Lisboa

Lisboa

Help rebuild Lisbon after the disasters of 1755 through noble connections, trade and public works, earning the prestige represented by wigs.

Lisboa supports 1–4 players; community best: 3 players; playing time: 60–120 minutes. A WANGO browser trial has not been confirmed.

Background & introduction

Lisboa takes place in Portugal's capital after an earthquake, tsunami and fires devastated the city. As nobles involved in its reconstruction, players work with the royal builder, the Marquis de Pombal and the King, developing stores, public buildings, trade and decrees as the city recovers.

Political cards have different uses. Adding them to your Portfolio can develop future Influence or economic benefits; playing them into the Royal Court lets you visit a Noble or sponsor an event. Stores produce goods, ships support trade, and public buildings attract customers who bring prestige to the relevant stores. Connecting these activities is central to your plans.

The game has two periods. Sets of rubble in three colors expand your business capacity while also helping trigger the change of period and the end of the game. Victory depends on prestige, represented by wigs, rather than cash alone. Decrees, competition among stores and completed public works all contribute to your final standing.

Core rules & scoring

  1. Your turn: First dock your full ships that are at sea and empty their cargo holds. Then play one of the five Political cards in your hand to Sell Goods, Trade with Nobles, Visit a Noble or Sponsor an Event. Alternatively, discard a Political card to take one gold good. Take a Political card from the display to return your hand to five, complete the end-of-turn replenishment and upkeep, then pass play to the left.

  2. Portfolio and rubble: Put Noble cards in the upper slots and Treasury cards in the lower slots. Resolve the reward or penalty on the portion you tuck under your board, then you must Sell Goods or Trade with Nobles. Initially your Portfolio holds two cards and you may store two goods of each type; each complete set of one brown, one red and one blue rubble increases both limits by one. At capacity, discard an old Portfolio card before adding another; this does not remove your rubble sets. Trading exchanges goods for one or two different State actions. To Sponsor an Event, play a Treasury card into the Royal Court, pay the current Treasury value in money and resolve its central effect.

  3. Visits and following: Play the relevant Noble card into the Royal Court and pay Influence equal to the value left of the Treasury marker plus opponents' State Officials in that office, treating a negative total as zero. You may first take one of that Noble's State actions without trading a good, but must still pay the action's own costs; you must then fully perform the Noble action. Clockwise, opponents may return a matching Royal Favor and pay the visit's Influence cost to follow, taking just one of that Noble's three available actions.

  4. Trade and ships: You may sell goods to any player's docked ship with available space, receiving the market price plus the ship's modifier. When a ship fills, its owner immediately earns wigs for the newly packed crates, and the goods are flipped to show that the ship is at sea. It returns and empties only at the start of its owner's next turn; no further goods can be loaded while it is at sea.

  5. Building stores: Choose a city tile from the display; its position determines the type of business and the street it must face. Take the plot's reward, place the tile, then take an available rubble cube from its row or column before calculating and paying the land price and placing your house. The price is the current Treasury value plus the cost of rubble still in that row and column, excluding rubble on public-building sites. Relevant public buildings award wigs for the new store.

  6. Public buildings and decrees: Opening a public building requires an unfinished Plan by the appropriate architect and the required State Officials; pay to hire missing Officials as allowed. Complete the Plan, then score qualifying stores belonging to every player according to the street or matching-color conditions. Decrees score only for their owners at the end. When taking a Decree, you may discard one Rubble Set marker from the Marquis to take an extra card, using at most one such marker per turn.

  7. Periods and the ending: In the first period, a player completing a second rubble set, or the exhaustion of three Political-card stacks, triggers the change of period after that player's entire turn. In the second period, a fourth complete rubble set or three exhausted stacks triggers the ending: finish the current round so everyone has taken the same number of turns, then give every player one final turn before scoring.

  8. Final prestige: Add to your existing wigs the total hull sizes of your Portfolio ships, three points per rubble set, rankings for each type of store, one point per five réis after converting remaining Influence into money, fulfilled Decrees, the ranking for Officials employed on completed Plans, and two points per unused Royal Favor. Most wigs wins. Break ties by rubble sets, then stores, then completed Plans, then cash; any remaining tie is a shared victory.

Rules & gameplay questions

If I have no goods, can I add a card to my Portfolio just to collect its reward?

You cannot stop after collecting the reward. Adding a Portfolio card requires you to Sell Goods or Trade with Nobles, and both require goods. Goods gained from the card's immediate reward can fund that action; otherwise you cannot play the card this way.

Can I use wigs as Influence whenever I want?

No. Only when paying to Visit a Noble or Follow a Visit, and only if you lack enough Influence, may you cover the shortfall at one wig per Influence. This is not a general exchange: wigs cannot be converted into money or substituted for arbitrary costs.

When following a visit, do I also get a State action followed by the Noble action?

No. The active visitor may take one State action before the required Noble action. A follower returns the matching Royal Favor, pays Influence and chooses only one action from that Noble's two State actions and one Noble action.

Can a public building I open also score opponents' stores?

Yes. It scores every qualifying store in its service area under the relevant street or color conditions, regardless of who opened the building. Opening a public building after the stores were built can still award those stores their points.

Rules & introduction sources
Edition
The 2017 Lisboa base game for 2–4 players, checked against Eagle-Gryphon Games' official 24-page Lisboa rulebook 2020 Preview.pdf revision. Turns and the Portfolio are on pages 8–11, visits and construction on pages 16–20, and the ending and scoring on pages 22–23. Excludes solo play, the Queen Variant, missions, randomized setup and other additional variants.
Introduction source
BoardGameGeek

WANGO editorial

Lisboa · Game parameters
ParameterRecorded value
BGG overall rank (snapshot)#71
Complexity Weight4.56 / 5
Best player count (community)3
Player range1–4
Playing time (minutes)60–120
Core mechanismsArea Majority / Influence · Hand Management · Multi-Use Cards · Open Drafting · Set Collection · Solo / Solitaire Game · Tile Placement
Chinese publicationUnconfirmed
WANGO browser playNo confirmed WANGO trial
Year published2017
Suggested age12+

BGG statistics are stored snapshots, not live rankings. Source checked:2026-09-27

Player questions

What is the best player count for Lisboa, and can I play online?

Lisboa supports 1–4 players; community best: 3 players; playing time: 60–120 minutes. A WANGO browser trial has not been confirmed. Recorded mechanism tags: Solo / Solitaire Game.

How complex is Lisboa, and which mechanisms does it use?

Weight: 4.56 / 5. Mechanisms: Area Majority / Influence · Hand Management · Multi-Use Cards · Open Drafting · Set Collection · Solo / Solitaire Game · Tile Placement. Chinese publication: Unconfirmed.

Where can I learn Lisboa?

No rule guide, strategy article or WANGO trial has been confirmed for this record.