Mombasa FAQ
64 questions players ask · Updated Nov 7, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup
Cards, Goods and Planning
- Can I use only some of my goods cards of one type, or mix goods types in one action?
- Can I buy more than one card from the display in a round?
- Can I use goods to advance on company tracks before, or without, buying a card?
- Can a card's price drop below zero, and can I buy a free card?
- Do helmet, bookkeeper or other crate-value cards count as goods?
- Which number on a goods card do I use to advance on tracks?
- Can I place fewer cards in my action area than I have slots?
- Does the slot I use for cards in rounds 6 and 7 matter?
- Do the extra action slots unlocked on the tracks have their own resting slots?
- Is there an order for players ending their action phase?
- Can I sell my shares before the end of the game?
Expansion Action
- Must I use all expansion cards in my action area, and what about excess points?
- Can I use the expansion-card tile with no expansion cards?
- Can I expand next to a post I placed earlier in the same action?
- Where is a returned or ousted trading post placed in a company column?
- Where does an ousted trading post go if it cannot return to its base?
- Is a region's reward paid again when a different company enters?
- What does crossing a double border into an opponent's region cost?
- Can I cover the last space of a company column with a trading post?
- Can I combine bookkeeping points from several regions in one expansion?
Bookkeeping and Books
- Do I get rewards for every book the ink jar passes?
- Can I combine bookkeeping points from a book reward with those on the bookkeeper card?
- When is the book display refilled after a bookkeeping purchase?
- Can I flip the starting tile, and does the ink jar stop on it?
- Which books can cover other books, and can I cover flipped books?
- Can I flip any book, even one out of reach or already passed?
- Can the ink jar stop on a flipped book?
- Do I need to meet both requirements of a book to enter it?
- How many bookkeeper actions does one card give, and can I use parts only?
- Must books be placed in order on the track?
- Does the bookkeeper I am using count toward a book's bookkeeper or diamond-merchant requirement?
- What happens to bookkeeping points I cannot spend on books?
- What happens to coins on book spaces?
- Do track point values score when I pass them or land on them?
Bonus Spaces and Bonus Tiles
- Is a card discarded by a bonus space removed from the game?
- What does the 4+ cotton reward on the cotton majority bonus space give?
- Does the first player space give or cost a bookkeeping point?
- Do I pay bookkeeping points on the bonus space that costs a pound?
- Can I decline a reward or take only part of it?
- Can I place a bonus marker and skip its reward?
- In what order do I take several rewards, and can I spend them at once?
- Must I spend all of a movement reward?
- Can I use a Max or majority bonus space with none of that good?
- When can the first player use the first-player bonus space?
- Can I place several bonus markers in one round?
- When do I get a reserved bonus tile, and when do I return it?
- Is the buy-a-card bonus space a one-time purchase or an ongoing effect?
- Is the bonus tile action worth taking in the last round?
Company Tracks
- With the improved price-reduction track bonus, can I mix goods types when buying a card?
- Does a card price reduction apply to the total of card value plus board value?
- Do track bonuses apply the turn I unlock them?
- Can a coin bonus pay a capital call earlier on the track?
- Who is paid when later players pass a coin space?
- If I unlock both special bonuses on a track, do I get both?
- On tracks C and D, do the special-space bonuses trigger automatically?
- Can different players use both special spaces in one round?
- Do the bonuses on tracks A and B need a bonus marker?