The other retaliates on their turn, with another card, and so on.

Each card played must be of a force superior to that of the card the adversary has just played. Each card must be announced clearly.

Finally, one of the two antagonists gives up retaliating, either because they have no card strong enough to do so, or because they prefer to keep their cards in anticipation of other brawls. (They may, moreover, give up without playing a single card, after the first blow struck by their aggressor.)

In any case, the one who gives up retaliating is immediately stripped by the one who struck them, of their entire fortune in banknotes (even if this fortune is much greater than that possessed by their winner).

The cards played are removed from the game permanently.

You have triggered a brawl, but you may very well come out of it stripped.

Several brawls opposing the same two players may take place successively, if they both continue to frequent the same places.

Prohibition on Concealing One's Assets

It is forbidden for a player to hide from their adversaries the real amount of their liquid fortune or of their cargo. Only their cards remain secret.

Using Cards to Enrich Oneself at the Expense of Adversaries

The following can be observed:

With two cards, a "Storm" and a "Direct Move", played one right after the other, one can wreck a rich cargo and position oneself beside the beaching place to plunder it on the following turn.

With a "Direct Move" and "Brawls", one can, in a single move, join a rich adversary and try to strip them of their liquid fortune (banknotes).

Cards are therefore frequently used for an offensive purpose.

But they will also be used for a defensive purpose, when the formidable "Corsair" enters the game.

The Corsair Ship (black figurine)

It is impossible to win the game if one does not possess this ship.

The Corsair hunts down the cargos of rival players and definitively eliminates the latter from the game.

A player who wishes to acquire it waits for their turn of play and asks for "the auction of the Corsair."

The Corsair is then sold to the highest bidder, at a minimum price of 6 million, payable to the Caisse (in banknotes, obviously).

The buyer waits for their turn of play and brings their cargo into play under the usual conditions. Then they bring their Corsair into the map by rolling the die. If they roll a 1, the Corsair enters in Zone 11 — if they roll a 2, in Zone 22, etc.

The player places their Corsair on the large white rectangle (beaching place) in the zone indicated by the die. If a cargo is there, the Corsair does not have the right, on its entry turn, to sink that ship.

The Corsair must remain in this place until the following turn.

When its owner's turn of play comes round again, the owner of the Corsair makes their cargo move first (following the normal rules), then their Corsair, which they launch in pursuit of the adverse cargos.

The Corsair does not have the right to move by means of a "Direct Move" card. But, on each turn, it may successively carry out three "ordinary movements" to a neighbouring stopover (or, if preferred, two only).

The pursued players are therefore obliged, in order to survive, to maintain between their cargo and the Corsair a distance of more than three stopovers.

The Corsair obviously does not attack the cargo of its owner. But it sinks without mercy the other cargos when it joins the latter, that is to say when it passes or stops at the stopovers where those cargos are found. It can thus sink several enemy cargos in a single blow.

A sunk cargo is permanently removed from the game. Its cargo of merchandise tickets (sunk with the ship) returns to the Caisse (without any profit for the Corsair).

Its captain is eliminated from the game, after having handed over to the Corsair all their fortune in banknotes.

The cards the eliminated player still held lose all value. They are spread out for everyone to see and removed from the game.

The Corsair does no trading. It does not plunder the merchandise wrecked by storms.

No brawl may be triggered against it.

But it can be sunk, by means of a "Storm" card, by devastating the zone in which it is located (the figurine is removed from the game).

The Corsair is then, once again, "for sale to the highest bidder," at a minimum price of 6 million.

In general, the Corsair changes owner several times during the same game.

Important Remarks

(Translator's note: in this section the printed text also calls the Corsair "the pirate".)

The Corsair is three times faster than the cargos it hunts. The latter can escape it only by playing a card:

• either a "Direct Move", in order to flee far from the pirate,
• or a "Storm", in order to sink it.

At the beginning of the game, each player easily escapes the Corsair. The latter, for the most part, is frequently sunk.

At the end of the game, the players, who have only a few cards left in hand, defend themselves only with difficulty against it.

The pirate is master of the game once the adverse cards have fallen. Each player therefore strives to achieve, before their adversaries, a liquid fortune large enough to buy and re-buy the Corsair after its successive shipwrecks.

A player who is aware will not hesitate, from the beginning of the game, to use part of their cards in an offensive spirit, that is to say they will try to enrich themselves rapidly at the expense of their adversaries (see the chapters above). If they become rich enough to buy back the Corsair several times, they will compel their adversaries, hunted by the pirate, to spend their cards for a defensive purpose, that is to say in pure loss.

The winner is, most often, the one who, taking the best advantage of circumstances, knows how to make good use of their cards, turn by turn, in both an offensive and a defensive sense.

The Last Player in the Game Wins the Game!...