Valparaíso Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Materials
• Set-up
• Course of the Game
  • 1. Planning
  • 2. Using Cards
    • 1. Transfer goods
    • 2. Sell a good
    • 3. Hire a merchant
    • 4. Move a merchant
    • 5. Build a house
    • 6. Trade in the village
    • 7. Move your ship
    • 8. Trade overseas
    • Alternative actions
  • 3. Ending the Round
    • When does the game end?
    • Preparing the next round
• Final Scoring
• Credits
• Appendix: Overview of the Achievement Cards

Game Materials

• 1 double-sided gameboard (front for 4-5 players, back for 2-3 players)
• 24 achievement cards (9× "A," 8× "B1," 7× "B2")
• 25 market tiles (5× each with "A," "B," "C," "D," or "E" on the back)
• 70 coins (20× 1 peso, 10× 2 pesos, 15× 5 pesos, 25× 10 pesos)
• 1 sand timer (60 seconds)
• 1 lighthouse as the starting player marker
• 25 gray wooden cubes "silver"
• 25 orange wooden cubes "copper"
• 25 white wooden cubes "wheat"

Per player:

• 1 repository board with a mayor's slot, card slots #1 – #5, a warehouse, and a cargo hold
• 1 counter
• 8 action cards
• 4 houses
• 4 merchants
• 1 ship

The gameboard shows a village area (with slots for achievements, a sea sector, a scoring track, and market spaces) and Valparaíso itself.

Set-up

1. Lay the gameboard in the middle of the table with the side facing up that is appropriate for the actual number of players. Put 5 pesos on each of the three outer sea sectors.

2. Each player chooses a player color and takes the game materials in this color. In the two-player game, there are only 3 merchants per player in the game. Put your counter on space "0" of the scoring track on the gameboard, place 1 merchant in Valparaíso and your ship on the sea sector near Valparaíso. Keep a second merchant in front of you for the time being. Place your other merchant(s) and your houses on your repository board on the designated spaces.

   Action cards: Each player gets 8 action cards. The 8 main actions are the same in each set. The alternative actions for goods, however, are distributed slightly differently on the cards for each player color.

3. Mix all market tiles, face down, and put one each, with the corresponding letter facing up, on each of the 15 (or 20) market spaces of the gameboard. Keep the remaining tiles on the appropriate reserve spaces at the top left of the gameboard.

4. Depending on the number of players, you might have to remove all the achievement cards that are used only in the game with 3, 4, or 5 players (marked "3+"; "4+"; "5+"). Shuffle the remaining cards, separated into "A," "B1," and "B2." Form a face-down draw pile with the "B2" cards at the bottom, the "B1" cards above them and the "A" cards on top of that. Lay the top 9 cards from the pile face up in the slots at the top of the corresponding sea sectors at the edge of the gameboard.

5. Choose a starting player and give him the lighthouse as the starting player marker.

6. Beginning with the last player and then in counter-clockwise order, each player takes 3 goods and puts these in his warehouse. In doing so, nobody may take a combination of goods that has already been chosen by one of the other players.

   Storage: The warehouse can contain any number of goods; the cargo hold can handle a maximum of 6 goods. You can transfer goods between the warehouse and the cargo hold only if you use the appropriate action.

7. Each player gets 20 pesos. Money always has to be kept visible to all players.

8. Put the remaining goods and the remaining money next to the gameboard as a general supply.

   Theoretically, all goods and coins are unlimited. If you run out of either of them, make do with other materials.

9. The last player is the first to place his remaining merchant in a village of his choice. Then, in turn and in counter-clockwise order, all the other players place their merchant in a different unoccupied village of their choice.

Now the game can begin!

Course of the Game

The game proceeds over several rounds until the end of the game is triggered at the end of a round (see "When does the game end?"). Each round consists of the following 3 phases:

1. Planning
2. Using cards
3. Ending the round

1. Planning

From all his action cards and achievement cards, each player chooses the cards that he wants to use in the upcoming action phase. Lay these cards out face down below your repository board in the order in which you plan to use them. Card slots #1 to #4 are always available; slot #5 on the very right may be filled only if you have already built at least 2 houses.

The mayor's slot on the left of your repository board may always be filled if you pay 5 pesos for that; to this end, during the planning phase, you put 5 pesos on the card that is lying face down yet next to the mayor's house.

For advanced players (recommended from the third game on): All players start their planning simultaneously. For this, all players shuffle their cards and lay them out face down in front of them. The starting player places the sand timer in stopped mode in the middle of the gameboard and announces the beginning of the planning phase. Now all players are allowed to take their cards into their hands and plan their actions. The first player to finish his planning declares this and starts the sand timer (60 seconds). He may no longer change his plans. At the end of the planning phase, he takes a good of his choice and puts it in his warehouse.

After the sand timer has run through, he counts aloud down from 5 to 0 in one-second intervals. By the time he reaches zero, all the other players must have completed their planning. Later on, they may use only those cards that, in compliance with the rules, were laid out face down in their slots until the count of zero.

Once all players have finished their planning, they reveal all cards they have laid out, without changing their order. Now the card-utilization phase begins. Any 5 pesos lying on cards in the mayor's slot are put into the supply.

2. Using Cards

One after another, beginning with the starting player, players use one card to carry out an action – first, in turn, one card, then, in turn, another card, and so on. The card-utilization phase ends when all players have used all their laid-out cards (including the card in the mayor's slot).

Normally, you use your cards in the planned order, which means either the card in the mayor's slot or the one in slot #1. Alternatively, in disregard of the planned order, you can use a card from slots #2 to #5, provided you pay the extra costs (1 to 4 pesos) shown at the top of the slot.

At any time in the game, you may give up as many of your own goods as you want from your warehouse and/or cargo hold and get 3 pesos for each.

After using a card, you remove it from the display and put it back with the action cards that you didn't choose for planning. Then you move all the cards that have been lying to the right of slot #1 in the direction of slot #1 without leaving a gap. If there is still a card in the mayor's slot, it remains in place until it is used.

The possible standard actions are:

1. Transfer goods

If your ship is on the sea sector near Valparaíso, you can transfer any number of goods between your warehouse and your cargo hold. If your cargo hold is filled up completely after this action, you immediately gain 1 victory point, unless the cargo hold was already full before this action.

2. Sell a good

Sell one good of your choice from your warehouse for 10 pesos.

3. Hire a merchant

Hire one additional merchant. To this end, give up 1 good of each of the 3 kinds from your warehouse. Take the merchant from your repository board and place him in Valparaíso. He is active with immediate effect; that means you can already move and use him in the current round.

4. Move a merchant

You may move each of your merchants up to 3 steps. Moving a merchant 1 step is for free. Pay 1 peso for each merchant that you move 2 steps, and 4 pesos for each merchant that you move 3 steps. The movement always proceeds from one location along the brown paths to the next location. Each location can accommodate any number of merchants.

5. Build a house

Build one house at a location where you have at least one of your merchants. For this, pay 10 pesos. Put the house either on the first unoccupied building space in Valparaíso (starting from the lighthouse, houses are built in the direction of the arrow) or on an unoccupied building space in a village. If the building space where you build your house indicates victory points, you receive these immediately and once.

During the further course of the game, a house gives you different benefits according to its location:

• A house in Valparaíso (residential building) gives you at the end of each round the revenue indicated next to the building space. In addition, the players with the most and second most houses there obtain a bonus (see "3. Ending the Round").
• A house in a village without a market (customs house) has the effect that the step onto this space no longer counts as a step (and no longer costs money) for you. Every time another player's merchant moves onto or across this space, you get 2 pesos from that player.
• A house in a village with a market (trading station) counts as an additional merchant for you in this village from now on. The trading station alone is not enough for trading there; so, to do this, you need to have at least one of your own merchants there. But your trading station always counts as an "opposing" merchant for all the other players, so that they might have to pay money to you if they want to trade there.

Take the house you are going to build from the space with the lowest number on your repository board. Once you have built at least 2 houses, you can use slot #5 in the planning phase from the next round on. As soon as you have built all 4 houses, you earn 1 victory point immediately and once.

6. Trade in the village

You can trade in each village with a market that has at least one merchant of yours. You determine the order. Per village, you can trade up as many times as the number of merchants you have there. A trading station of yours counts as an additional merchant. The trading station alone is not enough for trading there.

If there are opposing merchants or trading stations in a village where you want to trade, you have to pay 1 peso to the owner(s) of each opposing merchant and each opposing trading station – no matter whether you trade once or multiple times.

You can always use only the trading action of the bottommost market tile.

After a village has been resolved, immediately move the bottommost market tile of this village to the top of the reserve and move the bottommost tile of the reserve to the top of the village and, with this, move all tiles below it down (even if you have a merchant in that village but have not been able or willing to trade there).

Explanation of some of the market tiles:

• Take the goods depicted and put them in your warehouse (maximally once for each of your merchants / trading stations, but not more than 3× in total).
• Pay 2 pesos in order to get two different goods of your choice and put them in your warehouse (no more than once for each of your own merchants / trading stations). If you trade multiple times, you may choose the goods anew every time.
• Pay 2 pesos in order to get two goods of the same kind of your choice and put them in your warehouse (no more than once for each of your own merchants / trading stations). If you trade multiple times, you may choose the goods anew every time.
• Take the depicted amount of money and put it in your personal supply (no more than once for each of your own merchants / trading stations).
• Pay 10 pesos and give up the good from your warehouse in order to get 2 victory points in return (no more than once for each of your own merchants / trading stations, but not more than 3× in total).

All other market tiles work in a comparable way.

Example: Steve (the red player) plays the trading action in the village. He is represented in two villages with a market with merchants and a trading station.

First he trades in the left village. To do so, he has to pay 1 peso to Blue (1 merchant) and 1 peso to Yellow (1 merchant). He is represented with 3 merchants and 1 trading station; therefore, he would be able to carry out the trade of the bottommost market tile four times, but this trade is limited to three times maximum. So he gets 3 silver and 3 copper and puts them in his warehouse. The market tile is moved to the reserve and the bottommost tile of the reserve is inserted at the top of the village.

After that, Steve trades in the right village. To do so, he has to pay 2 pesos to Blue (1 merchant + 1 trading station) and 1 peso to Green (1 merchant). He is represented with 1 merchant; consequently, he may carry out the trade there only once. He gives up 1 silver from his warehouse (this can also be the silver he just got) and gets 1 victory point in return. The market tile is moved to the reserve and the bottommost tile of the reserve is inserted at the top of the village.

If Steve had decided not to carry out the trade in the right village (if he thought that 3 pesos would be too expensive for the trade), the market tile there would nevertheless have been moved to the reserve!

7. Move your ship

Move your ship to any sea sector for free (i.e., one or two steps). Each sector may contain any number of ships.

8. Trade overseas

If your ship is on a sea sector that allows overseas trade, you can acquire one of the achievement cards laid out there by giving up the 3 required goods of the same kind from your cargo hold. If you acquire a level-A achievement card from a sea sector, you additionally get all the money from that sector.

Important: If you want to acquire a level-B achievement card (B1 or B2) but there is still at least one level-A card lying somewhere, you additionally must make a compensatory payment of 10 pesos. This money is put on one of the other two sea sectors – the one that has the most level-A cards (at least one) and no 10 pesos yet. In case of a tie, you choose one of these sectors. If there are already 10 pesos on the other two sectors or there is no level-A card left there, the money is put in the general supply.

Add the achievement card you have acquired to your action cards that you didn't choose for planning; you can use it in the planning phase from the next round on. The empty sea sector slot is immediately refilled with a new card from the draw pile. (If there is no card left, the game ends at the end of the current round.)

You get the victory points indicated at the top right of the card once at a later time – either at the end of the round if you give up the card for that (see "3. Ending the Round") or at the final scoring.

Alternative actions

All your action cards and many of the achievement cards show an alternative action at the bottom that you can use instead of the main action at the top. If you do this, goods are put in your warehouse and money is put in your personal supply.

The possible actions of the achievement cards are explained in the appendix.

Example: Angela (the blue player) has already built two houses and thus may use slot #5. Also, she has paid 5 pesos in order to use the mayor's slot.

First she uses the "Build a house" card from slot #2, so that she preempts another player from building. Since this means that she disregards the planned order, she has to pay the extra cost of 1 peso shown above slot #2. Then she builds the house for 10 pesos and removes the card. All cards to the right of the played card are moved left.

On her next turn, she uses the "Move a merchant" card from slot #1 in order to move her merchants and thus prepare for the upcoming trade. Since she adheres to the planned order, she doesn't have to pay any extra costs. After the move, the card is removed and all cards to the right of it are moved left.

Her next action is to trade; for this, she uses the card from the mayor's slot and removes it after that. No cards are moved. If she had decided not to trade (since, for instance, the trade is too expensive or does neither yield silver nor copper), she would have been able to take 1 silver and put it in her warehouse as an alternative action; with this, she would have had 3 silver in her warehouse to load into her ship.

In her following three turns, she first loads her ship, then she moves it to a location that allows overseas trade, and finally trades there. These actions are all carried out in the planned order, so that she doesn't have to pay any extra costs. She removes the cards she has used and, after each turn, moves the remaining cards to the left.

3. Ending the Round

After all players have used their planned cards, the round ends.

Now each player gets the revenue for all the residential buildings he has built in Valparaíso. Put the goods you got this way in your own warehouse, and money in your personal supply.

After that, the Valparaíso bonus is paid: The player with the most residential buildings there receives 5 pesos, the one with the second most residential buildings gets 2 pesos. In case of a tie, the tied player who last built a residential building there prevails.

Now, in turn and in the order of play, each player gets the opportunity to remove one of his achievement cards from the game and immediately earn the victory points indicated on it.

When does the game end?

If a player now has at least 18 victory points on the scoring track, the game ends now.

The game ends also now if at least one sea sector slot for achievement cards is empty and can no longer be refilled.

In both cases, the final scoring takes place (see "Final Scoring").

Preparing the next round

If the game is not over yet, prepare the next round as follows:

The merchants return to Valparaíso. Each player may keep only one merchant in a village where he doesn't have any house; all the other merchants return to Valparaíso for free. The starting player can decide first which merchant he wants to keep in a village.

The player who last built a residential building in Valparaíso becomes the new starting player. If this player has already been the starting player or if no house has yet been built in Valparaíso, the player to the left of the previous starting player becomes the new starting player.

Now the next round begins with the planning phase.

Final Scoring

At the end of the game, players score as follows:

• Give up all the goods in your warehouse and your cargo hold and take 3 pesos for each good.
• Get 1 victory point for every 20 pesos that you give up. Keep the remaining money!
• Score the victory points indicated on each of the achievement cards in your possession.

The player with the most victory points wins.

In case of a tie, the tied player with the most remaining money wins. If there is still a tie, the tied player who went last in the final round wins.

Credits

• Authors: Louis & Stefan Malz
• Illustrations: Michael Menzel
• Editor: dlp games
• Graphic design: atelier198
• English translation: Sybille & Bruce Whitehill, "Word for Wort"

© dlp games 2018 · dlp games Verlag GmbH · Eurode-Park 86 · D-52134 Herzogenrath · www.dlp-games.de

Appendix: Overview of the Achievement Cards

Achievement cards are used like action cards. Some of them show the same actions, others provide slightly changed or completely new possibilities of action.

The new actions of the achievement cards in detail are:

• The same as action 4 Move a merchant – but here, even two steps of each merchant are for free and only the third step costs 3 pesos per merchant.
• Your merchants sail along the river. Each of your merchants at a location crossed by a river can be relocated for free directly to a different location that is also at a river.
• The same as action 6 Trade in the village – but here, you first have to pay 5 pesos before you are allowed to use the trading action.
• Take two different goods of your choice and put them in your warehouse.
• Pay 5 pesos once and give up 1 good of your choice from your warehouse in order to earn 1 victory point.
• Sell any good from your warehouse for 15 pesos.
• Take 10 pesos and put them in your personal supply.
• Give up any 2 goods from your warehouse once in order to earn 1 victory point.
• Carry out action 5 Build a house once; however, the costs are only 1 good of your choice from your warehouse (instead of 10 pesos).
• Take 1 good of each kind and put it in your warehouse.
• Pay 2 pesos up to three times and take 1 good of your choice for each payment; put the good(s) in your warehouse.
• Gain 1 victory point.
• Carry out action 3 Hire a merchant once; however, the costs are only 5 pesos (instead of 1 good of each of the 3 kinds).
• Take 15 pesos and put them in your personal supply.
• Pay 10 pesos up to three times and earn 1 victory point each.
• Give up 1 good of each of the 3 kinds from your warehouse once in order to gain 2 victory points.
• Take any two goods of your choice and put them in your warehouse.
• Carry out action 5 Build a house or 3 Hire a merchant once for free.