Maracaibo

The base game supports 1–4 players; multiplayer lasts four rounds. Set up cities, project cards, quests and national markers for the player count, and give each player a ship board, career objectives and starting resources. Select the prescribed campaign or non-campaign setup before play rather than freely mixing story cards.

Each turn consists of sailing, a main action and refilling your hand, in that order. Normally move forward 1–7 locations following arrows, never backward. Ships do not block one another. Mandatory-stop symbols end your movement; the destination determines your available main action.

At a city, you may first discard one hand card showing the requested good to an empty market space, moving one disc there from your ship board, then perform the city action. Delivery is not required to use the city action. Removing both discs from a ship section immediately grants its upgrade, subject to printed prerequisites.

At a village you normally take one village action; spending 4–6 movement points that turn gives two, and spending 7 gives three, unless an upgrade changes these thresholds. Each action can take one doubloon, discard your entire hand for two doubloons if at least one card is discarded, or buy one project card from your hand or planning area. Options may be repeated.

Quest, assistant, city and village actions are alternative main-action choices; having several options at one location does not allow all of them. Pay a quest’s requirements to claim its tile. Only your own assistants can be used. Each of your assistants skipped or left unused normally earns two points, including assistants bypassed when ships return at round end.

Combat serves one chosen nation: reveal a combat token, resolve that nation’s costs or rewards and spend combat value to gain influence or place/displace national markers. Spend ship-board combat points or return your figures to increase combat value; each individual combat action is usable at most once in that combat. Exploration instead follows a separate track, skipping spaces occupied by other explorers and taking the destination reward plus applicable barrier rewards.

During the main-action phase, free actions may place hand cards in the three-space planning area or complete eligible career goals. Planned cards do not count toward your hand limit, but cannot be used as goods or objects and have no effect until purchased. Refill to four cards, or six with the upgrade: blind draws are free, while face-up cards normally cost one doubloon each. Replenish the display only after finishing the refill.

In rounds I–III, reaching 21a triggers common scoring: each player buys one card/invests in one prestige building or takes two points, then income, markets, display, buildings and story are resolved and all ships return to Havana. The next player clockwise starts the new round. In round IV, travel via 21b to 22 triggers final scoring; other players do not receive another sailing turn.

Final scoring again begins with each player buying one card/investing or taking two points. Add victory-point income, points shown for doubloon-income position, purchased projects and prestige investments, national influence leadership bonuses, and noble ranks multiplied by national multipliers. Those multipliers depend on emptied national supply spaces and map majorities. Unpurchased hand/planning cards score nothing. Most points wins; tied players share victory.