Maracaibo
143 questions players ask about Maracaibo. Pick one for the answer. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-11-03.
Setup and Components
- Is there a personal discard pile or deck next to each player board?
- How do I tell A, B and C cards apart, and how many are used in a game?
- In a 2-player game, do the ownership markers placed on villages 6, 7 and 8 matter?
- In setup step 15, do I plan one card, keep four and discard the rest?
- Can Maracaibo be played with five players, and are there special two-player rules?
- What are the goods and objects in the game?
Drawing Cards and the Display
- When is the face-up card display refilled after I take a card?
- Can I alternate between drawing from the deck and taking face-up cards in Phase C?
- Can I buy a card straight from the face-up display?
- With the ship upgrade that lets me take display cards for free, can I take more than one card?
- What happens when the draw deck runs out?
Village Actions and Buying Cards
- How many village actions do I get when I stop in a village?
- Do I get extra village actions when a city tile or assistant gives me a village action?
- The compass city action gives one village action per compass. Do I get another action if I buy a compass during it?
- How does "as your last village action" work, and can I use two such cards in one turn?
- If my last village action moves my explorer to the end of the track, do I still get the village action that space gives?
- Does the Ruin card let me fulfil a quest with or as my last village action?
- How does the village action that discards my hand for 2 doubloons work, and can I repeat it?
- When buying a card, do I pay the victory points shown under the cost, and do combat-point costs get spent?
- How does the planning area work?
City Actions and Delivering Goods
Combat and Influence
- What happens if a nation has no ownership markers left to place?
- What is the difference between combat value and combat points, and can combat value exceed 8?
- Can I use the same combat action more than once, or switch nations mid-combat?
- What is the difference between Annex and Displace, and which flag can I target?
- If no flag is free, can I still take the influence part of Annex or Displace?
- Does the combat token modifier apply when nations are tied for most or fewest markers?
- What if both combat token piles are empty?
- Can I return figures to the supply for combat points outside combat, for example to pay for a quest or card?
- How do the Martyr cards work, and do two of them stack?
- When do combat-point bonuses on cards trigger, and can I save them?
Exploring and Quests
- Does every player get the 3 influence for crossing the red barrier, and can it be split among nations?
- Does a card's explorer bonus movement apply every time I move my explorer?
- Can I stop my explorer on a quest space without fulfilling it?
- Do quests beyond the fifth space on my ship board still score?
- Do I have to fulfil a quest when my ship stops on its space?
- What happens if the quest tile stack runs out?
- Can two quest tiles share a location, and can I fulfil both?
- Are quest tiles replaced after someone fulfils them?
Assistants
- When and how many VP do I score for assistants I do not use?
- Do I score 2 VP for an assistant I place on my current space or behind my ship?
- Do I score 2 VP per assistant still ahead of my ship at the end of round 4?
- Can I use more than one assistant when my ship stops at their location?
- Do assistants stay on the board, and can I take them back?
- Which supply does an assistant come from when a card places it?
- Can I take village actions granted by an assistant in a village with a skull tile?
- Can I use an assistant on the turn I place it?
Careers and Prestige Buildings
- Can I look at my two career cards and wait to choose until I have seen my hand?
- When I invest in a prestige building, does the figure come from my own supply or the general supply?
- Does the Builder (Master Builder) discount also apply to prestige buildings?
- On the Founding Spirit career card, do I get the lower reward as well when I meet the higher requirement?
- Where does the figure go when I complete a row on my career card?
- Do figures on prestige buildings count as assistants for cards like the Innkeeper?
Interim Scoring
- Where does the income track start, and does everyone start with the same income?
- Who starts the next round?
- What happens on the homeward bound spaces 20, 21a, 21b and 22?
- Which players score on 21a, 21b and 22, and what triggers interim scoring?
- In interim scoring, do the buy-a-card-or-2-VP step and income apply to every player?
- Is the card display refilled between players during interim scoring?
- Can I plan cards or complete career goals during interim or final scoring?
- What happens when my victory point income track passes 20?
- Does the income on a card move my income marker once, or at every interim scoring?
Final Scoring
- When do the VP on the doubloon income track score?
- How does the Cathedral prestige building score?
- How is the end-game nation multiplier and majority bonus calculated, especially with ties?
- How many VP does the player with most influence in a nation get, and what if I pass the end of an influence track?
- How does the Own Monument card count noble ranks?
- How many VP can the Abbey prestige building score?
- What does the Citadel prestige building score?
Solo Play (Jean)
- Is the solo setup against Jean the same as the 2-player setup?
- How far does Jean move, and which spaces does she stop on?
- Does Jean get rewards for spaces, barriers or the end of the explorer track?
- What does Jean do on spaces 20, 21a, 21b and 22?
- When Jean lands on a city, does she deliver a disc, take the quest, or use the city's printed action?
- How does Jean score at interim scoring, and does she get the 2 VP for not buying a card?
- What does Jean score at final scoring?
- At final scoring, who is ahead on the explorer track if Jean and I are on different branches of a fork?
- How does Jean choose which nation to fight for?
- How is Jean's noble rank worked out?
Campaign (Story Mode)
- Do I have to play the story campaign?
- Is one game the same as one campaign chapter, and can I start at a later chapter?
- What happens if nobody fulfils the story quest in a round?
- When the story quest is fulfilled, when does the story card advance, and does it count if Jean takes the tile?
- How many discs do legacy tiles L10-L17 need, and what do the check marks mean?
- Do discs on legacy tiles stay on the tile between rounds and games?
- Can I pay a legacy tile's cost more than once to place several discs in one visit?
- What carries over between campaign games and what goes in the archive (blue bag)?
- Where do the red-numbered C cards go, and when are they shuffled in?
- How do I decide an overall winner of a campaign?
Maracaibo: The UprisingExpansion
- Is The Uprising compatible with the first edition of Maracaibo?
- Do all players have to use the new Uprising ship boards, and can the new boards be used without the expansion?
- Do I need to keep an old player board to play Jean with The Uprising?
- Can I play the Uprising modules solo against Jean, or must I use Jacques?
- Who starts the next round when I end a round in a game against Jacques?
- Does Jacques fight or sail along the board like Jean?
- On the Resistance File ship board, may markers of the same colour sit next to each other, and can each player use city 7a?
- Can I fill the Resistance tile again after its cubes are removed, and what does it pay?
- Where does the extra figure come from for the Roatan explorer power?